nhs contracts? Hi all, i am now working in the nhs as part of the theatre department and in doing so signed the usual contract agreeing to working on calls, late shifts and weekends etc, the problem is that some staff are not taking part in this arrangement because of various reasons ( my cats scared of the dark or little johnny wets the bed) sanctioned by the managers and therefore the remaining staff are having to work extra shifts to compensate. My question is, are we all being treated equally and do we have any basis for taking action against the management. Any help would be great. Cheers.

I applied to a job Ad from a Recruitment Agency (XYZ) to work for a big IT Consultancy firm (ABC). I got interviewed by ABC and got selected. The job contract was signed between Myself and the XYZ. I started the new contract with ABC on 12th September and they asked me to work for a Government client. After 3 weeks of working, one day (3rd Oct) when I was at Gov client office, I overstayed and worked till 8.30pm and I was alone in the office after everybody left. On 4th Oct, when I went to office as usual, Gov client asked me to leave their office immediately as I had breached their security. I was on visitors badge and as per the rule I was not supposed to be alone and one of the regular badge holders should have been with me always. This was not briefed to me before I started at Gov office by the ABC or ABC staff instructed me leave the office on time. On 5th Oct, ABC called to their office and informed me that they are not happy with my work performance and they are terminating the contract with immediate effect. They did not mention anything about incident happened at the Gov office. ABC said they would pay for all the work till date and additional 1 week for the notice period. After the termination, I sent the invoice for the number of days worked to the XYZ. On 17th Oct, I received letter from XYZ saying that, The reason XYZ was unable to continue its contract with the Client (ABC) was due to the services not being performed by the Consultant Company (myself) to the required standard. As a result of this breach XYZ has incurred losses, such losses amount to £xxxx.xx + VAT. In accordance with clause 3(f) and 10 of the contract, XZY shall deduct this sum from outstanding invoices. I totally disagree with XYZ because, - There is no defined performance standards or metrics mentioned in the contract - When ABC is happy to pay for the work done and for the additional 1 week notice, XYZ should not have any hand in this. - I don’t think ABC would have sent a letter to XYZ with the reason for terminating the contract I won’t let XYZ to go ahead with their claims at any cost. They have provoked me with this unethical and unfair business practise and won’t let them carry on. In responding to XYZ’s claim, I am including the following points in my letter: - How am I responsible for the loss - In what way I failed to perform the contract work - How did they arrive at the cost I need your help please to fight against this rogue XYZ agency and for them to pay the full amount for the work I did. Please advice on how I can respond to XYZ claim. Thank you PS: I have extracted section 3(f) and 10 from the contract and shown below. 3 (f) Whenever under this Contract or otherwise arising from the relationship between XYZ and the Consultant Company any sum of money shall be recoverable from or payable by the Consultant Company, the same may be deducted from any sum then due, or which thereafter may become due, to the Consultant Company under this Contract, or any other contract between XYZ and the Consultant Company (or any of its affiliates). 10 Indemnity The Consultant Company shall indemnify and hold harmless XYZ against any and all claims costs expenses losses or damages whether direct or consequential arising from the Consultant Company's breach of any provision of this Contract including all administration costs and all claims costs expenses losses or damages arising from the negligence or acts or omissions of the Consultant Company or its employees agents or subcontractors.

Hi I have a question that I'm hoping someone may be able to answer. Some years ago I undertook a degree course with the University of Exeter. Unfortunately I was unable to complete the course but did do enough to claim a Cert of HE. However I had a disagreement with the uni about some fees 'owed' for a field trip and they refused to issue the certificate .... so now we arrive at today - more than 6 years later, when thinking of applying to the Open Uni, I contacted them to get official proof of credits and they still refuse citing the 6/7 year old debt as the reason. I mentioned that the debt would be statute barred by now but they still refused. So I have two questions: 1) Are they within their rights to do this considering the debt is technically/legally not owed anymore? 2) Its possible that i may be having to apply for a DRO in the near future. If i was to do this, and add this debt on to it (even though its now not owed, would they then have to issue the relevant certs/info? If anyone has any info/knowledge/advice they can share I would be most grateful Cheers

