my grnaddaughter was to do work experiace at a doctors surgery but her placement there was refused by her school becuse she is white and they had decided that all such placements would only be available to black pupils. Now the law states that you cant discriminate against any ethnic group but then there is a get out that syas if a particular characteristic or group is under represented you can discriminate. As she wants to be a doctor and has the brains to pass her exams this placement would have been ideal and necessary to get into med school (try applying without such experience and soo how far you get). Also white poeple are under represented in the NHS as doctors so what basis could the school or surgery claim under representation of black potential students? When she told the school she thought their approach was unfair and discrimintory they phoned my daughter and accused her (granddaughter) of being rascist for challenging their decision. How would you progress a complaint is what advce I seek.

Hello. Today I was instantly dismissed. I was handed a letter which stated my contract would terminate immediately but that i would be paid in lieu of notice. The letter (or piece of paper) said there was a variety of reasons. There is no history of disciplinary or any other action which would have given rise to this. I have been there for 3 years. I am on a permanent not a fixed term contract. I was treated a bit like a criminal and escorted off the premises. This was humiliating as there is no rhyme or reason for it. Is this lawful?

My question, I understand this is not a credit agreement however If my Local Authority (LA) has broken the law in an attempt to recover an over payment how can it then use the courts? When it comes to finance:- (1) Failure to comply with the law means that the agreement becomes unenforceable while the failure to comply persists, and the courts have no discretion to allow enforcement. (2) In such cases, a firm should in no way, either by act or omission, mislead a customer as to the enforceability of the agreement. (3) In particular, a firm should not in such cases either threaten court action or other enforcement of the debt or imply that the debt is enforceable when it is not. Backstory:- In 2012 received a letter inviting me to a interview under caution. I attended and then never heard anything for 2 years then I received a letter advising they are not going to pursue criminal charges but are going to recover the debt just under 15k. Here is my catalogue of errors:- 26/11/2015 A subject access request was issued to LA under the data protection act 1998. The request was made for any and all evidence that LA holds that suggests or confirms that I was overpaid any type of benefits. (STILL NOT RECEIVED A RESPONSE) 27/11/2015 - 1 A dispute was raised under The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006. The legislation specifically states that just because an overpayment is recoverable, does not mean that it must be recovered. The law goes on to confirm that a recoverable overpayment may be recovered at the local authority's discretion which must be documented. A subject access request was issued to LA under the data protection act 1998. The request was made for the document that confirms that a meeting did take place and that LA decision to recover the debit is both within the guidelines and lawful. 27/11/2015 - 2 A dispute was raised under Regulations 17 to 30 and Schedules 1 and 2 of The Social Security (Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 2013. This was raised due to LA issuing an attachment of earning order (DAE – Dated 24/11/2015) to my employee seeing a deduction rate of 20%. The legislation confirms that the deduction rate will be 11% only. 27/11/2015 - 3 A dispute was raised under The Social Security (Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 2013. The legislation clearly confirms that I and my partner should of received a “letter before action” before any DEA was processed. It also clearly confirmed that “A DEA cannot be requested against a partner’s earnings”. On 24/11/2015 I received a copy of a letter which was address to partners employer ordering them to deduct money from my partners salary. Again the rate the requested was 20% which is unlawful as pointed out above. Furthermore to this it is illegal to issue a DEA to my “partners” employer as documented in the legislation. 30/11/2015 I received an email from LA confirming they have broken the law by trying to recover the debt unlawfully. 17/12/2015 I raised a dispute surrounding the service in which I had received through the process of LA trying to recover the money. I explained clearly to LA that I had plans to declare myself bankrupt. In response LA stated that if I did declares me bankrupt that LA could still lawfully recover the debt. After review of the Housing Benefit Overpayments Guide for Local Authorities it’s clear that the debt will be written off as per the normal bankruptcy process. To add to this I would also like to bring your attention to the following documentation which is taken directly from the DWP guide:- 32. DWP had previously held the view that a benefit overpayment (including HB or Council Tax Benefit (CTB)) does not become a fixed liability until such time as the decision maker has made a determination that the overpayment, or part of it, is recoverable under social security legislation. 33. This was confirmed in 2005 in the case of ® Steele v Birmingham City Council and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. You can refer to previous bulletins HB/CTB U1/2011, HB/CTB U6/2011, and HB/CTB U1/2012 34. When a debtor is discharged from bankruptcy then any non-fraud debts, where the end date of the overpayment is before the date of the bankruptcy order, must be written off. This must take effect immediately. 35. Legal advice is that DWP should do everything possible to identify cases impacted by this judgement. Source:-http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/G10_2013.doc Once again this documentation confirms that the debt will be written off as per the normal bankruptcy process. I believe this evidence confirms that LA deliberately miss lead I to increase LA possibility of recovering the overpayment of benefits which again is acting unlawfully and unfairly. 11/04/2016 - 1 To date I have not received a response to my subject access request dated 26/11/2015. This is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. As a result I have to assume that they have no evidence that suggests or confirmed that I & my partner where living together. 11/04/2016 - 2 To date I have not received a response to my subject access request dated 27/11/2016. This is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. As a result I have to assume that the meeting never took place and as a result I would also like to challenge that the policy of LA would is not in the interest of claimants; and would prevent the use of discretion. As per the legislation each case should be considered on its own merits having regard to the claimant's circumstances. 11/04/2016 - 3 To date I have not received a direct response to my complaint surrounding the service to which I have received from LA. 29/09/2016 A subject access request was issued to LA (Halton Borough Council) under the data protection act 1998. The request was made for a copy of the liability order. LA have responded to my request but have only provided me with a bill not the information requested. 07/10/2016 As per the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971 a maximum of TWO orders can be deducted at any one time and I have to be issued with a copy of each order. I have not received a copy of any order and as of 7/10 they are now taking THREE at once. Another point I would like to raise is under section 4.241 of the Social Security (Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 2013 “4.241 When an appeal is brought before recovery has begun, or during recovery, it is good practice to suspend action until the appeal has been decided“. LA have ignore this legislation and continued to attempt to recover the overpayment when there are several disputes still outstanding. Again this is unlawful. More Case Law support my claim:- 2. R (on the application of Newham London Borough Council) v Stratford Magistrates' Court &Selwyn Dublin (Interested Party)[2008] EWHC 125 (Admin), [2008] RA 108, [2008] All ER (D) 17 (Jan) [2008]. The court must be satisfied that one of the following conditions are met: • the order was made as a result of asubstantial procedural error, defect or mishap, and / or • that there was a genuine dispute as to that liability. substantial procedural error – I had not received an initial summons in relation to the claim in order to defend myself. The relevant legislation is outlined under Section 14 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980. there was a genuine dispute as to that liability – I have explained my dispute above. More supporting Case Law:- 3. R (Brighton and Hove City Council) v Brighton and Hove Justices [2004] EWHC 1980 (Admin) (“Brighton & Hove”). HHJ Burnton held that a court should not set aside a liability order unless it is satisfied that there is a genuine and arguable dispute as to the defendant’s liability for the rates in question, AND a. the order was made as a result of asubstantial procedural error, defect or mishap. AND b. the application to the justices for the order to be set aside is made promptly after the defendant learns that it has been made or has notice that an order may have been made. Prompt action should be taken within a matter of days or at most a very few weeks. genuine and arguable dispute – It’s clear that my argument is genuine. substantial procedural error, defect or mishap – I have proven above that the claimant is operating outside of the law on this matter to recover this debt. the application to the justices for the order to be set aside is made promptly after the defendant learns that it has been made – It has been less than 3 weeks since I was made aware of the liability orders. LA alsol processed a county court claim against myself for an over payment of housing benefits the case number is CXXXXXX I was successful in defending this claim and the claim was struck out on the 12th July 2016. I have now received a letter from my LA stating that they have entered my case into the High Court for Enforcement Proceedings. Where can I go from here any help would be appreciated.

