There's a petition below that I have started for Gordon Brown, It asks for the tax credit system to be reviewed in order to streamline with the proposals to change rules for parents on income support, and to make it financially feesible for working parents to reasonably afford childcare costs. At the moment, some (and I stress the word "some", not all) parents whether they are one parent or two parent families are financially better off on benefits than in employment. I did a calculation on my incomings and outgoings, thereafter comparing it to what I would recieve if I were to claim benefit - I'd be better off signing on! I was incensed to start the petition following a conversation I had on a web forum with fellow parents who were in the same predicament. Once I realised that there were thousands out there in a similar situation, I decided to make a stand and hope you will join me in signing the petition. There is no incentive for people who want to work as people who are already in employment are living below the breadline which encourages benefit fraud, resulting in our salaries being hammered for taxes come pay day. If the situation is not reviewed, less people will be willing to secure employment, and even fewer will be able to hold it, which again will have a knock on effect as working people's taxes rise to compensate. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Parentemploymees/

Thanks lone ranger. I have let my MP loose on the case, see what if indeed anything, materialises.

Jo - that post was in no way aimed at you. I read your posts and at no point did you state anything of the sort. It was Weird Al himself that asked if you were "One of those" - I was simply stating that people can be accused of thinking badly and some already do think badly of others. If I aim a post at anyone in specific, I'd name them. All I'm saying is people are getting overheated and some are behaving childishly

Oh, for the love of the wee man this is getting far beyond a joke. I tried to point out that some people are incapable of understanding basic punctuation, just so anybody who does struggle, wouldn not be offended. Now people have resorted to personal insults and slanging matches. So nobody likes childish scrawl written on the boards, but childish tit-for-tat personal insults are ok? As for "keeping people" - I pay taxes and I would never single someone out and insult them because they currently don't have a job. Many people don't work for different reasons, some people can't work, some people are made redundant due to companies closing. On the other hand, I would never assume that because some people are small minded that everyone thinks badly of those who don't work. We have got to a stsge of putting words in people's mouths and fabricating the posts to suit ourselves. Think it's time the moderators locked this thread.

Jenisnifer, yes I do. Everyone: I am sorry, my only attempt was to point out that it is not possible for everyone to use perfect English all the time through no fault of their own, although at times, there are people being careless using text speak. Things have gotten a bit heated, it was not my intention to create animosity between members, my intention was to ask that consideration be shown to others, but as Bookworm pointed out, a jumbled thread may actually make it more difficult for people with these difficulties to understand. Please lets not all get excited over it. As the song goes "It's only words...."

Not at all, I didn't come here as a worker, I came here as a victim of their incompetence. I debated largely over whether I should mention I work there, as I was afraid of getting abuse and/or people refusing to help me because I happen to work there. (I haven't been there long), I chose to mention it to point out that I know they are telling me untruths as I know how certain parts of it works, the branch that sent this letter to me do not know I am an employee, yet. Also I felt that as I work there, I may be able to help with a few issues other people may have. To be perfectly honest, I hate them as much as anyone as I see for myself the utter shambles the DWP is. I see how things go "missing", I see how people are treated but unfortunately I am on the bottom rung of the ladder and am not in a position to do much about it. I took the job there only because I am on my own with children and couldn't find anything else locally to work around my children.

No offence intended, but isn't it also presumtious to assume that anyone can download a spellchecker? Not everyone knows about spellcheckers, not everyone knows how to download them, and not everyone will download if they are fearful of getting a possible virus. I have only been using a pc for 2 years and hadn't a clue when I started on how to do anything. Additionally, spell checkers quite often fail to recognise everyday words used in the english written word. It is a programme designed to pick only fault with what it is programmed to do. Every year, many words are entered into an English dictionary for the first time. And many words are expanded to have taken on new/addtional meaning. I believe the word "chav" has recently been added to one.

I am sending a subject access request to the DWP (they are chasing a social fund debt I've never had, they say from year 2000). They have already refused to provide copies of original information I have asked for, (ie copy of a signed social fund application form) stating that they are not obliged to under departmental giudelines, as all evidence are held on their computer system. Now, pardon me, but information typed in by their staff with no input from me, no signature I don't think can be classed as evidence. They have also told me that I have to provide information to show I was not the recipient of the loan. Hmmm, nigh on the impossible, how in the world can someone prove they DON'T/have never had something?! My question is, when sending the SAR I will be stating that it is an SRA under section 7 of the data protection act 1998, can also I state that if they are chasing me for a debt I do not believe I have then it is their responsibility to provide me and/or any court with evidence that I have it? And if so, are there any acts/sections of acts that I can refer to when stating this? Many thanks.

I disagree with that. Yes, it would be wonderful for us all to be blessed with excellent literature and grammer skills, with the correct usage of punctuation. And yes, it is one of my pet hates when I consistently see written communication with "text" speak and/or poor grammer. However in my line of work, I regularly deal with written communication from customers who have exceptionally poor writing skills. Not once have I decided that I won't take them seriously merely because their grammer skills are not up to a standard considered "acceptable". I take every customer as seriously as the next one unless I have good reason to believe otherwise, and poor grammer does not constitute good reason, in my view.

That's exactly what I said in my post, English is not my first language but I have always been brought up to use in in the written word and to speak it when conversing with others not from my home town. It's simply a matter of respecting others, if I spoke in my own language on here, no one would understand a word I said, because it's rare to hear anybody speaking it these days. Even if I am with my family I speak english as my partner is English, although his father was a scot, he does not speak my language fluently, and I think it rude to speak or to write in a language he doesn't understand, it's like excluding him from the conversation. I understand some words in text speak, but not all of them and to be perfectly honest, I think it's rude to use it in forums. I don't even text in text speak. It helps if we all understand each other. One forum I go into has a seperate section for people who wish to speak in their own dialects, but in the main forums, it must be English or the posts will be deleted.

YouTube - The Proclaimers - Throw The 'R' Away

If we're speaking about pet hates in the use of grammer, here are mine: Shops advertising items at the beginning of a school term, entitled "Back to skool" - arghhhh! That drives me mad, and the brand name playskool. No wonder kids spell terribly. Another are the phrases "would of", or "must of" as in "I must of forgot" - If it must be abbreviated then it should be "must've" as it is short for "must have" My literacy skills are decent, but on occasion I do make mistakes, I am afterall only human, and I appreciate that some people do have difficulty with the use of English, but when people just cannot be bothered, it drives me up the wall. My original lanuage is not English, it's a very old and dying form of Scottish, I was brought up speaking it, but I was also brought up to write in English, and to always speak proper English when in conversation with someone outside my locality. It's rather funny as some people think I am speaking gaelic - it's not gaelic, there are not even similarities!

Hi Bookworm. No it's not the same one, the loan I had was in the region of £8 - one days living expenses, as when I signed on to Jobseekers allowance, my girocheque did not arrive, they kept telling me to come back this day and that, eventually it was due for my second payment and that didn't arrive either, so they gave me a days living expenses while they sorted out the problem. That was the last time I signed on, and it was 2 months prior to when this loan came about. This loan is almost £200

Fantastic, thank you very much.

Hi Chrissi. Pardon my ignorance, but can you give me any pointers on asking for this S A R? Many thanks.