I have been employed as a Midwife Matron since 2003 at NHS Hospital. Recently the hospital was going through some cuts and restructuring. In the Maternity department, there are 3 Matrons. It was decided that only 2 Matron would be needed. Matron A, decided to hand in resignation and resigned her position. Now there are 2 Matrons left. It was also decided that all Matrons (previously 3, now 2) should re-apply for their positions (this was before Matron A resigned) Anyway, interview went through, I know I did very well. Only to be told that I was not successful in securing my post, which I have been responsible for in the past 9 years, with an unblemished record (no disciplinary actions, no long term sick leave or Absence) I even represented the Hospital on Radio shows and TV interviews (when in relation to Maternity related topics) The current head of midwifery (my boss) who only got in about a year ago was among the people that interviewed me for my position. I was informed by her that I did soooo poorly during the interview. I strongly doubt & deny that! to cut the long story short, my job was advertised and now, one her friends from a another hospital has been given my post! Now I have been made redundant!

Have had this card now for approx 8 months, with a small limit of £150. Have been fine with this manageable limit, until this past week. My card was very close to its limit on the last week of last month (July). As usual I made my payment when I got paid (last working day of the month), the payment having to reach Vanquis by 1st of Aug. This has never caused an issue previously, but as last months payday was only a day before the first, this month it has. I received a text message informing me I had to pay £29 immediately as I was over my agreed credit limit. I went online and saw that my payment has been classed as late (not received until the 2nd). Therefore I have been charged £12 late payment fee and £12 overlimit fee, apparently I had gone overlimit by £1 due to the Repayment Option Plan fee being applied £2.11(which I didn't even know I had!) On phoning them a short while ago, I was informed that I will have been notified about the repayment option plan and agreed (I have no memory of this), and that the applied fees for this month would stand. So I asked what the option plan did, and one of the options was to freeze the account. By now I was furious (unfortunately I have a very short temper with these CS morons), so I asked to do this. I would rather not have the card than face extortionate fees. I was then informed the only way I could freeze the account was if was ill, and could PROVE IT!. They would be sending out a claim pack which I must complete and return with a doctors certificate and not until they had received this back and processed it would the account be frozen. The amount outstanding now is £179.00, not a great deal, but all this has made so angry. Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

Afternoon all, Myself and my wife left our property on the 3rd of sept and have since received this email from the agent. Which we believe to be highly unfair. We then received an emailing detailing cleaning costs to be £292 (for the WHOLE property to be cleaned... despite only two rooms being said as not clean enough in the check out report) in total. Our position is that:- The inventory that they have supplied is unsigned and undated by either party Costs totalling £292 (£190 for garden, £50 painting and £52 for the socket) had already been carried out. With no opportunity for us to rectify anything or agree to the fairness of costs. The property had not been cleaned professionally prior to arrival (check in states unclean level) and now the landlord is insisting on it being professionally cleaned. We have offered £150 in total and for our own cleaner to clean the kitchen and bathroom as on the check out report it states these were the unclean areas. We are now awaiting the landlords response. Please can someone advise to the above of how to approach this and if we've done the right thing? The second issue is that the the deposit was secured with mydeposits.co.uk and our initial one year tenancy ended on the 3rd July 2014 we then moved onto a periodic tenancy agreement. I have spoken to mydeposits who have confirmed the option to automatically extend the protection was not selected. Do we also now have grounds for pursuing the landlord for our deposit x3? If so how do we go about this? Can someone please point me in the direction of any guidance. kind regards Stuart

Hi, I am new to 'forums' so please bear with me. In July, Nationwide allowed transactions to go through which took me over my agreed overdraft limit by 30p. I have now been charged two 'paid transaction fees' of £15 each. I know £30 is not a large amount of money but it is huge compared to the 30p that I was over. Is there anything I can do?

Hello, I rented a property directly with the landlord (no agency involved). The contract was for 1 year from may-2014 to may-2015. I have got a job somewhere else and unfortunately have to move. I discussed this with the landlord and he agreed to let me find a new tenant (and I pay the rent until the new tenant starts). This is all Ok. However he is saying he would take all my deposit in lieu of the breach of contract. The point he is referring to in the contract is: "In the event of the tenancy being terminated by the tenant before the end of the term the tenant shall pay the full cost of re-letting the premises to include any loss of rent incurred by the landlord as a result of the tenant's breach and the agent's fees normally payable by the landlord until the end of the term and the tenant shall remain fully responsible for all terms of the current tenancy until a new tenancy commences". Is this correct on the landlord's part to take all my deposit as I've agreed to finding a new tenant (as no agent was involved) and pay the rent until the new tenant comes in. Is the landlord eligible to claim the agent fees from me for re-letting considering he is not incurring any costs for re-letting and there is no agent involved. What are my options? Will the landlord be eligible to claim agent fees if he decides to go with one? Thanks Best Regards, Smith

