My brother was harassed and bullied at work and is been off work for work related stress. He put in a grievance against the manager for that. Then his manager made his boss carry out the changes to his working days even though he told them clearly about childcare issues. Unfortunately this work related stress and bullying and harassment at work caused him depression and severe stress lead to him developing paralysis symptoms in one side of body for which he got signed off. The employers then persistently kept calling him in the name of welfare calls which his family told was affecting my brother as work was his stressor in his case. His work then kept insisting on home visits which again his family kept refusing as they believed it would aggravate his stress more but due to constant contacts he gave in and another manager conducted home visit. This manager was polite but straight away after visit my brother's stress levels started rising and they got so worse couple of days later that he collapsed unconscious and had to be rushed to hospital. Doctors treating him suggested that was all down to high levels of stress due to his home visit. His treating consultant at this stage gave in a letter to employers and this letter highlighted employers frequent contact was proving to be counterproductive. Then a few months after work place people and managers from different departments started contacting him again inviting him to attend grievance hearings he put in. This derived further depression and schizophrenia. His SSP ran out and due to financial stress and unprofessional attitude by ongoing contact of management he started thinking that management wants to fire him to cover other manager's job and due to all this he is at a mental stage where he is having hallucinations, zoning out moments and having self harm thoughts. Despite all this his management has now written a letter informing his wife they want to carry out a long term sickness capability meeting, where they want to explore different avenues for his return to work such as redeployment etc and warned him that outcome of this meeting can be a dismissal. Given his condition his wife approached his GP to express her fears how this letter may impact my brother's health and GP strongly suggested not to mention anything about this letter to my brother and ask employers to contact GP directly if they need any information on his health including his possible return to work. His wife then offered his employers this option to contact GP or get Occupational Health opinion to determine his fitness to attend and or if this meeting can be delayed until he is in a state to deal with it. She also informed employers including HR about GP's advice. His employers rejected all options and GP's advice and wrote again to his wife informing that they still want to go ahead with capability meeting quoting it is standard policy for long term sickness. She doesn't know what to do specially given his mental health state. AHe Isn't carrying out meeting against Doctors and Consultant's advice knowing all this breach of duty of care? Please help

Try & keep short: Son bought '65 Airstream Caravan (yes the polished type)from Florida & shipped by agent in Derby. The agent is a clown & has stupidly paid customs & excise far too much as paid on wrong code. Instead of 5% as its a '65 and due to its weight I believe he's paid 20% which think is about £3.5k. Its his fault & C&E have confirmed they don't know why he paid that amount. Now he isn't releasing caravan unless my son pays whole amount. He only actually owes £937 which is payable on delivery to his door only which he is happy to pay. Police can't act as civil at moment & he has started to contact trading standards. Despite not having the extra he is understandably reluctant to pay the demanded balance in case especially as its the agents fault he paid incorrectly but that he either doesn't ever get back from Gov or has to wait a long time for it. At one point he called police because we thought the van had been vanished as he refused to send any container shipping details either but it is supposed to be in UK now. I am tempted to call the bloke & try & resolve but suspect will still be no avail or to get a solicitor to just send a warning letter to him to release the vehicle. Anyone with any experience in this area gratefully received of how we should proceed.... thanks. I'm going to post additional info as its transpired but on new posts to try and keep clarity and make it easy to understand Information Point 2 the following is info answered by my son as we have gone into it: The person who has the caravan is the shipping agent: He used an unknown shipper to actually collect it from Florida and transport it to New York, and then on to the unknown ship to the unknown port in the UK. He initially invoiced me the correct vat figure which I paid him. I checked this with HMRC and they said sometimes shippers and shipping agents to do this and appears to be a legitimate method as opposed to me paying HMRC directly. It was only when it cleared customs he issued me with a new invoice for the duty and vat. I think it was the US shippers that filled out the customs documents incorrectly and led to a much higher figure. HMRC said the only people who can amend that paperwork are the ones who filled it out. I would contact them directly but he won't tell me who they are or how to contact them. He's just taken it as gospel that the higher figure is correct, paid it from his own account and invoiced me for it. "But I still have no actual proof he's paid this amount. He won't give me any documentation or reference numbers with which I can contact anyone about this. As said, maybe he should be asking HMRC for a refund but I don't know if he can do that unless he resubmits the paperwork. But then I asked him to sort that and he just says I have to pay him the full amount."

