I was, until the Tax year ending March 2015, part time self employed. I sent my paperwork to DS£ Accounting Ltd (DS£ Acc) every year so they could compile my Tax Return for me. They did this very well and I was always able to claim a Tax Rebate from HMRC. Every year, many of their customers sent their paperwork in December or January. This made it difficult for DS£ Acc to process these accounts in time for the HMRC deadline of 31st Jan. Therefore, DS£ Acc introduced a surcharge of £50 if the paperwork was not received by them before 31st Oct. This encouraged their customers to submit their paperwork early to avoid the last minute rush. I was charged £50 in Jan 2014 for submitting my paperwork late. I have cleared the fees for their service except for the £50. Now they have asked for the surcharge of £50. I have refused to pay it. Now they have passed the case to P & J Debt Collection Services who have contacted me asking for the money. Can I use the same legal argument that many of us used to reclaim Bank charges? I feel that the sum of £50 is excessive as it would not cost DS£ ACC this amount to process my paperwork late. Any advice including links to the relevant legal clauses which I should use to defend myself should this case go to court as P & J DCS have threatened. As you can see from my footnote I have successfully reclaimed a large amount from Barclays which was settled out of court. I hope that I have used the correct Section for this query if not please advise which Section I should have posted in.

Could do with some URGENT advice please. I received a court claim from Lowell's in January, & completed acknowledgement of service as requested. At the time, I stated that I would defend in full. Deadline being tomorrow 28th Feb. Unfortunately, family bereavement & my own health (which tend to affect concentration & memory) have led to me lose track of time-scale, & unable to prepare any defence. This claim is for an amount outstanding from 2008 on an old catalogue. From the paperwork in my possession, I last made a payment in Sept 2008, with a balance of £333.49. It would appear that with admin charges, and "peace of mind plan" this had escallated to £545.95, by the time Lowell's took ownership in Jan 2013. The amount with court costs now total £718.83. As I'm unable to present any case, I feel my only option now is to come to some payment arrangement. Can anyone advise me on how to proceed with this. A) Do I contact or email the court & say I'm not submitting a defence? B) Do I make contact with the claimant & sort out a payment plan with them? I know that a CCJ will be entered against me, as there isn't any way of paying amount in full. Hope some kind person will advise. Grateful thanks, Leyla

I have recieved my claim form but I cannot remember which of the two listed failings my policy covered. I am considering using both the listed failings and explaining that in either case the policy was mis-sold. I am seeking guidance because the MSE site states that only one of the listed failings can be used in the claim form. Any thoughts on this welcomed. The other issue I have is the declaration. The declaration states: I confirm the information I have given in this form is true to the best of my knowledge and belief. I agree to release CPP, the Business Partners and the Business Partner Affiliates, each as defined in the scheme from any firther liability for any claims I may have against them for the types of mis-selling covered by this redress scheme as long as they comply with the payment terms under this redress scheme, as set out more fully in the scheme documents. I have no problem with the first sentence, it is the second paragraph that concerns me, as such I intend to cross out the bold section and replace it with 're-pay me all the monies I paid to them in full, plus interest at 8.0% p.a.' Any thoughts on this approach welcomed. Final questions; Can my claim be legally refused because a)I do not have a black ink pen to fill the form out with? b)I do not write in capital letters? Pedantic, I know, but still. If it's of any use, I think my plan was either Card Protection Plus or CPP Card Protection, as I remember being able to add all/any of my cards onto the policy. Thanks in advance.

Hi Guys I need to submit reps for a parking ticket I received. I was out for the day and while I was out one of my family members found my spare car keys and drove to the shops. When I returned in the evening I found my car parked as I'd left it in the driveway with a PCN attached to the window. I've uploaded the ticket and would appreciate your guidance on submitting my initial reps. Are there any errors in the PCN?

I'm in the process of making an application for (income based) ESA. I understand that there's an assessment phase for 3-months? I'm not looking for a definite answer, but roughly how long does it take for a new application to be processed, and if successful, the amount of time in receiving a payment?

Last date for submitting online ET1 form for tribunal claims is Friday 4pm. saw this on justice gov uk site. From Monday you have to pay to pay some £300 fees for submitting the form as well as some £950 for hearing. Right now it is all free. New form ET1 A revised ET1 claim form will be introduced on Monday 29 July 2013. From that date, the new claim form should be used to present a claim. Please note: The online submission service will no longer be able to accept claims from 4pm on Friday 26 July 2013. The new online submission service, with the new ET1 form, will be available from Monday 29 July. Further information. See http://www.justice.gov.uk/forms/hmcts/employment