Hospitals have been told to give free or cheap parking to the relatives of chronically ill patients. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said new guidelines for English hospitals have been created in order to end the stress of "unfair" charges. Patients with disabilities, those who have frequent appointments and members of staff working shifts will also benefit from the changes, Mr Hunt said. The guidelines state hospital trusts should waive fines when an overstay is beyond the control of the driver, for instance if treatment takes longer than planned. Mr Hunt last month admitted he was concerned about parking fees being charged at some hospitals after being pressed by backbenchers to end "rip-off" costs. The guidance sets out for the first time that hospital trusts are responsible for the actions of any private firms they use to run parking facilities. It also calls on hospitals to look at introducing pay on exit systems so those visiting only pay for the time they have used. Mr Hunt said: "Patients and families shouldn't have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges. "These clear ground rules set out our expectations, and will help the public hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices." https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hospitals-told-end-unfair-parking-charges-233556779.html#BM0Avdn

Whilst researching my fight against a GE Money eviction (a successful fight for me) I came across reference to reclaiming unfair arrears charges. On looking thro my mortgage statements I have found that GE Money have been hitting me for 1) Admin fees £40 2) Default Notice Charges £30 3) Debt Counselling Fees £48 & £88 4) Solicitors Fees total £480 5) Additional interest varies every month They say items 1-4 are all interest bearing so I presume the additional interest they are charging is on these items. Goodness knows what interest rate they are charging, The interest bearing fees total £2450 and the additional interest is £1750. Am I right in thinking I can ask for a refund of all these items? Another thing, they add on these fees every month, and every 3 months they write to me to say my monthly payment has been re-calculated and gone up, usually by about £5 are they right and being fair doing this? If these charges are unfair and illegal surely my monthly payment should be re-set back to what it was before they started this 3-monthly increase. Finally, if I am successful in reclaiming the fees they have charged so far, will they stop charging them in the future or do I have to take further action to get that done? Thanks for all the advice i've received in the past on here, and any I get in the future.

Hi all, I recently applied for a job with a company and got the message from the recruiter asking me a couple of questions and afterwards, he sent me an email that everything seems fine and would like me to attend a telephone interview. We agreed on the time that was friday and I skipped my other interview as this job looked more promising, however, friday morning he emailed me that he is very busy with other stuff and would like to reschedule the telephone meeting/ interview next week. I agreed and then on monday, I received an email that they had telephone interviews on friday and somebody was hired and that they no longer have any jobs. I have the emails and I believe that they lied to me and this was totally unfair as they could have told me the truth and I would have attended my other interview. I would like to know if I could sue the company or take any legal action against them. Many thanks in advance Dinesh

Hi all. Just wanted to share my story and gather any opinions or similar stories. So I have a dreaded "Together Mortgage" (interest only) which I took in Feb 2007. Like many other people I went through some financial hardship in 2008/9 when the GFC bit. I couldn't afford my monthly payments and so Northern Rock offered me a "mortgage concession agreement" for 12 months where as I was only required to pay a certain percentage of my interest only payments. I don't remember the exact amounts but let's say my payments went down from around £550 per month to around £250 per month. The agreement was that the £300 that I wasn't paying would accumulate in arrears until the arrangement ended (I extended it after 12 months for another year) at which point the arrears would be capitalised/put back into my mortgage for me to pay off over the remainder of my mortgage term. Great. This was a big help at the time. However...... When the 2 year period was up NRAM decided that as they no longer offer that same agreement I had to pay back all of the arrears (over £6k) immediately.!!! I argued this and they basically told me that as I had no proof of the agreement then they would take me to court and repossess the house unless I come to an arrangement with them to pay back the money ASAP. The agreement they came up with would increase my monthly mortgage payments from £400 to over £1000 per month...! I now live overseas and so don't have any paperwork to help argue my case, the judge wouldn't postpone the hearing so that I could be present and ruled in NRAMs favour. They won a suspended repossession order that would only be enforceable if i don't meet my new payments. (I managed to get them don't to £850 per month). I laid all of the money back early but the order still stands for a few years. I recently asked the for consent to let the property out while I'm away. The max rent I will get is £450, my payments are £670 and they want £750 to give me permission. They also told me that The £750 fee will be added to my mortgage balance... How can they do that if the no longer borrow money? This really annoyed me as they wouldn't/couldn't add my arrears to the mortgage as per their agreement...! Well lately I've been reading about the CCA issues with loans over £25k and I'm wondering if I may have a case for them to answer. Like I say, I don't have all my paperwork with me at the moment but I'm in the process of having it sent to me and I'm also going to apply for SAR. I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has a similar story or even from anyone who could offer any advice. Cheers all.