Hi All, My landlady told us in Feb that she was selling our house. We moved out in April when a suitable property came up, but had to pay double rent and council tax on the two properties until the end of June when my tenancy ended I did however manage to get a one month discount on the old property as I wasn't living there. Now that the landlady is renovating the house to sell, she too has applied for the council tax discount (as she's not living there) and has been declined as there needs to be a period of 6 weeks of someone living there since that last claim before she's entitled to it. Because of this, she has told me that what I did was 'unacceptable' and that she will be taking the £119 (one month's council tax) out of my deposit. We are going through the DPS, but but the email this morning told me that my request for repayment of my deposit has been declined and that that I to settle it with her - which is impossible as she is totally unreasonable. Who is in the right here? She is stating that it was my responsibility to pay all bills (which I have done), but in claiming the discount (which I was perfectly entitled to), I have breached this part of my contract. Any advice much welcomed.

Hi Guys I recently took up a job with a local firm whilst out of work. My contract was terminated as the company received a fine from the council for some road signs i had neglected to collect. My argument to this is i wasn't given a A3 map of the roads in question which clearly shows all signs needed to be collected. Any way after the termination of my contract my wages for the week previous and 3 days i worked when i first started as well as 2 days prior to termination hasn't been paid. I wrote to them threatening legal action unless the monies owed were paid but have not received payment. They stated on the letter that they are withholding funds due to the amount of the fine and are trying to negotiate the fine down to a lower value and if they can do that i will be payed a percentage of what i'm owed dependent on the final amount of the fine imposed. I was payed by a separate company owned by the same company and think i was self employed as i had to apply to hmrc for a UTR number. I have since wrote back to them asking for a copy of the fine from the local council and a copy of my signed employment/self employment contract but have not yet received a response. Its around £800 i'm owed and will cost £60 on MCOL. Can anyone advise if it is worth submitting a claim online and what my chances of winning are ? Many Thanks.

My branch of Lloyds has decided that they will not issue me a debit card for my account. Can they do that or are they playing to character?

Hi there I wonder if any one can give me aliitle advise, because the IR scare me a little. My husband is self employed and I do his accounts & tax return. I always submit his tax return at the very start of the tax year and with him being part of the CIS scheme he always pays to much tax and always get his refund within 4 weeks. Back in January we received a letter from the IR with regards to his 14/15 tax return, they stated there was a CIS mis-match, which is the case every year as our accounts are on cash accounting and our year year is the 31st March. So becasue of this they wanted an explanation and paper work and also detailed breakdowns and copies of all figures declared on the tax return. What a nightmare, as he is a small sole trader he still has an awful lot of paperowkr for the year. Anyway I sent them through the explanation of why the mis-match occured and copy remits. I also sent them an itemised breakdown of all the figures (expenses) on the tax return. A few weeks later another letter came, obviously what I sent expenses wise what not good enough and wanted copies of absolutely everything, full years bank statement, fuel invoices, purchase invoices and so on. This was basically a full lever arch file, so with not having the time or resources to copy this I ended up sending all original through to them with the additional information they required (which cost me nearly £16). So going forward I submitted 15/16 return on 6th April which the calculation stated my husband had made an over payment of over £10,000. It states an overpayment is normally made within 2 weeks but not to contact them until 4 weeks. Well 4 weeks is here and my husband has rang them and the payment is getting with held because of the previous years equiry. I feel I have been very helpful in the aid of their enquiry but just dont trust them. I feel they are goind to look for errors which I only declare actual figures used for the business but some questions they were asking me were ridiculous, ie mobile phone contract? mileage (which we dont keep as the vehicles used for the business are just for the business) MOTS. Hope you can make head & tails of this, I would appreciate anyone help & guidance. Thanks Hoody x