On my FB page someone has just posted that they have been sanctioned by the JC adviser because they have got Jury duty this week! Can this be legal?

Hi guys I have been currently employed by Amazon for the last 7 months and was happy until January when they started moving people around. I had no choice to move to a different department it was either that or no job few months down the line I'm struggling in this department with targets that are near impossible to do and this in turn caused me a lot of stress and worry because I was week after week warning letters and meetings kept coming I went to doctors and she wrote me a note with my concerns and manager just said you have to do continue your task but did refer me to occupational health which they said stress isn't a medical condition and doesn't effect my targets my doctor now has put me on sick since april and occupational sick pay has ran out now onto statuary and I feel bullied and physically sick and don't want to return there any help please?

I have received a couple of letters from DHL, requesting a payment of £11 for Duty and VAT following the delivery of my order from China. "In the event that we do not hear back from you within the next seven days, this matter will be passed to a debt collection agency working on behalf of DHL for further action, resulting in an administration charge being added to the account, If you have already paid this sum please accept our apologies for this communication." Are we entitled to be provided with proof of payment to HMRC by DHL ? Upon further investigation, i can confirm that the Chinese retailer displays the following message on the product page of the purchased item: "VAT Included! We have made arrangements with shipping courier to pay all VAT and import fees on behalf of you. The price at the checkout is FINAL."

Please can anyone help/advise?? I currently reside with my wife and family in accommodation provided to me by a UK Fire & Rescue Service Fire Authority. My wife currently owns a two bedroom terraced property which she currently rents out with consent due to moving in with me shortly after us both meeting. The UK Fire & Rescue Service Fire Authority have informed me and my family that they intend giving us notice to vacate the property due to their intent to sell off the property for other financial purposes. This has forced me to act quickly and to locate a property suitable for my family to use has our main residence and to put my wife’s property on the market for sale due to the property not being suitable for my family. The seller of the property we wish to buy has accepted an offer and a mortgage has been approved, we hope to complete the sale within a couple of months. My wife’s property is currently undertaking viewings. My conveyance solicitor has informed that due to my wife having a second property during the purchase that we will have to pay the additional higher 3% SDLT on top of the 2% stating that the Fire Service property does not qualify as our main residence even though I have resided there since 2001 and my wife since 2010. Due to the change in StampTax Duty Law earlier this year I do accept that we will have to initially pay the additional 3% SDLT due to my wife and I currently potentially having two properties during this transition. However what does seem to discriminate and be totally unfair against myself and family is that due to my employment in the Emergency Services and the place of work to where I have been contracted to work, that I have no so called “main place of residence” has outlined in the Government Stamp Duty Document. This impacts upon us not only due to the fact that I have to finance the additional 3% Stamp Duty to secure a“main place of residence” family home, but also by the fact that the property that we plan to sell is also not classed has our main family home, therefore I have been told by HMRC Helpline that once it’s sold (within 3 years) of purchasing our main place of residence (therefore only owning the one property), that we are not eligible for claiming back the higher SDLT due to that property not being our “main residence”. Is the above correct and I have to swallow the bullet or have I misread something so that I am entitled to reclaim?? This situation seems to be a rare case I just hope that the HMRC Tax Office accept that the unusual circumstances of myself and family have been overseen in the HMRC stamp duty document and that they will act accordingly. Therefore not to financially penalise myself and family by not allowing us to reclaim the additional higher 3% SDLT on completion of sale of my wife’s property and due to our sole intention of only to own the one property of “main residence”. :mad2: All I'm asking for is fairness and this does'nt seem to be the case. Thanks