I would like some help to see where I stand with the CSA. After complaining several times over the telephone about my case, never receiving anything further than an “I’m sorry Mr Dowson”, not following the complaints procedure, no body taking initiative for the errors and now totally messing up my case, taking YEARS to work out what I should be paying, DESPITE having my payslips, I find myself in £4606 worth of arrears. This is down to no fault of my own, this is sheer negligence, and maladministration at its absolute highest. I would like the following points to be addressed immediately. You requested payslips in March 2012, which I produced immediately. I sent you payslips, EVERY single one since I started work in April 2009. So why is it (May 2014) it has took 22 months to work out what I should be paying? I got a letter shortly after sending in my payslips saying my case is now fully assessed and my payment is now, £5 Yes £5 a week, despite myself being in fulltime employment. I rang up and quizzed this and got told it was a cross over, and to await another letter. I received another letter telling me to pay; yes you guessed it £5 a week. I rang up, yet again, and they said on my income I should be paying £30 a week. This is what I did, I asked for a direct debit form from MAY 2012, and was not given one, yet EVERY month I made a payment by debit card (costing me over £3-£5 on my mobile EACH time, I was asked the same questions why don’t you pay by direct debit? Each and every time, I said I want to, but given the same response about my case not being finalised. This continued for months, until then astonishingly when I was paying by card around September 2013 I was told I was paying too much and to pay just £5 a week again. I explained clearly I was working, but you were adamant this was right. (check the call) I was not allowed access to see my son as what I was paying the CSA was NOT same as the child in questions mother was receiving. She therefore thought I was fleecing her, you were telling her and me different things. As a result I have missed years of seeing my child which is totally, totally unacceptable, and all I have ever got is an “I’m sorry Mr Dowson; your case will be sorted soon”. The amounts I need to be paying on your letter dated 16/5/14 are totally incorrect, EVEN though I have handed in my payslips, for example £33 a week from 13.7.09 to £5 a week from 15.3.10 this is incorrect as you will see FROM MY PAYSLIP my last wage in December 2009. I did not sign on till March as I am a proud man and only sign on when I absolutely need it. Therefore I had zero income for this period. Going through the letter from the bottom amount £39:00 a week from 6.4.09 is to 13.7.09 IS CORRECT. £33:00 a week from 13.7.09 to 15.3.10 is incorrect as my payslips show, my last payslip proved this as it had holiday pay, salary adjustments and everything left before Christmas! £5 a week from 15.3.10 to 28.6.10 is correct. £ 32 a week from 28.6.10 to 2.8.10 is INCORRECT, as my payslip shows, I was in employment 4 weeks, not 9 as your records have shown. This was down to me waiting to sign on until the 02.8.10 I am being penalised for being honest and not signing as long as I could possibly avoid. Again I sent in my ONE and only payslip, so how do you have 9 weeks when I worked 4? This is a regular pattern and probably as why my arrears have been high, I had zero income, not even benefits, I HAVE PAYSLIPS to prove this, I have given you all my information and yet calculated it incorrect. Let me continue. £40 a week from 30.8.10 till 11.10.10 is out yet again by 2 weeks, I was there 4 weeks NOT 6. Again I sent this payslip in. £5 a week from 11.10.210 to 15.11.10 is correct, £40 a week from 15.11.10 to 20.12.10 is Correct, £5 a week from 20.12.10 to 29.8.11 is correct, then £5 a week from 29.8.11 is again correct. £37 a week from 5.3.12 is correct, £31 a week from 11.2.13 is again correct, finally £5 a week from 10.2.14 is incorrect as I only received 2 weeks JSA not 8, even though I did pay £60, yes I was on JSA that long, but as I made a joint claim I was over the threshold and did not qualify for JSA. As we can see littered with errors, despite having my payslips…..Yes you can argue about being notified of a change, it was common sense when I wrote hand written letters stating this is my one and only payslip !! I have written several times with dates of employment !! Backed these up with wage slips. ! I gave up the home myself and Miss Brotton shared had without requesting a penny from the home as equity and profit of any sale would be substantial to her and my son In January I received SEVEN letters in one day, (what a waste of post) telling to pay SEVEN different amounts, then about 6-8 weeks later, I received around 9-10 letters once again ON THE SAME DAY, ALL STATING MY NEW WEEKLY PAYMENT WAS DIFFERENT FOR EVERY SINGLE LETTER. Great stuff. Unacceptable. Every month I asked for an update yet was stating I was paying the right amount, and then this case arrives for £4,606. I believe all calls are recorded so I would request those to played back. You were telling Miss Brotton I hadn’t sent in my payslips, you even told me at one point you had lost them! then they were found on the system, then they weren’t added on the system, a complete and utter fiasco As a result of your negligence and know I work 9-5, I had 3 private number calls during these hours, yet received no voicemail. No letter. Then I find out you have done a detachment of earnings of what I and my wife can certainly not afford. This is putting our marriage under strain, but no one seems to care or acknowledges the damage that you have caused. My wife is part time, we have a child of our own. I work full time. Our outgoings are more than our incomings now. This can’t be right. If I quit work, which I think I will have too, at least we will save this (£215 a month, rent and council tax £600 and nursery fees £390 a month as we will qualify for all those glorious benefits you see and hear about, but we are honest people and proud, but when you are forced, and this is forced, what can you do? ) So where is the benefit in being honest and working? I objected paying by card as it was costing me money phoning and to be honest I can get away with a detachment of earnings IF IT WAS THE RIGHT AMOUNT. I have calculated the arrears are thousands LESS than your calculations. I do want to pay my way, as you will see since I found permanent employment in 5.3.12 payments have been constant after years of one month temping and months on the dole. This is how I get treated, chasing men who pay, not men who don’t. I am asked to pay £215 for my ex partners son who I don’t see, yet cannot afford to provide for my own child with my wife. I wish my daughter with my wife could have £215 spent on her each month. Adding to the fact the ex-partners tax credits won’t be affected, she will be laughing all the way to the bank. We are expecting another baby in October, we need a double buggy, car seat, Christmas, all impossible and ruined. My wife is talking about a termination. This is beyond a joke. I am holding the CSA liable for this as my wife says we can not afford this baby. The damage you have done by taking so long to sort this out, playing us off against each other, telling me to pay wrong amounts this is border line unrepairable. I do not want to hear another “I’m sorry Mr Dowson” again. The CSA is meant to be about protecting children falling into poverty and as a result of your fantastic service, you have placed my wife and daughter in poverty probably will lose our home, loose her car, and both loose our jobs. But well done, you have ticked boxes and filled in forms, so you must be patting yourselves on the back. Summarise, I have been unable to see my son, as his mother always thinks I have avoided paying, but YOU have been withholding payments, you have held my payslips for two years without reaching a conclusion, you informed to pay by card every month reassuring me all was well, this is an absolute joke, I’m very upset at not seeing my son, and taking TWO years to reach a conclusion , you have toldme this is a final decision 15 times with different ammounts, it is unacceptable letting arrears build up. I believe after reading, researching I am due substantial compensation. I have been fobbed off every month I made my payment, withholding my payments to my ex-partner is shocking and has caused all sorts of stress. I have also written to my local MP regarding this matter.