Posting on behalf of a friend, who is employed by a cleaning company. The facts: - She's been working for the company for 5+ years as a cleaner for a certain client for GBP 6.50/hr for 2 hrs/day (10hrs/week) and her husband was also employed there for the same wage for 3 hrs/day (15 hrs/week). - There is no written contract and she and her husband have never received anything from the employer except salary payments into their accounts. - Ever since she's been working there she was told by her supervisor that as long as the offices are cleaned properly it doesn't matter how many hours she works. As a result, she's been going for 3-4 hours/day to do both hers and her husband's work and was always paid for 5 hours/day. No complaints regarding her work have been made. - Her husband was sacked in Feb 2016 because he never showed up at work (even though the verbal arrangement has always been that she does the work of 2 people - apparently this was the norm at the company). This was after a management change, which also caused her old supervisor to be sacked. - Now she's received a letter from her employer (see below), which basically states that she's inflated the hours she was supposed to work and she owes the client of the employer 736 hours for 2015 (only) or GBP 4,784 and they are going to deduct it from her salary (which they've already started to do). It would become due if she decides to leave. They also include her husband's hours into this amount (not sure how they calculated 736 hours). I'm pretty sure most of the assertions in the letter are questionable, to say the least. She should have received a written contract and they can't just withhold money from her salary. They mention a meeting between her and the client last August, which she does not recall. They claim that the security guard has been tallying her hours in addition to her punching in/out and that's how they claim they've calculated 736 hours, which is not really believable. It's also clear that the company is trying to get rid of her (as they've already sacked her husband and most of her old colleagues), so she's going to look for another job. However, she wouldn't want to get a debt collections agency on her back and she would like the withheld money returned. So my question is what she should do at this point. LETTER - date 21 March 2016 [suspiciously close to the official minimum wage hike, too...] Dear **** Our customer has highlighted deficiencies in the hours that have been worked during 2015. 1. It would appear that on the majority of working days, only one person attended site when there should have been two, namely you and your husband. 2. Our customer has analysed the signing in times that you entered in the log book on their floor against the hours recorded by the security guard downstairs when you arrived and left the building each day. It would appear that you have been entering earlier arrival times and later departure times on the customer book their floor, compared with these recorded by the security guard. Consequently our customer has requested a refund of 736 hours' work that has not been carried out during 2015. You were aware that two people should be on site for 2.5 hours a day. From the evidence put to us, your husband very rarely attended site and you knew that. Further, you have been inflating the hours you have been working on site. You had a meeting directly with our customer in August where the deficiencies in the cleaning provision were pointed out and following this, two staff did start working again but this lasted just thirteen days. You and your husband have stolen 736 hours during 2015 from our customer. Based on an hourly rate of GBP 6.50, that is GBP 4,784. Accordingly this amount is to be repaid. We will arrange to commence recovery of this over payment from you at the rate of GBP 30.00 per week until the over payment is cleared. Should you leave our employment, the full amount will become due and we will expect payment immediately. Should you wish to discuss this matter further, kindly contact me immediately. Yours sincerely, *** Operations Director

Hi guys, I'm sure these threads come up all the time so I'm sorry if you have to answer again! I have recently moved out from a rented property and after leaving the landlord is withholding the entire deposit. They didn't notify me of this and it was pure luck that I decided to log in to the dps website to see the dispute. I attempted to contact the letting agency but they wouldn't speak to me and didn't call me back. The dispute has now gone to the ADR stage and I wondering what is the best way to tackle this and strongest way to provide my evidence? In a nutshell the Landlord is claiming for one count of Damage, one count of cleaning and one count of unauthorised painting. I really would appreciate any guidance anyone could give. Regards

I am having problems with Co-Op Energy returning an account credit to me. At the beginning of February I switched from them to Sainsburys Energy. The account was in credit, but Co-Op Energy claimed that they hadn't received the final electric meter reading from Sainsburys which would trigger repayment of the credit amount. Sainsburys claimed it had been provided. Co-op said they would look into it, but I then didn't hear back from them. When I contacted them in March Co-op said that because they were going through their billing system upgrade I would have to wait until this was complete then re-register my account on their website, and that it may then take another 14 days for the information to be updated. I did so, which took us to the beginning of April. I checked the online account and there was no information on it. I contacted their customer service team and they said they would re-generate the bill and resend it. This was around 1st/2nd April (so maybe they were being April Fools - or maybe I was!!). Two weeks have gone by and no new bill was received, so I contacted them at the end of last week. The girl I spoke to said that it had definitely been sent but she would generate another bill, and it may then take another 14 days to work out the credit. At this point I lost the plot and asked to speak to her manager, which she refused to allow. She went to talk to them and on her return offered me a £15 good will gesture, and said she would regenerate the letter and make the payment of the credit amount via BACS that day. Needless to say she didn't, and no letter has been received with the final reading. I have tweeted my dissatisfaction which obviously got a fairly quick response from their Twitter team (who knock off at 4pm). They have said they are looking into it but another two days have gone by with no response, no letter and no refund. I have submitted a subject access request to the Co-op to get evidence of all the communications between me and them, and have written to the CIO to complain about the Co-op's treatment of me and their withholding of my money. I think my next step is to contact the energy ombudsman - is this correct? Does anyone have any suggestions about how to proceed with this? I am losing the capacity for rational thought where the Co-op is concerned.