I would be grateful for some advice. I occasionally get some eatables and pickles from India using Fedex courier services. My father paid the charges for the courier services in India and declared the item value which was 15£. I have received the parcel without any issues. After 3 weeks time i got an Invoice letter from Fedex for the payment of 30£ for Duty and Tax. In the Invoice its clearly mentioned that the total value of the goods was 19£ and Fedex was asking me to pay the Duty and Tax of 30£. I have attached the Invoice. I have called Fedex and queried them about the invoice, they said some miscalculation will send another one, but again they have sent the same Invoice of 30£. After few weeks later i got a call and a Message from Controlaccount saying ' Please contact Controlaccount quoting reference number **** in relation to Fedral Express Europe Inc'for which i did not reply. I have called Fedex again and queried them about the invoice, this time they have asked me to send an email to customerservice explaining the situation. I have sent them an email and got a reply from them saying 'Having investigated the matter in more detail, the invoice on this occasion has been issued correctly. The charges have been levied by the local Customs authorities in the destination Country. Please find attached a breakdown to show how the charges have been calculated (Breakdown attached). In the breakdown the value of the goods was showing as 76$, i am not sure how they got this number. The initial Goods value as per the invoice is not matching the breakdown which they have send me through an email. Please advice. Thank you Krish Fedex Breakdown.pdf

A couple of years ago we lost our house due to ill health, we sold the house to a housing association so we could still live in it, as we liked the area. Thrilled to have a house in a popular area the HA snapped it up and promised to help us, and look after the house, so we'd have no worries except rent. They did some modernisation, including double glazing that apparently amplifies noise from outside, and redoing the kitchen floor and a new roof. About 6 months later, we noticed damp patches on my son's bedroom wall. Both he and my wife are asthmatic, so damp is a real issue. I called the H.A. and explained the problem. 2 weeks layer, they go on the roof and say the flashing is damaged. They redo it. About 6 months later again, the damp patch is still there, having faded a bit, it seems to be spreading. So I called again. 2 weeks later, new flashing. 3 months on, still damp patches with a bit of mould too. I call again, 2 weeks later someone comes out and once again claims it's flashing. I explained it's been replaced 3 times, if you include the new roof fitting. 'Oh right' he says, well see what we can do, leave it with me. 3 months later, I heard nothing. Damp is spreading. A month later, I called them. Recent rain had made it worse. Don't worry I'm told, it's being looked In to. A month later, still nothing. I called again. After 2 weeks of passing messages, I eventually got a date for yet more new flashing... despite there clearly being a bigger issue. It would be in 7 weeks. 4 days before work is due, the scaffolder turns up asking for permission to put some In the neighbours garden too. They're at work, so i ask that evening and tell the H.A. in the morning that it's done and it's OK. I do this in the office, the woman I told this to phones the head of the works team whilst I'm there and confirms it's ok. 3 days pass, no scaffolding. I call to complain and am told it will be up in the morning. First thing in the morning, sitting having breakfast in the front room when a card is shoved through. From the roofer, that says "no scaffold, no access" I run out, to try and talk to him about the scaffolding. He sees me, shrugs, smiles and drives off. I've called the H.A. today, but can't get through to who I need because as is common he's worked a half day. During this time, I've also explained that my son's wall is ruined. It has wallpaper that is peeling off, along with plaster, behind which is damp uneven wall. It needs work doing on. I was told the best they could do was a 25 pound voucher for paint to tidy it up. If I paint that wall, the paper will be too heavy and will fall. He'll, if I tap that wall you can hear it crumble behind the paper and fall. It has a main solid wall (uneven and damp as it is) but the plastered front layer is totally wrecked. When this complaint started my son was an asthmatic 3 year old, just about to turn 4. He's 6 now and they've shown no care. During damp weather he has to share our bed (I take his) to make sure he's not in the room where the issue is whenever it gets bad, which this summer has been quite frequently So where do I stand? Can I do anything besides complain to them and ask them to please hurry up time and time again?