We got the sports package from BT @£15.00 p.m. Apl 13th Started Paid Apl 31st Cancelled - No Record of this at BT D/Debits returned for May & June £30 Lttr from BT £30.00 o/s Rang BT July 4th said no record of cancellation so wld need to pay the £30 which I agreed to. Then told me it was a 30day notice period which had to be paid for (£15.00) Refused July 4th Email from BT as below: Your 30 day rental liability charge As we say in our terms and conditions, we need 30 days' notice to stop your BT services - so you'll need to pay for them for 30 days from the date you asked us to stop them. For more information about the 30 day notice period We're stopping your service on 04 Jul 2014. If you don't want your service to stop, get in touch with us on 0800 800 150 as soon as you can. The sooner you call us the easier it is to change things. " (I presumed wrongly that it meant if I wanted to resume sports package so did not ring them) Looked at their terms & conditions online and states in 62 as below 62. If you or we end this agreement, we will block further access to BT Sport at the end of your notice period. Once we have provided you with access to BT Sport, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 30 days' notice via telephone. During your notice period we will continue to charge you the subscription fee. Rang them again today to say they had stopped service on 4th July and acc to their terms & conditions the service shld stop at the end of the notice period!!! They said no they had terminated it because I hadn't paid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I said that was not the issue and it was I who had terminated it and had agreed on receipt of bill to pay the £30. But wld not pay the £15 due for July as they had stopped the service and it didn't agree with their terms & conditions. Who is right pls??