Does anyone know if it is helpful or worth while to submit information leaflets with your ESA50 about the medical condition you have? Unfortunately what I have many people have but they are not too badly effected while I am seriously debilitated by it. In my experiance ATOS & the DWP seem to choose to see my illness as something managable and that lots of people have rather than be take into account that many people do have a chronic form of the illness. I am not sure if submitting say information printed out from the NHS website for example would be useful. The information does cover both milder and more serious forms of the condition so I am not sure how that would be. Also in my experiance they hardly even read the ESA50 so perhaps submitting anything else is pointless?

i need assistance with employment law, and personal injury claims. i would appreciate any advice that fellow CAG's can provided Work Related Breakdown i suffered a work related breakdown a year ago approx, however despite the problems at work i loved the actually job itself and always intended to return to work when i was well enough to do so, however i was pre empted financially and returned October last year and at that point formally started my grievance. like most people i had not idea of how a grievance procedure would work, so it was a massive learning curve. it is so unbelievably stressful and im still not fully well. all of the stresses remain as nothing had changed within the team on my return and my health has again deteriorated. Occ Health have recommended in writing that my place of work is toxic to my full recovery and i should leave. my p/trist is saying the same, as is my counsellor. they have all made clear that outside of that environment my health should improve enough for me to get another job doing the same type of work but with a different organisation! my question is this. is it possible for me to take civil action over and above tribunal action against my employer for the pysiatric injury they have caused me, in addition to which i had lost all my body hair. my head remains bald and i have to wear a wig, my eyebrow are going again, my arm and leg hair have gone, however my pubic hair did grow back a little. i am very grateful that my eyelashes have grown back - but for how long. i have been tested medically, the is no physical reason for the universal hair loss. constructive dismissal i am aware that the issue of constructive dismissal and discrimination can only be held in a Tribunal. but i would want to know how p/injury would work in a civil court, and could this take place more quickly than a Tribunal, and although not the right venue, will the issues of the discrimination, harrassment, bullying and victimisation come out at a civil hearing? i have an outstanding grievance appeal taking place by the end of March, it is likely to be negative, a little more detail first 'last straw' - manager held PPP (nearly 2 years since the previous one) tells me basically im c.... and that my colleagues have all complained about me, and gives examples of complaint. Fair enough. however all of this has come out of nowhere. manager provides no discussion or plan on how to resolve the situation between me and the rest of team, and goes off on 2 weeks holiday. naturally this has a devasting affect on my feeling toward the manager and the rest of the team, i have believed what he is saying. i make complaint to manager on his return and challenge all his accusation and complain that if the situation were true how is it he didnt try to help resolve the situation? i copy in HR. manager writes back taking no responsibility claiming i have misinterpreted and didnt say some of the things. my complaint was comprehensive and i gave back to him all the examples that he had used! a meeting was held. HR had lead me to believe that the meeting was a grievance as laid out in their policy, but it was a mediation meeting whereby the manager states again that i have mis interpreted and that in fact no one had complained about me - he failed to give any further information. he actually stated that i was made for the job. on hearing this however instead of making me feel better it devasted me further. i couldnt understand how he had done this to me in the first place. i had worked so hard and was so proud of the work. i went into freefall. from the time of the meeting with manager to what i thought was a grievance meeting was just over 2 months during which time there was a complete and utter breakdown between me and the rest of the team. i was signed off sick with work sky high blood pressure and related stress which i had desperately been trying to ward off. emloyer contact during sick leave during sick leave, the manager above my manager demanded to to see me, didnt advise that i could be accompanied and during the meeting told me basically that the best thing for me was to get my arse back on my chair and that in their experience involving the medical profession would mean that i would be off work longer! remember this talk at me is whilst i am unwell and vulnerable. end result even more freefall. during my sick leave there were a bombardment of letters from work, which stressed me out further than you can believe i felt hounded. i thought that it would be better to return to work even thougth my GP didnt think i was ready. i thought that it would be best to stop the hounding and make sure their were no more meetings with my managers manager. phased return meeting GP formally recommended this. unfortunately he did not specify a time. managers manager didnt want to follow GP's advice and tried to insist instead that if i felt tied i went home. luckily an HR officer was present and had to remind manager that it was normal in such circumstance and length of time away that a phased return take place. manager reluctantly agreed to 1 week! there was mention of a review, but no details of when the review would take place or who with. naturally 1 week was not enough. situation with team not resolved. i approach HR for help and am basically told to go away. i return to my GP who tries not to give the 'i told you so' and signs me off again. long term sick which brings me back to my return last year. Discrimination bullying and harrassment prior to the first last straw i had been suffering discrimination harrassment and bullying from another member of the team for a couple of year which i didnt handle very well. i absorbed it - but this just caused me to lose my body hair. i genuinely believe that this new member of staff would get used to me being there, also i had hoped that other members of the team would come to my defence when i was under attack from this 'colleague' - but no one did, some of them even joined in. this colleague was good at getting others to express their prejudices and the others knew better. i felt so isolated, ashamed and scared to say anything just in case they thought i was the one with the problem the one with the 'chip' so i said nothing. there was no one or manager that i had any trust or confidence in that i could take this matter to, so i suffered in silence, until the breakdown came. Employers investigate the complainant on making the complaint my employers carried out an investigation - a shock to me, a bigger shock was later learning that they had carried out an investigation on me too. thank God i was good at my job, good things were said about me. so they cant get me on that angle. grievance 1 outcome it transpired that others had complained also about my 'colleague' and my manager showed up themselves good and proper at the hearing. recommendations. words would be had with colleague and manager, but no grounds for discrimination - however.... appeal 'colleague' had actually admitted to what they thought would be a lesser complaint that they thought they could get away with, but this put employers in difficulty and they had to make a statement at the appeal confirming that at least one act of discrimination had taken place. it was agreed (and is on tape) that i was the brunt of this 'colleagues' abusive behaviour promotion of the main perp it was always the intention of my 'colleague' to get me out of the team and take over my Officer status and effect they way up from what they considered to be a lowly administrative position. they have now achieved this. even with the outcome of the grievance they still hold this position. what does this say? Victimisation (final 'last straw') managers manager has not taken too kindly to my complaint and raised awareness of what's going on in one of their departments and has targeted the 'trouble maker' me. a serious incident of victimisation has recently taken place. but i am covered by a 'protected act' and acted immediately. i put in a grievance about the harrassment and bullying by this particular manager. naturally management have stuck together. so i am just about to put in an appeal. Back to the start again this brings me round to where i started. based on the medical recommendation i think i will have to leave my job immediately i am notified of the appeal decision otherwise i will lose any rights i may have to claim constructive dismissal. i am not sure i want to claim this anyway as i would prefer the matter to go to civil court, where i can completely sue the a... off these people for what has happened to me over the past 18 months. my medical state the complete and utter indignity of having to constantly wear a wig and a cheap one at that as i dont have the money to buy a decent one. how further freakish i look without eyebrows. the constant eye infections because of no eyelashes, or where they were just coming loose and falling into my eye - the constant rubbing. im not so distressed about the rest of the body hair - no on sees any of it. im on medication up to my eyeballs. i have a diagnosed prolapsed disc and whilst of sick couldnt even put my knickers on or use the WC without putting a bucket on it first as i couldnt sit. thankfully my mobility is such that i can get around better, but i walk with a limp now, and still prefer to use the disable WC as they are a little higher. the constant pain in my back, shooting pains and numbness in my left leg is sometimes unbearable. also since being back at work apart from the deterioaration again of my mental state i have the additional indignity of repeated boils on my arse - what the hell is that about? i do hope that there is someone prepared and/or managed to read through this and provide advice or answer my query. Thanks