Hi, I have an issue with Motonovo finance I'm hoping I can get some advice on. A couple of weeks ago we put a deposit down on a van with a dealer called Cars and Vans R us, we didn't actually see the van they said they were internet based only that all their vans are ex contract 1 owner, and at a different depot blah blah blah, they have a large presence on ebay and offer a money back gaurantee if you are not happy we felt happy to proceed. They also arranged finance for us with Motonovo, they bought the papers to our house to sign five days later delivered the van, I was not happy with the condition they took it away to work on over the weekend bought it back on the monday however I was still not happy with it refused it and rang Motonovo straight away to cancel the agreement, so far not so good. We found an alternative van at another dealers and set about getting the finance sorted, we thought we were all set then Motonovo turned around and said they wouldn't release the funds on the new van because Cars and Vans R Us were withholding the original advance and the deal couldn't progress until the funds had been recovered. Is this standard procedure can they really penalise us because one of thier 'preferred dealers' won't give the money back, what happens if he never gives it back? Will we be liable? The dealer also claims he's now sold the van. Because of our circumstances we are limited to the funding options open to us otherwise we'd walk away and because they told us we were good to go I put a £300 deposit on the second vehicle. Feeling annoyed, foolish and embarrased in equal measures at the mo'

Hi All One of my family members is currently experiencing some employment issues and hope someone could give us advice on the following and some guidance on how to deal with the issue. While there have many issues leading up to the point of redundancy i will try and keep with the current issue. He has been off sick for several weeks since Early October with stress and palpitations brought on mainly by his employment problems, specifically being informed by the company of the risk of redundancy and him having to apply for the only position available to keep is job as well as the owners son applying for the position.(which he thought was a no Win). He was given notice of his redundancy and was given a date of 17th Nov 2014, with the date passing he was expecting his redundancy Friday 21st Nov which is when the usual pay date is. He contacted the owner today to ask when he would be receiving his payment only to be told that the owner was busy and that he would contact him later. The owner made contact a little later via email. The owner alleges to have sent him a letter dated the 4th November stating that he had to remove some items that have been stored there for several months (owners consent)Apparently this is causing an environmental issue, and in the event that this was not removed in a certain time frame, he would arrange the items to be removed at the cost of nearly £500 and that this cost would be deducted from his redundancy payment. Please keep in mind that the owner has kept in contact throughout the consultation period and sickness period via either email or recorded letter. The owner hasn't got rid of any of the items and given him until next week to remove these items and stipulated he needs to remove these items and inform him of the time and who is collecting the items, so basically he is withholding his redundancy payment until this is done. To say the owner is being awkward is a understatement to everything that has happened with him recently. Your thoughts and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Bridgykoi.

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. A while back some one bumped my wifes car while she was parked in a car park putting shopping in the boot. Other party admitted liability. Wife contacted her insurance and notified them but stated that she was unwilling to shell out the £350 excess and that she would wait till other party had contacted them to confirm liability. Eventually wife got a text from her insurance saying that other party had admitted liability and the excess would be waived. Car got repaired and returned. All good so far. Now she's been contacted by her insurance saying she will have to consent to their lawyers starting a claim action against other party insurers as they are now refusing to pay. Fair enough. What's got my goat is they're refusing to reinstate her NCD until they get their money back. In view of the fact that the other party have already admitted liability are they within their rights to do this?

Hi all, I have just moved out a property I have been renting for 2.5 years. Officially, it has a 2 month notice period, I have asked the landlord early January whether he would let us go earlier if we find a replacement tenant. We found a couple who were scheduled to move in just a week ago, but the landlord changed his mind just before the moving out date, and now he is demanding us to pay the rent for the 2 month notice period, counting from early January. I checked the deposit scheme, and it seems that he did not protect the deposit in the scheme. I can also guess that the landlord does not have the property under the buy-to-let scheme, so he could not have rented it out legally at the first place. is this worth pushing it further? many thanks.