Hi All i want to reclaim ppi miss sold to me by egg many years ago i have all my statements and have the figures however i cant find what interest was charged although i have just found "merchandise interest at 1.385 per month" should i use this (im not sure if it would be more if treated as cash) could anyone point me to a ppi calculator (spreadsheet) also would i have a case for excessive charges or has that boat sailed thanks in advance for any advice D

Hi, iv flicked through here and seen a lot of people seem to have had some bad experianced with orange mobile phone contracts! I had a contract with them 2008-10 and from day one they screwed it up. I was given so many minutes, texts and Mb as per usual but was often charged for more than what my standard price was, they had charged me for some of the things I should have had included. At the time their answer was that I would have to pay the full amount now and they would either refund it or take it off my next bill. I refused to do this as I did not have the funds and was left with no other choice than to cancel the direct debit. This went in for nearly the entire contract. On top of this I had numerous problems with the phone, that they were reluctant to repair. Iv recently logged I to my credit file to find numerous cases of arrears logged against me in the contract period ranging from 1 month to 4 months. I noticed that before the 4 month marker 2 months were marked as being in dispute, yet I was still penalised. Looking through all the markers it states what I owe and clearly shows them reducing the bill on more than one occasion, following me ringing up extremly unhappy. I emailed orange about this to try and solve the problem, got my automated response to say they would get back to me in 72 hours, they didn't so I called them. They refused to access my account as I couldn't remeber specific details about it for ages and when I did finally get them to do it, they could see anything regarding to all of this. I asked to be out through to a supervisor to be refused and then to be told the person I am speaking to is a supervisor (load of crap!) and they still wouldn't help me. They then out me through to the billing team (no idea why!) to a young girl who did her best to help me. Looked into everything she could and told me at one point the debt was passed to debt collectors, I don't remeber being informed of this at all! She couldn't help me and have me an email to contact (referrals.fax.invox@everythingeverywhere.com) politely explaining my suituation and i asked then to contact me to achknowledge the email if they were unable to sort it straight away. And nothing, iv heard nothing in 7 days now. I realise that I haven't given them a great deal of time to respond to this but I am extremly annoyed with my credit file and now their complete lack of communication. I keep reading posts on the internet saying mobile phone company's are not governed by the same people as loans ect but I don't know where this leaves me? Where do I go from this, I completly believe this is unfair and it is stopping me and my partner from buying a house, I don't know who to speak to or to complain to to take this further? Thank you! Danielle

Hi everyone, first off thanks for taking the time to read this. I have done some searches on this topic on this forum and other places, but I'm not sure where I stand in regards to the wording on my contract. I'm a LL from London, and getting increasing frustrated with the LA and their renewal fees. Fair enough, I'm a bit silly not have negotiated the contract in the first place, but my tenants are staying on for their third year now, and the renewal fees are nearly £1000, which is ridiculous for the amount of work they are doing (getting a piece of paper signed). So, I'm thinking of letting the contract roll into an STP, I was under the impression that no fees should be charged in this scenario, but in my contract with the LA, the following is worded: "The landlord should be aware that renewal or continuation as a periodic Tenancy is subject to an additional fee plus VAT as shown in Schedule 1 above whether or not we as your Agent negotiate on your behalf. If you prefer to negotiate any renewal personally our fees for the Letting Service will continue to be payable according to Schedule 1 above for the duration of the time the Tenants occupies the premises" Do I have a leg to stand on? Should I seek legal advice? Surely they can't charge me for not actually doing *anything*?!? Once again, thanks for reading this for me, any help is most appreciated.

hi just had front rooms of my house passed to a1. as i live in the town center and there are plenty of shops,small village with about 30 shops parish council being a real pain and have had the below restrictions imposed which seem ridiculous as there are other shops selling the same as each other why should i be so restricted any help pleas Following your visit to County Hall earlier today, I have checked further into the outcome of the Committee Meeting yesterday and an additional condition was imposed by Members to be included within the Notice of Decision. The additional condition will specify that the retail element will be limited to the wedding business only and no other retail use and can only occupy the front room and it will only be allowed to be run by the occupiers of No. 77. Members felt that if any other retail use were to occupy the premises it could have a detrimental impact on adjacent properties and the area in general. Kind Regards

