Brilliant, Thanks for that!

Hi, I have always used the interest calculator you have at www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/chargeinterest.php I find this very easy and i am not too sure how to get onto your other one on word. Could this calculator be updated to 2007 as it stops at 2006? Thanks Tracy

Hi Andrew, I have had exactly the same problem from my council. I have been fighting with them since last June. Firstly someone put my working tax credit in twice and then they put my wages through as monthly rather than 4 weekly, creating an overpayment. I filled in all the forms for appeal. They then discovered they had made the first mistake and asked me to not reply to the appeal and it would be struck out. Then they would access my acount again and i would be entitled to fresh appeal rights. I was not happy with the amount they had written off, (£242) from over a thousand i have spent many hours in meetings with them. they have since discovered another 2 departmental mistakes and are now considering writing off another £380 and just under £200. I have been waiting for a decision for about 3 months now. they say it has to go to top management. I would advise you to appeal and keep pestering them. The council do not work like the tax credits. Tax Credits base your income on a yearly basis, the council only work off 2 monthly wage slips and calculate your earnings from that until the next review, if you have worked overtime in they 2 months then you will be entilted to less rebate. Years ago this is the way they worked out your Fizz money so you could work lots of overtime for 4 months and none for the other 2 and still have a high rebate. The council are still on this very old fashioned way of working out your rebate. Persevere and keep at them, i hope i have been of some kind of help Tracyx

Having Ahad A Really Bad Experience 2 Years Ago With The Bailiffs, Am Glad To Sign

Hi mrsfoot, I will be happy for you to use my recent media/tv appearances in the corby evening telegraph, daily mail, daily express, anglia news, bbc-lookeast, and gmtv, if any of that can be of help, then please feel free to use any snippets you feel would be helpfull,(if any). Cheers Tracy4334

Many thanks, Welshman, i feel much better now. I will pass on this advice tomorrow, (well later today) Much appreciated Tracy

I have been helping a friend to claim their charges back from Barclays Bank and they only recieved 1 letter from the court with a date (16/10/06) stating that this was the date the bank had to respond. By the 26/10/06 they applied for judgement. The court told them that they had to work out the 8% interest between these dates. Then they recieved a court letter stating their request for judgement was returned because: an acknowledgement of service was filed which extended the time for the defendant to file a defence to 28/10/06 and the defence was filed on 27/10/06. this letter was dated the 3/11/06. They recieved another letter dated 2/11/06 stating the defendant has filed a defence and also an allocation questionnaire. I have tried to help them to fill this in but i am not sure whether to add anything in the part that says Other Information, can anyone help? Also the court want an additional £100 along with this questionnaire. given that they have already paid out £120 for court costs, what is their chances of winning their claim? My friends claim is over £3000 including the interest. they have until 20/11/06 to return this form. The defence the bank have filed is the same wording as that of Welshman. The claim no. is 6KG01829 against Barclays Bank filed in Kettering County Court. The N1 form was filled in exactly as the template on this website, as was the 14 day letter. Please help, I helped my friend`s brother 2 months ago with the same bank and he won an out of court settlement. I feel responsible now for telling him to go ahead with it. Cheers Tracy

I took halifax to court in April this year and had an out of court settlement in May. Since then i have had another 4 bank charges of £39 each, can i take them to court a second time? Any help? Cheers Tracy

I everyone, thanks for all of your responses and information. I do not have a driving license, my husband does all of the driving. I was diagnosed with epilepsy just a few months ago. I first started having siezures 10 months ago and sometimes i can have as many as 10 small siezures a day. I do not have any history of epilepsy in my family but i know how serious epilepsy can be as my husbands aunt died due to a massive seizure aged 36 and also his cousin aged 15. i just can`t seem to get anywhere with the benefits agency, we are living from my husbands wage and child benefit. It`s a struggle. thanks to everyone for there help in this matter, i have been reading every post and i am going to the C A B armed with all this information. Thanks Lola:) P.s I am using a friend Tracy`s computer and id to make these entrys

Thanks to everyone for your help with my problem, i will certainly be following the advice of everyone who replied. Thanks again Tracy