Hey there I was wondering about this for some time. If a debt is sold on to another company does that debt have to be paid? I am presently trying to claim back PPI from a loan I took out some years ago. The short story is that I bought a house and then purchased british gas boiler insurance on their initial visit they conned me into getting a new boiler installed. We could not afford to buy one they offered a loan but I was refused because I was medically retired due to an injury and my only income was a pension and benefits. The BG guy then tried another company in my wife's name and even though she had no income as she was caring for me she got the all clear and her income was what I got lol. Didn't make sense but hey we got the loan The trouble was that we had to agree to pay PPI otherwise we would not get the loan so we were misold the PPI. After a short time we got ourselves into a lot of debt and could not pay this loan. We were eventually taken to County Court and a CCJ was issued against my wife (loan was only in her name). We could not keep up payments so along with bailiffs etc it ended up as a Charging order against our property. A few years later we moved home and the debt was paid in full. That is the background story lol. My wife made a complaint to British Gas about the PPI but we had no information as we didn't have a clue and stress was through the roof etc etc. We didn't keep records and kept burying our heads in the sand. The guy from BG who was investigating the claim wrote back to us saying that he contacted the loan company but they had no records so he could not proceed any further with the complaint ... . Right cop out!! I have since got a lot more information and have sent it to him so he should be able to do some digging. My question isn't about the PPI thing as that is ongoing and we were clearly misold it My question is that the debt was sold on to another company and we ended up paying them the full wack which was over £5,000. Was it lawful for a company that purchased a debt to make a charging order and make us pay the full amount?? Is there any way I can claim back the money I paid to the collection agency that bought the debt now that it has been paid in full. The company was Aktiv Kapital. I see that people are getting off paying debt to these companies so was wondering what the score is?? Thanx for any help in advance