Hi guys, I've read a few threads on here to understand my situation. I've decided to post a new thread to get a bit more specific advice, so apologies if a case like this has already been answered numerous times. I received a fine on Sunday morning, 11/05/2014, for not having enough money on my oyster whilst travelling on a bus home in Croydon. I tried to scan the card on the reader twice and rather than it telling me I was low on credit, it gave me a sort of error message. I looked at the driver and he didn't instruct me to pay so I walked on assuming the fault was with the reader - I believed I had enough money on the card. I'd made the journey from Bethnal Green to East Croydon via London Victoria, and I knew that I had at minimum £4.50 credit before reaching London Victoria. As I understand, an off-peak fare from Victoria to East Croydon is £3.00 and an Oyster bus fare is £1.20 so it should've been enough to get me home. As I told the inspectors, I suspect the problem occurred at Victoria. Please open the link which contains a screenshot of my Oyster's fare history. i.imgur.com/1MLbACM.jpg?1 I tried to board a train to East Croydon at 6:30am from Victoria. I scanned in at the barrier and walked onto the platform. The guard in charge of the platform told me that the train was not going to Croydon (I found out he was wrong) and turned me around advising me to get the next available one. I walked back and spoke to another guard on the barriers. She decided to scan me out instead of letting me scan myself out. I waited almost another hour for the next one and scanned myself in again. As the screenshot shows, the first scan-in took my balance from £4.65 to £1.30, deducting £3.35 from my card without me making a journey. That is obviously because I hadn't scanned out, which even if I'd done, I suspect would've eaten up some credit. But it is also because I was following instructions and advice from the station guards at London Victoria. So I alighted at East Croydon with £-0.70 on my Oyster card from £4.65. This combined with a dubious card reader has rewarded me with a fine worth more than half a day's wages for me. I appealed the next day, and received an email yesterday stating that it was turned down and will need to cough up the £40 - "Having considered your reasons for appeal I must advise you that your appeal has been turned down. It is your responsibility to buy and/or hold a valid ticket or other authority to travel and to have this available for inspection for your entire journey. You are also responsible for ensuring enough time is available to buy a ticket and/or touch in your Oyster. Oyster users must also ensure that, where appropriate there is enough money on their Oyster and that it is successfully validated. I appreciate that you may have experienced problems at Victoria station which caused your Oyster card to have less funds available than you thought, however as you did notice that your card had not validated correctly when boarding the bus, you needed to query this with the driver or leave the bus to check your Oyster card was working correctly to ensure that your fare was paid. Payment of the outstanding balance is now due." Obviously I think this is very unfair, especially since I travel daily between zones 1-6 for work and have never attempted to dodge a fare. Now I'm wondering if I have any sort of case legally and if a 2nd appeal would go anywhere, or do I just have to swallow it and pay the fine? Thanks.

Good morning Firstly I wish to extend my thanks for providing the inspiration and the means to support the victims of unscrupulous behaviour. I would like to seek advice. I live in a borough with a known shortage of residential parking spaces. The Council acknowledge they issue more residential parking permits than spaces available. After a very late and long drive I was unable to park outside my house and so parked my vehicle at the end of my road. My vehicle was not visible from my window and I had no cause to walk past it for a few days. When I returned to my vehicle it was plastered with 3 x PCNs based on the fact that I had parked in a 'Business Permit Holders' only bay, which surprised me, because there are to my knowledge no businesses on this road. Considering there is a shortage of parking spaces I was surprised the Council would reserve spaces for businesses as it seems to perpetuate a known problem. I believed (and still do believe) I had reasonable grounds to appeal and did so. My first appeal was rejected so I appealed again providing much more evidence. My second appeal was rejected. The Council repeatedly ignored my attempts to discuss the matter further by telephone or in writing. I visited the Council offices and requested to speak to somebody, stating I would even be willing to pay the fines in spite of the fact I believed they were unfair, on the grounds that a member of the Council would speak with me so that I could ensure my concerns pertaining to confusing signage, inadequate lighting, etc. were at least acknowledged. I was refused an audience and was forced to wait for a Notice to Owner to appeal further, thus losing my right to pay the reduced fine. The Surrey Parking and Traffice Appeals Service conceded that only 1 of the 3 fines was lawful and ordered me to pay (in full) the first of the 3 PCNs. At the time I was a student and only had £200 in my bank account. The £110 full fee thus represented over 50% of my entire life savings! I have now graduated and am seeking employment. I am receiving Jobseeker's Allowance and my bank balance has not improved! I would like to understand if there are any procedures I can follow to recover £55 from the Council. This is based on the fact that had they only issued me with 1 x PCN, I would have paid the reduced rate. I refused to pay on the grounds I was certain the Surrey Parking and Traffice Appeals Service would cancel all 3 x PCNs because £330 (or even £165 at the reduce rate) was a ridiculous amount to charge somebody with only £200 in their bank account. Additionally I believe I still have more than legitimate grounds for the original appeal. There are a number of issues that were not acknowledged by the Council, including: - The 'Business Permit Holders Only' sign is unlit. I was unable to see it in the dark. It is also taller than the residential signs and thus harder to read in low light conditions. - The 'Business Permit Holders Only' sign refers to an 'outside area' but it is not clear what this area is. - The sign is not adequately differentiated from others in the road. I believe it is there as a 'trap' to make money from people, particularly seeing as there are no businesses down a road with a shortage of residential parking spaces. - The road markings are unclear. - Although I was parked within 10 metres of the 'Business Permit Holders Only' sign (the reason I believe Surrey Parking and Traffice Appeals Service did not cancel the original PCN), I was parked within 5 metres of a 'Residents Parking' sign. Do I have any rights to further pursue this issue? Many thanks for your time.