Please, could any one kindly advice me. I used to be an employee of the Bucks hospitals (NHS) Trust working at the Wycombe hospital. I have now retired but they retained me as a bank staff helping them out when they are really short of staff. I occasionally work there at weekends and nights when parking is not a problem. Now UKPC which recently took over the parking management are giving me these parking charges which I feel are rather unreasonable. They recently gave me a parking charge while I was parked and inside the laboratory working. I just find it ridiculous because here I am providing a very important service in the hospital for the benefit of patient care and then these people keep worrying me with these parking charges. My question is, shall I just ignore them and wait till they take me to court? Is my contract with the hospital to provide laboratory testing not superior to any perceived contract that UKPC might think I have with them? After all to provide my service I necessarily have to park on the site. Moreover it is never during hours when parking is limited. By the way, when the hospital originally introduced parking control it was meant to be operative only during working hours. (9am -5pm, Monday to Friday). However, UKPC has now extended it to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I think because of the financial incentive they prefer it this way. I am prepared to fight it all the way but I just wanted to know what my chances are. I also question this idea of the hospital grounds being private land. is that really the case? is an NHS hospital car park regarded as private land? It is our hospital, we the tax payers, right? please give me all the advice available. Oh, I have not bothered to apply for a parking permit because I don't need it except the odd weekend day or night. Applying for a permit would only deny another member of staff who would really need it since there are only a limited number of permits available due to the limited number of spaces. Thanks to every one in advance.

Morning all, I'm new to the site so please forgive me if I have posted in the wrong section. I am currently signed off work and have been since June 15 with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, Chronic Pain Syndrome and depression. Recent blood tests also show that I now have (what my GP called) 'A very severe vitamin D deficiency' I am a social housing tenant and live on the top floor of a 2 story block of maisonettes. There is no communal lift in the block and I have to walk up and down over 50 stairs to get in/out of my property. The pain I constantly suffer makes it difficult to move very far or at any speed and I only usually go out to GP appointments. My condition has gotten worse over the past 7 months and I have been moved up a band on the housing register, but am still a good year away before my bidding makes any difference. I have also joined Homeswapper, but unfortunately no joy yet. I approached my housing officer to try and get a managed move due to my condition and she said that the HA no longer accepts managed move requests on medical grounds? Does the HA have a duty of care to move me to a more suitable property? I explained to my HO that I have no quality of life as I am virtually imprisoned in my home. I sleep on the sofa downstairs (which doesn't help my condition) because I have started having panic attacks that there will be a fire in the block during the night and I wouldn't be able to make it out of the property quick enough. My depression is getting worse because of this situation. I asked her for the names of the people responsible for the decision on managed moves so that I could make a complaint, but have not had any response and I would appreciate some advice if possible before contacting them again. If anyone has any advice I will be extremely grateful Thanks, Cay

Hi all, Can someone please help. Around a month ago I completed a purchase for a £195,000 shared ownership property for which I purcahse 40% shares in at £78,000. Over a month after completing I have recieved an email from my solictiors claiming that HM Revnue and Customs have notified them that "Stamp Duty of £222 falls due on the rent aspect of the new lease. Unfortunately this was not taken into account on your completion statement and is therefore due and owing to them." A few queries on this. Do I have to pay stamp duty being that my share falls below the threshold? Is stamp duty applicable to the rent aspect of the agreement? As far as I was concerned this was all done and dusted now I get this lovely email right before Christmas. Any help greatly appreciated.