I have recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and i am no longer able to work. I had previously worked as a self employed registered child minder. I have been to the benefits agency and have been refused sickness benefit. Can anyone help advise me of what i am entilted to claim. I have a husband and 1 child and a morgage. My husband works full time and i have previously paid my n.i contributions. The only thing the benefits agency have told me i am entilted to is to reclaim my self employed n.insurance contributions. Please help. Thanks Lola

Hi drummer, Thanks for your reply, as to your question, i am really sure that the council have no rights to move your partner out of her present home even though her kids have grown up and have flown the nest. There is a woman just outside my street that had 2 boys, 1 of which is now grown up and left home and the other 1 was disabled and unfortunaltey passed away a few years ago under the age of 16. This woman had been given disability accomadation due to her son`s illness many years ago and the council have no rights to move her back into mainstream accomadation even though she lives in a 3 bedroom disability property on her own now. I would still maybe go to your local C A B and find out for fact for her own piece of mind. Cheers Tracy

Thanks Margie for your advice, i am waiting to hear form the council to have another meeting from them to see if they have managed to find someone that can explain this overpayment in detail. I did not inform the council of my overtime at the time but the figures still do not add up. I am aware i will have some sort of overpayment but this amount is ludicrous as i only earned about £600 overtime. I feel i have worked the overtime for nothing and i owe hundreds more on top. The 2 wage slips i provided the council with did have overtime on them, but it still doesn`t explain where they got the exact figures for the dates they did not have pay slips for. Thanks again for your advice and if i get it sorted i will keep you informed. Cheers Tracy

Hi, I am a single mother of 4 and work 18 hours per week at an hourly rate of (£5.58 per hour since April). I recieve working tax credits and child tax credits. I also have recently been charged an overpayment of housing benefit of £835 and council tax of over £200. This overpayment only goes back till December. I have been in the council 4 times in the past 2 weeks and nobody can tell me how or why i have this overpayment. I have been told that the way the council work out your rebate is with 2 of my 4 weekly wage slips, my tax credit award letter and child benefit. I informed the tax credits that my contracted hours changed from 16 hrs to 18 hrs weekly in December and also took my new award letter to the council. There was barely even a change in the amount of tax credits i had previously recieved. I have worked overtime since December to approx £600, but as they only have recieved my May and June wage slips, this still does not explain this massive overpayment. The woman at the council told me that basically you can earn as much as you like for 4 months and only work basic hours for 2 months before your 6 monthly review and they don`t look at total earnings to date (unless you earn thousands extra, then they may look at earnings to date, i wish i had have know this beforehand), they only work from the 2 wage slips provided. I am still baffled ( and they seem to be to) at how they got to the figures they have shown me for entiltement and overpayment, the main reason for being baffled is if this is the way they work out your benefit then how when they have only recieved my May and June pay slips and my tax credits have barely changed can they provide me with exact figures like this- Start Date End Date No of Days Entiltement Before / After Overpayment 12/12/05 18/12/05 7 £51.81 £34.40 £17.41 19/12/05 15/01/06 28 £51.81 £34.62 £68.76 16/01/06 12/02/06 28 £51.81 £00.53 £205.12 13/03/06 31/03/06 47 £51.81 £01.11 £340.41 1/04/06 2/04/06 2 £51.81 £01.11 £14.48 3/04/06 16/04/06 14 £59.02 £37.77 £42.50 17/04/06 14/05/06 28 £54.24 £22.63 £146.44 This is only my housing benefit overpayment until 14/5/06, not to date and not my council tax overpayment. Any advice/help in this matter would be most appreciated, and to the person that started this topic, i would keep doing what your doing and query everything until you get some real answers. I think they are still working on a very old system that obviously does not work and many mistakes can easily happen. I have appealed against this overpayment to the council, only to be told they cannot deal with my appeal and i have to appeal to an independant something or other which i am in the process of doing. I have 12 days left to submit this 2nd appeal and i am allowed to supply supporting evidence so i don`t want to submit it until this has been explained more clearly and in detail to me and i have something to add to the appeal rather than them just recieving the same figures that i have recieved with no indepth explanation of why this overpayment occurred. I have struggled over the last couple of years to get my head above water and last year i cleared all my rent arrears and council tax and was really chuffed i had got there only to get hit with this now. I went into the job centre last week and they worked out all my finances for me and it turns out i am £36 per week WORSE OFF working than i would be on benefits because of this overpayment. I am not going to give up my job as i have worked hard to progress over the years, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Tracy