When you read these two articles one after another you know there is no justice in the world. All my campaigning, emailing and badgering the government and OFT may seem like a waste of time but one cannot read the children’s society article without trembling. I strongly recommend you click the link to the animated bit which states some shocking statistics. Sorry, cant post links yet! 1st read: This is money, at thisismoney.co.uk news article 2592434.Title: Debt- collectors-set-cash-consumer-borrowing-spree Then go to childrenssociety.org.uk press release 8th may 2014. Title: Report reveals debt's true damage to children, families

Hi guys, any advice here would be most welcome. Many thanks in advance. I hired a car from Sixt for two days. They are now trying to make me pay £182 for a scratch on the mirror which was there when we hired the car. When we hired the car we were told there was a chip in the windscreen and I walked around half the vehicle, my partner walked around the other side, and when he asked if I had mentioned the damage, I wrongly assumed that he meant the windscreen and so we hired the car under the impression that all damage on the car had been noted down correctly. Only when we returned the car did we determine that this was not the case but we were told by the Sixt staff that the damage was absolutely minimal, in fact only the paint was chipped on the mirror, an area 2cm long and only 3mm wide, and this would cost a maximum of £30. I signed a document to say that the damage was not my fault as this is the case, and I am prepared to defend this vigorously in court if this is necessary as the damage is not my doing and I should not have to pay for this. I wrote asking if they could check the CCTV footage of us hiring the damaged car in order to confirm that this is the true situation. I am also aware that it is normal under these circumstances to provide various quotes for any work, not simply to quote what I am sure you will agree is a ridiculous amount of money for a tiny scratch on a mirror housing. I have checked with trade professionals and for damage to a mirror as outlined, it would not cost any more than the £30 which was quoted by Sixt staff at the time of discussion the damage.I have asked Sixt about this and they have not replied. I emailed and spelt out the entire situation but they ignored my email and have now sent me a final reminder threatening court action. I am a good responsible customer who did my best to take good care of the vehicle I rented and I returned the car in the same state that I hired it. Any advice on what to do now would be good, I have emailed the person who sent the letter again and also emailed the general customer services. Do you think I will be liable to pay all of this huge and ridiculous amount? I am currently on JSA and this is a fortune for me!

Hi, It is a case of possible unfair dismissal. I am suspended but still not dismissed. I work in IT of some charity organisation's operations division. I am suspended from work from yesterday. Events - 1) Joined office on Monday after holidays. I am on loan from support team to development team. There are some people who don't like me for some personal reasons. 2) I was given a task on Monday at 11am to write a test unit proc (PL Unit) for some code developed by another developer say X. 2a) This is a kind of a mundane task which X had mentioned in past that no one likes to work and he can do coding but can't work on PL Unit. As I see I was only one who was given this task since I joined the team. 3) I started working on it but I was finding it really hard to work on this task. (may be for personal reasons - my daughter had epileptic seizure a week back). I like to work on logical unit and was taking lot of time to work on this particular task. I work in scrum agile environment and in that you work on something which you pull and you estimate. But here I was assigned the task and told to finish by end of day. Around 4pm I emailed to scrum master that I hate writing PL Unit and it will be better if this is being tested functionally instead. I told that I will take 2 days to finish it if they still want it. I got no reply. I stopped working on that. 4) Next day morning in the scrum meeting I mentioned that I tried working on it but couldn't. 5) I mentioned to Scrum master orally that I can't work on that. He said you at least work on part of that. I said I can't. He said he will escalate that to his manager. He immediately emailed me to which I replied that I can't work on it. I am not finding motivation to do it with CC to my support team lead. 6) Then my support manager (line manager) had a meeting with me at around 1pm on Tuesday. After the meeting he told me to go home and come on Wednesday at 11am for a meeting to discuss this. 7) At the end of the meeting on wednesday morning where HR was also present, I was told that I am suspended from work and there will be disciplinary meeting soon. During the meeting with Manager on two occasions 1) He was trying to stress that I am refusing to work but I was stressing that I am not able to focus on that. 2) I was trying to stress principles of Scrum Agile that Scrum master can not assign the tasks and you pull the task which you estimate. He was trying to stress that this was estimated earlier and the team thought that it is a reasonable time for this task. 3) During the meeting I was trying to stress that PL Unit was not written in past for much bigger piece of codes and this is a just one line of code. I got a chance to see in brief the product owner's response on JIRA that this situation is unlikely to happen in production and this story could be closed. 4) At the end of the meeting I told the manager that I am willing to work on this story and he said I am accepting this after 1.5 hours (1 hour actual) and I don't want you grudgingly work on this. My performance in support team had been 2-3 times better than the next best person and even in dev team in last 2 months in dev team I had worked on 2 very complex pieces of code. First one X had tried to work for a week and there were many bugs in it and I have to re-write it. Scrum master has a grudge on me because I had in past done firing of his inefficient close friend in support. Some other managers in dev team have grudge on me because in past when I applied for dev team role I was rejected and sub-standard people were given those role. I had mentioned my arguments against the selection process. My support manager has recently joined the team and he kinds of thinks that I have an attitude. He accepts my stellar performance. The culture in company is not open and performance oriented. They strangely prefer contractors from agencies or vendors paying more than double.