Dear All I am disabled. I have not voted Labour for a long time or member due to their dreadful record. I saw a chance of change with Jeremy Corbyn. I helped support his nomination. I joined as supporter to vote for him. I was purged unjustly. Told I had to pay again to become full member and pay £10 for date they held on me. I did. Only objection was I asked Labour Ed Miliband in 2010 post election loss "Shouldn't Labour Sort Itself Out First, Before trying to Convince Anyone Else?" meaning its ethic and integrity from top to bottom, in national and local Labour Party. I was told I had no right to speak and another disabled who asked about equalitieds and discrimination at work. I was disappointed and wrote a letter to all newspaper, it was published in Telegraph Oct 2015. It was a very mild diplomatic letter given the circumstances, stealing of pensions and open assault on vulnerable and disabled and corruption. This was the only reason. Labour say I can do nothing about it, after all that. no one can do anything about being rejected, denied vote and subs being taken as donation while rejecting you. However, when many people got purged Matt Beresford and George Monbiot journalists set up a feedback survey of all those purged and reasons, It asked for contact details, facebook page, twitter account and email as well as reasons. It was well published and well shared round, many responded, maybe many thousands Later the survey was transfered to Jeremy Corbyn's team. Since Corbyn has been voted in there has been no release or publishing of these results and surveys. there is silence. I have written to Matt Beresford and Labour and Corbyn seems they can set up a survey, take information, not say how they are using it, not publish the results and tell people they can do nothing. I feel really will mislead and ripped off. I have read Data Protection Act in so many ways the survey has breached in and the management of respondents, their data and the use and failure to publish this data. Many thousands and maybe 100,000s were removed under false pretenses, had the right to vote taken away, had money taken then used as donation after person ejected. double subs asked and demanded £10 to access data held on them. Labour trolled personal online accounts and emails and private and personal information relationships and conversations. What can I do. I and all are just ignored and dismissed now. and can I get any legal aid? It is so wrong, both Labour and their purge and the survey and misuse of it. JBK

Just after a bit of feedback please. I work nights 4 nights on 4 nights off, the company requires me to attend a 3 day First Aid course, I have no problem with this but these would be on my rest days which are sacred to me due to family ill health at the moment. I work 12 hour shifts on nights but the course is daytime as already stated, I would be attending the course on 3 days that I would be on nights, however, I would start my 4 nights the day previously, the assistant manager has suggested that I come off nights and work 4 12 hour days in order to do the course, I haven't worked days EVER here and have been here for almost 11 years. What I am prepared to do is be removed from nights but not work 4 day shifts which would mean starting at 07:30, leave for the course starting at 9am then returning daily after the course finishes working on till 19:30, would I be right in thinking that I wouldn't have to start the day shift or complete it as the training would be a duty commitment? Sorry its a bit long winded but any advice would be appreciated.

Hello, Earlier this month, I was arrested in Central London for drink driving. I had attended my cousin's wedding reception near the Old Bailey and as is typical of the limited parking options in the city, after a tedious and lengthy search for parking places, I eventually managed to park my car a considerable distance away from the venue and walked to the event. Later that night when there were parking spaces available at the venue, I went to get my car so I could park it there. As it happened, and not being that familiar with that part of town, I ended up taking a wrong turn and in no time at all got lost and was struggling to find my way back. Unfortunately, I got stopped by the police, was breathalysed at the scene and ended up spending the night in a police cell, having been charged for drink driving. My reading by the way was 75mg. I had never been in any trouble with the law until this incident. I now have a court hearing in just over a week's time and I'm desperate for advice on whether it is worth seeking a private solicitor or simply use the services of the duty solicitor on the day. Secondly, if the general recommendation is for me to employ the services of a private solicitor, could anyone recommend some solicitors who aren't too expensive to use? Finally, what sort of punishment can I expect to receive for my offence if found guilty? Thank you.