Hello, I was wondering if you could help me on this. My flatmates and I vacated the property over two months ago but the estate agents still haven't started the process of giving it back to us because we haven't been able to provide them with closing statements for our utility bills. The problem is that we all moved abroad and it has proven difficult to get Thames Waters and E-ON to send us the closing statements. I'm wondering if it's fair that the estate agents still won't give us the deposit back even if such a long time has passed and we clearly have no standing bills as they must know too. Can they keep withholding our money claiming that they need those closing statements? Thanks everyone.

Hi, I'm looking for some advice please, I brought 2 Drills for £50 each from a shop on eBay for a conservatory build. We didn't get to start the build for about 6 weeks after buying them, we used them and they as good as fell apart when we used them. It was too late to claim a refund through Paypal so we contacted the manufacturer who said to package them up and they would collect them. They were taken back and we got an email saying that they have refunded the company on eBay and we would need to contact them for the refund to be passed over. This is where it gets interesting! We contacted the eBay seller who denies ever having the refund. Apparently they have contacted their accounts dept by email several times to chase it up but have never had an reply! Have forwarded the email from the manufacturer to the seller and they have said that anyone could have typed that and wasn't sufficient for proof. The refund was sent apparently on the 13th September and they still deny it! What should my next step be please, they are holding our money! Thank you

Hello, I'd just like to clarify something. I have moved out of my property due to not being happy with one of my flatmmates and also I did break the tenancy agreement by giving the key to someone else. The fact is I didn't want to live there any longer as it was dragging me down. I have now moved out of property and am going through a dispute with the deposit. My landlord has asked me to pay for cleaning which is fine but has charged me an additional 120 for a new mattress plus delivery. I am a newbie to renting so I am going to ask some questions now. I have rejected his claim for now as the mattress is old and obviously had some signs of wear and tear even before I moved in. He claims it smells and it is non recoverable. I did check the mattress before I left the place and did notice the underneath was quite horrid. It looked filthy dirty and kind of greasy looking. There was also a big stain at the top of the mattress. I am new to this and I believe this might be the first time he actually considered cleaning it as I don't think those marks would have accrued over 9 months of staying there. I was just to naive understanding the renting process basically I wanted a place to stay but I made a mistake. I didn't take any photographic evidence when I first moved in and I wish I had. I heard something about a move in checklist. He never provided me with any checklist for the property. I am using the DPS service with my deposit. Does anyone have any advice? Should I just pay it or does anyone know what my rights are?

hi everyone so i finished work on 17th September and have contacted my employer several times requesting my p45, final payslip and monies owed and they kept telling me they dont have my p45 so i rang their accountant today and the lady on the phone stated that my ex employer has had my p45 since the 10 October. So obviously my employer has been withholding this. The accountant said they would send me a duplicate but im still unhappy about the fact that my ex employer had had this since the 10th October. Can anyone give me some advice about this please.

Hi everyone I recently left my job to start a new one. My previous employer claims i owe them money for holidays taken i was not entitled to. They worked holidays out in hours. I was contracted to work 37.5 hours a week, but they took 8.20 per day from us which i dont think is right as they took 41.40 hours for 5 days when surely if i am contracted 37.5 thats all they can take? Anyway they say i owe them over £1000 for 80 hours leave!! This is ridiculous and i am in the process of working everything out. The employee handbook (which i was never given but is online) states: If, on termination of an employee's employment, the employee has taken paidholiday leave in excess of the earned entitlement, they will be required to reimburse the company (by means of deduction from salary) in respect of such holiday I understand that what they are saying is if i owe them money they can deduct it out of my final salary, which was one day plus i was due a tax refund of over £300 which they say they are taking for the alleged overpayment. However they are also withholding my P45. They have said i cannot have it until i have paid back this money, but surely this is a separate issue? I would be grateful of any advice on this.