Hi Quick question:- Had a credit card account, turned out to be executed not in line with the CCA and other relevant Acts etc. Subsequently fell into dispute and sold on by the OC. I have gone back to claim unfair charges. They have disagreed but made an offer. The terms of the offer are that the offer value is deducted from the balance by the new owner. I will be writing to disagree with this and wondered, whilst I am reading up on this, are there any points I should definitely mention. Many thanks for your time Alloyz

hello all new to the forum and i hope you can help.on wednesday i was sacked on the spot something had happened earlier which i misunderstood and i apologised for it was nothing major and not a sackable offence.anyway my boss started shouting and raving at me and at one point i actually thought he was going to strike me! anyway i retaliated in a calm voice and he said i was making a fool out of him he asked me who was the boss and i replied obviously its you and he said i gave him cheek and not to speak to him like that .he was shouting and and in my face i felt quite intimidated and actually felt like walking out but as i needed the job i stood my ground.he told me to get on with my work.Around 20 minutes later he came to find me and and sked what was still to be done i told him then he went on at me again shouting and throwing his weight around all this in front of members of staff i told him he couldnt talk to me like that in front of other staff or verbally abuse me like that.he then said after tonights jobs are done your sacked ,gone for good!! can he sack me on the spot for defending myself and retaliating? i was in no way abusive or violent .earlier he shouted at another worker and she retaliated as well but shes not been sacked.i find this unfair .later i called his wife who employed me shes director of the company i worked for and she said as it was her husband that sacked me i should be phoning him and not her,then she said i was never to contact them ever again.i had a couple of weeks left of my probationary period left and i know theres nothing i can do really .last week i was given a verbal warning over a mistake i made at work im a cleaner and i missed a bit of dirt on a floor i told her that i was under pressure by her husband my supervisor to hurry up which made me feel under pressure to do a good job with not much time often under the designated time i was given to do the job.i think i was treated appallingly and the emloyers will not answer my calls im going to seek legal advice im now unemployed with 2 children to support im in scotland and i understand that the law is different but any help or advice will be greatly appreciated thankyou

Hi Friends, These are a few examples of entries in my Barclaycard statements ... And a few from my Visa Debit card ... Please could you tell me which one of these could be unfair and worth claiming? Thanks. Autumn

I am trying to get advice for a very good friend of mine!! its a long one so,,,,,,, In about 2006 him and his girlfriend brought a flat (shared ownership) they lived together there for about 2 years and then split, she moved out, he lived there for about a year, then they rented it for 18 months. they both met new partners so she moved back to the flat with her new bloke, and he moved in with his girlfriend. He has tried to get her to buy him out but she couldn't get the mortage, in this time they tried once to reposess the flat as she had failed to make payments to the mortage, her parents bailed it out!! However she has now split with the boyfriend and cant afford the flat!! so finally has agreed to sell it! He went to meet last night and said if he doesn't sign to say she can keep all the profit she will pull out and not sell. He has been fair and offered a 30/70 split in her favour. Clearly he wants shot of the link between them, as its causing issues with his partner and he wants no more contact, as well as this where she has bad credit he wants to be disassoicted from her as soon as possible, is there anything he can do to enforce the sale We have checked both names are on the deeds. any advice would be greatful and asap! I really feel for him, what a nasty person she has shown herself to be!

I self represented myself at an employment tribunal against a top employment law barrister. During the case I was certain I had won as upon cross examination my employers witness admitted the same offence had been committed by other employees and they had been given an 'off the record' talking to. It was also admitted that I would of been aware of the employee handbook after my final written warning. (due to the fact that's when I received it) Well to cut a long story short the judge hasn't even put any of this in his verdict and said that I would of been aware of the rules. He even stated I had a previous verbal warning which I didn't. The case was completely changed to private use of a company vehicle when I was dismissed for not taking proper care of my vehicle resulting in someone using my vehicle without my consent. How do I stand now? What contributes to error in law? Im now out of my depth but trying to get any form of legal help with limited funds is near on impossible. Can anyone point me in the right direction?