Hi, I'm having some neighbour issues at the moment - loud music, aggressive and threatening behaviour. We're at the 'complain to landlord and council' stage. My issue is this: It turns out that the previous tenant here was probably moved out due to the issues with this neighbour (possibly a management transfer), and we believe that there was also police involvement. The neighbour gloats that he 'saw them off (the previous tenants) and gave them what for'. The tenants had complained about the noise and the neighbour breached a court order just before we moved in and had his music system seized (actually he threw the music system out of the window when they came to enforce the order). BUT when we viewed the property, both the tenant and housing officer lied and said there were no noise issues. We feel really angry about this and I've put in a complaint to the housing association about this issue - placing us - vulnerable disabled people next door to someone with known anti-social and aggressive behaviour, and lying when we asked about there being issues. What duty of care does the HA have in this situation to new vulnerable tenants, when placing them? I know that when buying a house, any neighbour issues have to be disclosed - but where do social landlords stand with this? Any advice anyone could offer would be great - as you can probably understand, we're pretty stressed about this at the moment.

I am self employed and my earnings vary a lot often for a short period oftime. My housing benefit claim was already close once because my earnings weretoo high. However the problem is that my earnings vary a lot often for asmall period of time and it is inconvenient for me to make a new claim forhousing benefit each time my earnings vary. I would like to know how to explainmy situation to the housing benefit department to avoid that my claim is closedeach time my earnings vary temporarily I would like to know if there is a specific law for self employer or if I have to file a specific form

Wonder if anyone can advise on this. Our water is charged via a water meter. Today a bill dropped on my floor up to Sept 14. It says I have used 132 M3 of water in 3 months. Now according to the Water Counsil the average consumption for 4 people in a house is 164m3, we are near that in 3 months. I contacted the company and they looked on their system and said yes, the meters telling me you have had a continuous feed of water in May, June, July, Aug and Sept. Im looking now and October is the same. You have a leak. My question is this. SURELY they have a duty of care to their customers. Their system is telling them I have a leak but they have made no contact to tell me. I do not know what the leak is and have plumbers coming tomorrow (Relatives so no excessive fees.) I do feel that if I wasnt on a meter then the Company would have contacted me as the water would have been uncharged for. Thoughts?

Doing this for my son't partner. She is a new mother, birth was in November. She was working full time prior to the maternity leave. She knows she will be unable to do a full working week after maternity leave but can manage a 3 day week with babysitting undertaken by myself of other person. She wrote to her employer and asked about them allowing her to drop to a 3 day week and after around 22 days they responded and said no. They made no other alternative arrangement or suggested anything that would be suitable to her. All they said that they could maybe do something if she (she mind you) found someone to job share with her. Now, other staff in the same situation have received favourable treatment and been allowed to come back on a part time basis. One has been allowed to drop a grade and do this and others have been allowed back in their previous position, which happens to be the one my son's partner enjoyed, ie supervisor. I need to be able to build up a case for her as best as I can. I don't really want to sink her boat by being aggressive but want to gently persuade them to keep her on in the capacity she wants. If she starts to wave the law in front of them they may well get their back up, allow her back and then go for her dismissal asap on trumped up charges. So, what I need to do is to first understand what her legal rights are anyway, then try and build a bridge from that knowledge. The law seems to favour pregnant women and has rights on maternity leave etc but as being a mother isn't a disability I don't know if the Equalities Act applies in this scenario. I believe that time scales apply too on maternity leave, time to respond to letters etc. I also believe that the time to respond to her initial written request was way outside of the period allowed but don't know how useful that would be anyway. Input will be very welcome.

Hello, Filling SDLT1 on time and pay stamp duty later - after 6 months (we are aware about interest of course) Can we do this?? (no cash buyers only Mortgage) Is the land going to be register for my name straight away after receiving on-line registration or paper SDLT1 Form OR just only after payment?? When "technically" land is going to be register for my name?? Can someone advice please Many thank in advance