Hi there, wondering if anyone can give me some advice on an issue I have at the moment I have been told today that I will not receive my overtime pay from july in my august pay due to a mistake made by my regional manager and will now receive it in September instead my question is can my employer withhold this pay for another month they are saying that nothing can be done as the cut off time for pay has passed but bear in mind that today is the 16th and I don't get paid until the 28th I find it hard to believe that this cannot be rectified in time for pay day any advice anyone can offer will be much appreciated

Hi, need a little advice on what I can do. Recently moved out of a property we had occupied since July 2012. It was let with a private landlord on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy and correct paperwork signed e.t.c. We gave correct notice of day we were moving and a couple of days before we moved, the landlord told us they would be away until a couple of days after the date. We moved, cleaned the house e.t.c. and when the landlord returned and went to the property, they contacted us to tell us the deposit would not be returned as they did not have the keys. We moved approx. 80 miles away and due to other circumstances could not be there to give them the keys, although we were around on the day our notice period expired. We did explain to them that we didn't feel comfortable posting the keys through the letterbox as we left as 1: the house was visibly empty and 2: the letterbox had no cover and keys could easily be retrieved through it. They said it was totally unnacceptable and they were quite within their rights to withhold deposit, and we should have posted keys or left them with a neighbour, when we explained that this would have been our responsibility if anything had happened or could have been classed as 'abandonment' ( not sure about this!?) we were told that it was unnaceptable and we would not get our deposit until the keys were returned. They then told us to post keys recorded delivery and told us they were going on holiday again until the 19th of this month. Upon their return they would go to the sorting office pick the keys up then transfer the money. So, it has now been 2 weeks since our notice expired and we are waiting for our money. I have tracked the keys to the sorting office. It also transpires that despite it stating on our tenancy agreement that our deposit would be held in a scheme, it has not. As a result we had to use our overdraft for our new deposit, incurring charges. I do believe that we will get our deposit, but I feel we have been treated like criminals, despite having what I thought was a good relationship with our landlord. I just want to know if there is anything we can do to possibly recoup some of our costs? we are alsobeing charged 15 pound for a broken item despite their being no inventory or pictures to back them up. Any help on how to proceed greatly appreciated!!!

Hi, Can anyone please help with the following. I am a freelance creative. I started contracting for a company (the end client) through a creative agency. I use an umbrella company to deal with my invoices. I was booked on a daily rate. My initial booking did not include overtime payment. Shortly after I started freelancing the client asked me to do overtime. They got in touch with my agency to confirm this request. My agency asked me if I wanted to do overtime and I said yes. The agency confirmed the hourly overtime rate by email and I informed my umbrella company (with the agency cc´d on the email). I filled in my weekly timesheets with the days (start time and finish time) and the overtime hours per day. The timesheets were signed by the client and sent weekly to the agency. Two of the timesheets including overtime were paid in full. The following week the agency fails to proceed with the weekly payment as confirmed on their booking form (which I interpret as part of their contractual obligations). I ask why I haven´t been paid since the agency received all timesheets and invoices on time. At this point they hold four weekly timesheets that have not been paid - all of them containing overtime. They come back to me saying that they don´t pay overtime and I need to reissue the invoices with no overtime included. I reply asking who decided that and when since I wasn´t informed I shouldn´t be doing overtime - I had been doint overtime at the company for the past 4 weeks, the clientt signed those timesheets and I submitted them to the agency. Surely if I wasn´t supposed to do overtime someone at the company would have told me (they saw me coming in early in the morning and staying late at night) or the agency when they saw my weekly timesheets? Not come back to me after 4 complete weeks saying that they´re not paying my invoices because they have not agreed with overtime?! In addition, on my initial booking it states the start time but not the end time. On the timesheet provided by the agency it says that overtime starts from 6pm to 9pm. When I started I asked to the client what were my daily hours and I was told 10am to 6.30pm. I thought that was fine, although it was an extra 30min after 6pm I was Ok in giving that time to the client, one always ends up staying a bit longer anyway. On top of claiming that they don´t pay for overtime, the agency came back to me saying that since I was working 10am to 6.30pm I wasn´t doing a complete day of 8h of work that I should be doing 10am to 7pm and that they would charge me back 30min for everyday I left at 6.30pm. In my understanding this is not only ridiculous it´s outrageous because: - I was told by the client work hours were 10am to 6.30pm; - I was booked on a daily rate - no matter when I leave for the day the client always has to pay a full day of work; - because I am on a daily rate the agency cannot charge me half an hour of a normal day´s work; - The agency´s own timesheet states that overtime starts from 6pm so if in any case if any is due 30min payment it´s me not the agency; So, they asked for a credit note of all the overtime they suddenly decided is not payable plus the extra 30 daily min they decided I should the working everyday (despite the client signing the timesheets confirming all´s Ok). Because I challenged what I consider to be an extortion (my paperwork is all in order), they took the liberty to withhold all my payments since the beginning of March to force me to agree in asking my umbrella company to provide them with a credit note of the amount they´re claiming. This is completely abusive - it would be bad enough if they withheld the amount they think they´re claiming back but withholding ALL my payments (which is currently about 4 times the amount they´re claiming) is taking a serious financial stroll on me. They currenlty have 7 invoices outstanding (none of them include overtime so there is NO reason for not paying them - I reissued invoices with no overtime for the ones outstanding to comply with their stupid request and accelerate my payments), I haven´t been paid in weeks and I´m in panic as I have to pay my bills and rent. I tried to reason with the agency but the self-absorbed monster that´s making all this trouble could not care less about the impact of her actions. The client´s happy with my work. I am happy with them. The agency is making up all this mess and withholding all my payments. What can I do? Is there a way I can force her to pay?? Can I complain to someone? The agency is seriously affecting my ability to support myself and causing me great distress. Help... Thanks.

