Wheres my Murdock sky takeover thread gone? Murdock controls this site does he? Explains the policies and practices here.

In the dim and distant past when I first left school and started earning my own living, I also started contributing to an insurance plan which promised me a wide range of benefits in return for a proportion of my salary. According to the rules then, once I had been in the plan for at least two years I would receive at least enough money to live on, for as long as I needed it, should I become unemployed or unable to work due to illness or disability and, once I had contributed for 20 years, I would receive a pension when I reached the age of 60. I dutifully contributed to this plan for 24 years without making a single claim, but then a sequence of events left me permanently unfit for work and so I claimed. At first there was no problem - I was so clearly severely ill and disabled that there was no question of not paying the promised benefits until such time as I was entitled to be paid my pension instead. At some point during those 23 years the age at which I would be entitled to my pension had increased to 65, but that didn’t really matter as I still had my ill health benefits to rely on. Unfortunately the company paying my benefits came under new management and decided to change the rules so that I now had to meet very stringent criteria to continue receiving any benefit, and unless I met the most stringent of these, I would only be paid for one year. Also, they increased the pension age by another 3 years, meaning that if I didn’t qualify for the ill health benefits, I would have no income for 17 years. I am one of the lucky ones who did continue to receive benefits beyond that single year, but there’s no certainty in it because not only can this company apparently change the rules whenever they like, I have to rely on those rules being fairly applied not just once, but every time the whim takes them to reassess my claim, regardless of any and all medical evidence suggesting that not only will I not get better, but that my condition will only deteriorate. I am now at the stage where I need more and more care, but we can’t afford for my husband to take early retirement to look after me as we can’t reliably predict if our income will permit it should the rules be changed again. Even if he doesn’t retire early, he’s in a profession in which he cannot continue beyond age 60 but his pension, from the same company, won’t be paid for 8 years after that despite him having already contributed for 42 years, making it even more vital that my ill health benefits continue to be paid. Had we not contributed to this insurance plan, indeed had we not worked at all and relied on handouts, we’d be no worse off so a combined 66 years of contributions has earned us precisely nothing and there is unfortunately nothing we can do about it. The company is of course the government and so they can apparently do whatever they like, whenever they like. Can you imagine the furore if a private company had continually moved the goalposts like this?

I have monitored this CAG forum for many years and since the introduction of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations almost exactly one year ago it is clear that the level of forum posts has dropped dramatically. I would also suggest that the seriousness of the forum posts has reduced even further with many just asking what to do after receiving the NOE or questioning other forum guidance. All in all a positive thing for the enforcement industry as whole wouldn't you agree?

Ok this is one that affects me directly so guidance is needed. I work for a large retailer and as part of my job they can change my shifts / hours to "suit the needs of the company". Because of this my shifts have been changed on 3 occasions causing major upheaval and stress within the family as we try to juggle time. I originally started on days then was moved to nights then twilight then back to nights all to suit the needs of the company. However now they have decided that they are changing the way replenishment is done ( Not my roll ) however this means the closure of the night shift which I am on ( Not through choice ). I have been reliably informed that the roll I am doing is not being made redundant but is being moved to an earlier twilight shift which I am happy to move to. But now I am being told that as the roll is moving to twilight I will have to re apply for my own job ( To make it fair to others? ) what about fairness to me? A job I have done for 8 years I think they are doing this in order to force redundancies of over staff and possibly as a way to change my contract to remove my Sunday premium which makes up my wage. My argument against having to re apply is that the company have used the " needs of the business" speal to change my shifts on 3 previous occasions and I was never required to re apply but now they want to change the goal posts to push though their agenda which could ultimatum lead to my redundancy cos as a union rep I am sure I would be in the firing line as the new CEO Is anti union. I am getting ready to address the current situation through the consultation process but would like some guidance on recourse, questions to support my current concerns and ultimately highlight any areas to take further should the worse scenario play out. At 50 I know if I end up out of work I will probably never work again. I have worked almost continually since leaving school.and cant see myself unemployed. Advice please. Cheers Bill

I do find that that the bailiff advice part of the site has been taken over a little by 'industry reps' who often support wrongful actions by EA's or HCEO's, without any helpful advice for Joe Public about what they can do. The replies often supports the actions of their colleagues in the industry. I think this is something that the CAG site team should keep an eye on. People come to CAG for fair balanced advice, which should hopefully enable them to resolve their problem. If CAG allows the site to be taken over by anonymous industry reps, it could damage the reputation of the site and people may be more tempted to use 'interesting' advice offered elsewhere online. I know others offer advice which is more independent, but thought this needed to be said.

Hi, I thought I'd see what I can do about settling a joint ge money loan taken out approx 7 years ago. Unfortunately I've been reading posts on here and now think I'm in for a rough ride : I spoke with them last week and have a settlement figure of 4.5k although the original debt was only about 6k. I was actually hoping to be able to offer a reduced full and final settlement but from posts on here it seems highly unlikely. The loan was taken out jointly by my ex and myself. We split and had a couple of joint debts so we agreed to take one each, I'm stuck with this one. I have absolutely no idea what I can do or need to do to get this from around my neck. I haven't missed any payments, although they are usually a week or so late ( now a single parent) The account isn't in arrears ATM as I'm usually borrowing from my parents to make payments, a friend of mine has offered to help me clear it as it's going to take me about 30 years to settle otherwise. Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated x Thank you sooo much for reading Pjs girl x

It isn't working for me on Firefox anyway. Fine on Chrome. Any ideas?

new to CAG able to post new threads but unable to reply to posts received to the thread only option is "quick reply" and on click available is "new thread" which wipes out my post reply-whats going on???

Please can the new posts search button contain posts I have read? Currently, if I reply to a thread it does not appear in the search result unless someone else has subsequently posted a reply. Preferably, new posts should be all posts since I last logged in. Including replies. If this is not possible, please change the name of "new posts" to "unread posts".

Apologies in advance if I am being a tad thick but can somebody please advise me how to remove a post made by myself ? Cheers.

Newbie here with lots of questions for my problems and also with questions on behalf of my mother. Looking forward to hopefully getting some advice, information, guidance and support from the forum members as I'm new to all this reclaiming stuff and also I don't know if I'm too late for some of it. Going to start searching to see where to post 1st question. Is there a forum guide that I can save or download?

I used to know how to do it but have forgotten over time as I haven't had cause to use it. I have tried looking for it on site including Bookworm's excellent post http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?107001-quot-How-do-I...-quot-A-Dummies-Guide-to-this-Forum I know it requires the use of "color" within parentheses at the beginning and end of the statement, but I cannot remember what the magic words are. Or perhaps some one could kindly tell me where to find it on the site. Many thanks.

Hi, My wife has a disciplinary hearing at work because she stupidly made comments about work on facebook and somebody screenshot these and give them to her boss. She basically said her work was a sh**hole and that she couldn't wait to get a new job so she could leave. She has now been suspended awaiting a disciplinary hearing which is this Wednesday with her manager and HR. My question is - what is the most likely outcome from this? She has no warnings at work but people have said she might get fired .... is this likely? Thanks Krav