Hi, My secured loan from Black Horse is now with Idem Securities. They are being very fair with their acceptance of our situation but insist on regular reviews. It was a secured loan. They are 3rd charge. I am wondering what legal rights they have 'inherited' IF ANY? However, when we tried many years ago to take out a secured loan they wouldn't touch us as the mortgage we have has a draw down facility on it. Also every now and again we get a month or two arrears on mortgage. The secured loan people never chased us. I was expecting them to try and seek repossession but it didn't happen. I din't ever think why but am now wondering how legal the secured loan from BlackHorse was to be secured as 3rd rank! Any advice welcome. From picking up on an earlier thread. We had several TSB loans repeatedly consolidated and then we were coerced into turning them into a secured loan; a 3rd charge on our property. (We have a mortgage with separate drawdown facility.) The loan is heavily in arrears. Idem took over and I did not query the original agreement or their ability to do this or indeed any miss selling issues. How can I check the validity of this transfer or the original lending criteria as I no longer have the original agreement? With this loan being secured, I have always worked with collection activities but our means are very limited and we cannot get anywhere near the contractual payments. The pressure of having to review the agreement so frequently is hard as our income is mainly disability benefits and very poor, fluctuating self employed income. It would be a massive relief if I could find out how legitimate the lending was as we had no choice but to accept a secured loan as TSB, back then, were threatening further recovery action if we didn't. Today such bullying would not have happened and a repayment plan put in place. Hope someone can advise me. Thank you

Hi, I know next to nothing about Employment Law so hope you may be able to help. A friend of ours, employed by a company set up by Staffordshire County Council and Capita (Entrust Ltd), received a letter yesterday (dated Feb 13th) asking her to attend a meeting today to discuss whether or not she should receive a warning regarding her absences over the past 12 months. Now, my friend has had three absences over the entire 12 months, all accompanied by a doctor's note - 2 lots of sickness and diarrhoea (1 x 5 day and 1 x 3 day absence) and a one day absence for sunstroke. Today she attended the meeting. I advised her last night that if she was going to attend she should do so with her supervisor (she's not in a union) and should record everything 'for the avoidance of doubt'. I don't know whether this happened. What I do know is that she received a formal warning from the company, and was told she would be receiving a letter 'that she wouldn't like'. I question the lawfulness and legality of a company being able to issue a formal warning for 9 days of absence in a 12 month period. If it is lawful, where is this stated? Equally, if it is not lawful, where is this stated so she can appeal the warning? Any comments would be very gratefully received. Thank you.

Starting off another thread to get educated responses. We all know about claiming back excess bank charges etc. What i wish to concentrate on are excessive charges within any financial agreement. The Office of Fair Trading decided that charges levied on an account holder for a failed direct debit as an example will no longer be challenged by the OFT if below £12.00. It would be for a court to decide Under laws of contract, a company cannot charge any fees in excess of what it would normally amount to. A computer generated bill for £25.00 for saying a direct debit has bounced will be unacceptable and can be challenged, What i am interested in is if the Terms and Conditions of a finance agreement say a returned direct debit charge will be £25.00. If it is in the contract, will it be lawful under contract law, or still a penalty to reclaim ?? Will the The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 be the way to mount a challenge

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/hyndburn/10110170.Firm_refuses_to_refund_tickets_to_Hyndburn_residents/

We were sitting in a friend's side garden today having a drink waiting to go out. Another of us arrived and as he was getting out the car, a guy in a bad suit came up and asked "Does John Smith live there?" - pointing to a house across the road. Friend explained he was not from the area and suggested he asked the friend I was sitting with - and we could hear everything that had been said. The guy then came up to me and said "I have a parcel for across the road, do you know who lives there?" I suggested if he had a parcel it would have a name on it, to which he said "It's documents not a parcel", and I asked why he had forgotten the name "John Smith" he had asked about at the gate, and asked if he was a Sheriff's Officer - to which he replied "yes". I was fairly sure SOs were not permitted to ask third parties about those they were looking for and asked him. To which he replied he was required rather than permitted, and it was necessary as he had to be sure the person lived at the address before his document was served through the letter box. Is this true?