I am at my wits end now, as my son who has ASD/ADHD + Conduct Disorder (age 16); is so much in need of therapeutic intervention (Social Skills, Behaviour Therapy etc) - which is not being provided to him. I had been desperate for him to receive help, I had to make the decision to have him accommodated by SS; as they would not provide any help for us/him at home. Despite my numerous requests/pleas made to them; as I feared his safety on the street and in Social Situations (still do!). He was assessed by the Maudsley Hospital in November 2012 and they made recommendations; yet Social Services still not implemented any of them. One recommendation had been for Residential School via Priory or Cambrian Group. Waited approx. 7 months for LA to identify and refer him, it had taken so long and my son was accommodated in the area of Enfield - this has proved disastrous as he was befriending young people in the Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton areas, going out all hours and getting involved in crime. He had been set upon by 3 polish guys in Tottenham one night and told to scarper by one of them, claiming that his mate had a gun. I was mortified by this and needed to get him away from that area asap! I then agreed (against my better judgement) to agree to him going to the only Residential School Placement the LA had identified in all that time, which was The Priory Pines, in Co Durham (300 miles from home). It had been a fairly drawn out assessment etc and he was offered a place there, I travelled there with him and his Social Worker and Care Worker on 7/6/2013 - much to my amazement the placement at this 'highly specialist educational provision' had failed within the first week! He had been totally misunderstood and he had been upset, angry and frustrated - had been disrupting the other young people already placed there and led one of them astray, by acquiring (Christ knows how?) alcohol and sharing with another yp. Final blow, was in my son and other boy arguing with staff and my son, apparently had hold of a 'chopstick' which he had been 'waving around in a threatening manner' at staff, making them feel unsafe? They then called the police and my son was arreasted and taken into custody, the school refused to have him back and after 2 nights in police custody he was driven another 30 miles north, to magistrates court in Peterlee. At this stage, Social Services were to find him alternative placement/accommodation. He was left in the Court Cells all day - awaiting his fete in Court, having been charged with Common Assault (this can be for threatening behavior apparently!). Anyway, by 4pm Social Services contacted me to say they were unable to find him a placement, and as a result he would be likely to be remanded in custody until such a time they are able to identify a placement for him. On hearing this, I could not allow that to happen - it was inhumane! I said I would provide a bail address and he was driven home, arriving about midnight. Its awful, I feel a whole year wasted - no closer to getting him any help and also I feel even more disempowered than I had a year ago! I now need to go into battle with the Local Authority/Social Services, my only objective being for my son to receive the help and support he needs. I need to establish my best way of somehow 'demanding' the support and help my son is entitled to. But not sure how I can go about it, I want prompt decisive action and decisions iin order for me to implement relevant support and intervention, but getting them to foot the bill? I feel now it unlikely that the LA will ever find a Residential School for my son, last time took long enough and they had assured me that this school could meet his needs; yet as far as I am concerned they failed him at the first hurdle, I have known mainstream school's with better expertise and handling of negative situations. I am at a loss as to where exactly their 'specialism' actually existing in the first place. I am further appalled to discover - nothing I can do about it; as Independent Schools not governed by same legislation as mainstream etc. Its disgusting, my son just has a string of failures, each one impacting more and more on his self esteem. He is not functioning at all as one might expect of a 16 year old, has a few 'mates' with similar deficits and generally going nowhere - who he hangs out with. He has no interests in anything anymore and I cannot remember the last time he showed any excitement or enthusiasm about anything at all!! I know a lot of that can change, with the right help and support //interventions - but funding is the barrier for me! Any advice would be so greatfully received, I am at a loss where to turn, I feel I have done all I can and yet failed to secure him any help at all. Thanks Nadia Phillips:mad2:

Hello! I work as a support worker for a well known charity for adults with learning disabilities. I work in a supported living house for 4 adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities. I have been working there for around 18 months. I have been having problems with relationships with colleagues since around January. There has been a lot of gossip/bitching/nastiness about me - I guess its bullying and harassment as I have been asked a lot of questions by staff members who use that information to continue to be nasty about me! Its predominately two members of staff. I believe these two manipulated another member of staff to go to my manager and make a complaint about me. I had a supervision and not much came of it because there were no real reasons as to why there had been a complaint about me. I expressed in my supervision that I currently did not feel part of the team, and my manager discussed the possibility of a transfer to another service and I went to look around the other service. In the meantime the nastiness was still going on, but I just dealt with it and ignored it. In the meantime my manager left and a new manager came into the service. I was told I wasn't allowed to split my contract or transfer to the other service (seemingly because they did not want to loose me from that service) so I worked on a relief basis at the new service, but working fulltime meant I did not do many shifts there. I expressed to my manager, again, in a meeting that I was really unhappy and said verbally that I wanted to transfer, and again, he pretty much said no. An allegation was then made about me and another staff member which was investigated, and not continued. Many of the staff in the house do not follow policies and procedures often not reporting things, covering peoples backs. I reported a mistake, which was investigated and also not taken any further because there was not enough evidence. It unfortunately happened to be one of the two people that have been causing problems. I was signed off sick with stress for 3 weeks as the nastiness had all got too much and I was put on anti-depressants. I was finally offered a transfer full time due to the fact I raised how unhappy I was in the formal investigation meeting with the independent investigator (which is all logged) and that was due to happen next week. On my last day an allegation was made about me and I am now suspended. I know what the allegation is and it is complete rubbish, but obviously don't know who made the allegation. It's actually quite contradictive and considering some of the behaviours I see from some of the staff its completely hypocritical. So here I am. I believe the company haven't considering my well being and duty of care and if it had been dealt with sooner then I wouldn't be in this mess now, surely? None of the nastiness has been dealt with and now I have been suspended where it has just got so nasty. I am now on anti depressents because of the stress they have caused previously, and I have told them how unhappy I am so many times and they just haven't listened. Where do I stand? It just feels like a complete mess

Does the bank owe a compulsive gambler, (following disclosure of a gambling addiction) a duty of care to restrict transactions and prevent the overdraft from being used to gamble with. If the bank has a policy to restrict borrowing and this is not followed could this give a right of action to the account holder in a civil court to reclaim all losses or is the cause too remote?

I have just received a first stage warning under my company's sickness/absence policy. I have been absent on three occassions, that is correct. But one of those occassions was when I had to enter hospital for an operation to remove my thyroid gland which had a suspected cancerous growth, biopsy's proved inconclusive. Surely using this period of absence to facilitate this warning means the company are not showing me the duty of care that they are legally obliged to do. What did they expect me to do...wait until February to have this potentially life threatening operation. I am obviously going to appeal this disciplinary measure. Is duty of care the best direction to go. Thanks in advance of any replies.

Hi This is my first post and was hoping someone could respond with some information to help me decide on my plan of action. I recieved a £30 fixed penalty notice in relation to not displaying a current excise licence (section 33 (1) of the vehicle excise and registraion act 1994) The penalty notice was issued by a police officer on 06-11-12 at 10.30pm in the car park outside my flat. The car park is owned by the housing association, not the local council of which I have a share (being an owner occupier). The vehicle did have a current excise licence issued on 07-10-12 and had this in the vehicle. Although it had slipped out of its holder and was lying between the windscreen and the dashboard. I had not noticed this, as the vehicle had not been moved for over a week. The vehicle is a registered disabled car used mainly to transport my disabled daughter about and was parked in her disabled parking bay and showing a current blue badge. I must say that I was disappointed to find a ticket on my windscreen when I was putting my child on to her school bus in the morning of 07-11-12 and that the issuing officer did not check that a current excise licence was actulally issued and investigate matter a bit further. I was thinking of appealing but need to go to court to do this. I am anxious that if I go to court I will end up with a much bigger fine for challenging it. I was hoping to get information to allow me to assess what my options are.

Hi all, Just signed up and will hopefully be learning from and sharing knowledge with a lot of you. I am mainly interested in finance and banking (with an interest, but no qualifications, in financial law, mainly picked up from forums whilst dealing with my financial nightmare) Over the last 6 years I've had some really strange experiences, mainly with my bank and other finance companies I owed money to. Experienced some problems with high interest debt and identity fraud but have now nearly come out the other side (once I've paid off my last £1800 of credit card debt) Looking forward to speaking to you all!