I have a lot of debt. I can't go bankrupt willingly as CCCS said I should, as I will lose my rent agreement on my house and I have 3 children, the eldest is disabled. I paid all my debts solidly, (borrowing from Peter to pay Paul) until a couple of months ago. I sold everything I had to pay for them as well. Now I've just stopped paying as I can't do it anymore. I have nothing left to sell. I have also recently been diagnosed with Bipolar-disorder and, yes I spent an awful lot of money during my highs, which I then tried to recuperate by selling during my lows. I now have my partner looking after all the money (benefits now), but it is in my name as I have to be the one to claim it. I have personally £20 per month to pay for anything personal, which will include my debts that I ran up during my highs. How can I explain to the creditors/court that the money that comes to me in the form of benefits is for my children and partner as well, and not just mine? As if you look at the money that goes through my bank, it looks like I have enough to pay my debts, when I haven't. If I changed cetain benefits to my partners accounts would I still have to say this was mine on the budget sheet? Can anyone please give me any advice on this, as I haven't contacted any of my creditors since I stopped paying them and really need to try and sort this out. These debts have been totally run up by me and not my partner- who now looks after the money so we have enough!

Hello, I wou1d just like your opinon about withdrawing and re-submitting ET1s. (I did post something similar in my original thread, but no one replied) On or about 14/05/12 an act of discrimnation happened which lead me to raise a grievance. (I did not realize that act of discrimination happened on that date until after I got the grievance investigation results.) On 25/05/12 I raised a grievance. On 12/06/12 I had a grievance meeting On 26/06/12 I filed an ET1 On 12/07/12 I received the results of the grievance investigation. New info came to light. On 22/07/12 I appealed the grievance On 18/08/12 I had my grievance appeal On 31/08/12 I had my CMD On 11/08/12 I received the results of the appeal investigation - some of which contradicts the orginal investigation. New info came to light. If I withdraw my original ET1 and Submit a new one will I be out of time? or is it adviseable to submit a second ET1 with the new information. Thanks, GP