I do most of my self employed as a buyer for second hand cars and machineries and sends them to clients outside EU who also banks with Barclays. I had a barclays current business account that I've been using for the last 8 years got closed a month ago for 1 year dormancy without my knowledge. So un-aware of this, I gave the client the account number that was closed and when the money came to UK I couldnt access it. When I explained this to my business manager he suggested that the money could simply be transferred into my Business saving account that I've never used. So the other Barclays had to send amended SWIFT to Barclays UK with new instructions (the money should simply be paid into the Business Savings) In the meantime Barclays apologised and offered to open a new business current account which I accepted under condition that once I get the funds then I shall deal with opening a new bank account. So far its been 4 weeks back and fourth between making calls to the international payments, sending e-mails and of course being spoken to like a kid by my business manager and branch managers. In the end (two days ago) i found out that they were all giving me the same standard answers as to why they money isnt into my account. Apparently Barclays is withholding this money as they are investigating the source ( the gentleman works for an International Organisation in that country and banks with barlcays) and he sent the money through Barclays. So the most I could think of is money laundering, but I've received more money into my business current account that they closed than what's been sent into the savings. So far he says he is losing £2500 per day this issue delays as I cant buy him the equipment from here in the UK. He has presented the Invoice and additional information and also has confessed that Barclays at times withholds his own salary upto 2 months for no apparent reason. As it is, I'm aware I can easily report this to Financial Ombudsman as I'm also losing money every single day this money is withheld by Barclays and my business reputation with customers is also on the line. Can anyone advise me on legal or otherwise options, and how best I should handle this matter.

An hungarian friend works as a packer. He started the job on or around the 16th April 2012. He is paid monthly. On receiving his first months salary he found that he had been deducted £500 as a "deposit". I have told him they cannot do this. I asked to see a contract of employment, and I cannot see any contractural terms allowing for this, and he received no letters or notice about this. So the question is, how does he deal with this? I would suggest submitting a letter to the employer asking for this £500 to make its way to his next pay, but I am concerned that with working at the company for less than 2 years, he may suffer some detrimental effect as dismissal if he asks for this.

Hi All, Apologies if this is in the wrong forum - I couldn't find anything that exactly matches my problem. Myself and 2 others setup a company (we're each directors with 2 shares each and we have a shareholder who isn't a director who also owns 2 shares, so we own 25% each). The main problem we have is one of the directors is withholding several thousand pounds cash (from an event we ran) from the company and we're not sure exactly what we can or should do about it. We have several witnesses that the director has the money and we have an email that confirms the amount. Also - we've literally just discovered that they have either stolen money from the till in the shop or have stolen stock... Any ideas what the best resolve for this problem is? Myself and the other director are thinking of involving the police - but we're not sure if they'll even do anything about it... If there are any questions please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Kindest Regards, Craig