It'll be me - he just wants the job. He's happy for me to do it though. This is the reason that they get away with this stuff - it makes me fume.

Hi all - been a long time since I've posted on here - yet another friend that's asked for advice from me, so I thought that I'd better check with you guys. I have a friend that's been unemployed for some time and, finally, managed to get a supervisors job at a Martin's newsagents. Whilst discussing the job with him it became apparent that the company seems to breaking a whole raft of employment laws. He gets paid £6.40 per hour (he's over 21, so that is, theoretically, 20p more than the minimum wage). Several times per week he has to work from open (6:00am) to close (7:00pm) for which he gets paid for 12 hours (13 hours less two 15 minutes breaks and one 30 minute break) - all fine so far. Now come the problems. In order for the papers/magazines to be ready for the customers, he has been told that he must arrive 30 minutes before opening time - and, once the shop is shut, he has to bundle up the unsold papers to return them to the distributer and cash up the tills etc - which is another 30 minutes. He doesn't get paid for this time - despite being told that he has to do this extra work. Additionally he is on his own for much of the day - so that he invariably doesn't get either a lunch break or an afternoon break - so, on a normal day, he works for 13 hours and 45 minutes and gets paid for 12 hours 12 times £6.40 is £76.80 - £76.80 divided by 13.75 is £5.59 per hour - so, it seems to me, that they're breaking the minimum wage rule as well as breaking employment laws about allowing for breaks. The other problem that I can see is that, because of the later finish time and earlier start time that Martin's insists on, he only has 10 hours away from the job - and I thought that the minimum time between shifts was 11 hours. So, firstly, am I correct about all of this? and, secondly, (assuming that I am correct) who do I "dob them in to"? He won't do it himself (he wants a job) - but, personally, I think that it's disgusting that a national company can behave like this.

I had my phone with Bell Cable Media for some time. Their accounting software was so rubbish that, every so often, they would credit my cable TV account (which I had long since stopped) instead of the phone bill, and then cut off my phone for non payment. After the third time, I got fed up and went back to BT. Thing is, this was during the time when all directory enquiries were done by BT - BT would charge Bell Cable Media at the end of the month, and the charge would come through the month afterwards. So a month after I had the "final" bill, I got another one, for 25p..... in a letter which (from memory) had a 26p stamp on it! So I left it - I got a reminder, a second reminder, a threatening letter and, finally, a threat that they would send the bailiffs in. So I went to the post office and paid it, using the Giro payment, with a cheque.... The man at the post office reckoned that it would cost them about £5 for that payment. I think that they must have paid about £10 to get that 25p

Thank you all for your responses. I have spoken to a very nice chap at the council this morning who agreed that my friend is definitely "vulnerable" and put an immediate stop on any action. Interestingly, whilst looking at her notes, he found that the bailiff had rung in yesterday, unprompted, to flag the fact that this case should go back to the council as she is vulnerable! (so they’re not all bad – he’s definitely “playing by the rules” in this case).

Done

Done! Yes - he has been to the flat (no one was in, she was still in hospital)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]39690[/ATTACH] Hoping that you guys can help us here - I have a very good friend who iscurrently on Incapacity Benefit (although this is about to be changed to IncomeRelated Support Component of ESA - whatever that is). She a lovely lady,currently suffering with cancer, so she's in and out of hospital. It also means that she's absolutely on her uppers. She has been only just able to keep up with the rent and the bills,unfortunately her council tax hasn't been paid. She received a letter, from the council, saying that they were taking her tocourt for non payment of council tax. Judgement obviously went against her (itwas about this time that she was in hospital for another operation). The next thing that she heard was a letter from Rundles saying that the debthad been passed to them - and stating that she had to pay or they would comeand take goods to pay the debt. The day that she got the letter from Rundles, she phoned the council - theysaid that as it had already been passed to Rundles that they couldn't get itback and that they wouldn't discuss the issue - any discussion would need to bewith Rundles. She then contacted Rundles and agreed to pay £50 every two weeks (more thanshe could actually afford, really). The problem is that she went back into hospital around that time, and somissed the first payment - I dropped by her flat to pick up her post and takeit to her - and it was only then that we discovered the letter (see attached). I phoned the bailiff on her behalf, explained that she was in hospital atthe moment and so couldn't make the payment, but that she would be able tostart as soon as she got out. The bailiff was somewhat unhelpful, basicallysaying that unless the whole amount was paid within 48 hours, he would be roundto clear the flat. She's just got back out of hospital now, and is meant to be getting completerest - you can imagine what this is doing to her! Any advice would be appreciated!

OK, this might be a bit complex, but bear with me..... My mother in law owns her own, ex-council, flat. It is on the second floor of a three floor block. She has a "warm air" heating system (old, but still working fine). She had a Gas Safe engineer out to service her boiler three days ago. The boiler was fine, but (when he used a smoke bomb) it seems that there is some sort of obstruction in the flue - so he had to cap the gas to the boiler - so we now have a partially sighted 76 year old pensioner with a heart condition and no heating or hot water! The flue passes through the flat above and into the loft space (also accessed from the upstairs flat). The upstairs flat is also privately owned, and sub-let (which seems to be a "cash in hand" type of arangement - they don't have any gas safety certificate, letting agent or anything else, and, according to a previous occupant, the rent had to be paid in cash to the landlord....). We have been unable to contact the landlord - she doesn't answer her phone - and the tenant doesn't answer the door (although he is seen occasionally disappearing off to work). Bracknell Forest Homes (who own the building) will not help at all - they won't effect entry to the property or our behalf. There is a clause in the agreement that says..... The right for the lesee or his duly authorised agent with or without workmen or appliances upon giving at least three days' notice in writing (except in the case of emergency) and subject to such reasonable conditions as may be specified to enter upon the said adjoining properties to execute repairs or alterations to the property the lesee making good as quickly as possible all damage cause3d by such entry. So, do we bash our way in with a builder and get it fixed? Do we put a letter in and wait three days and then bash our way in? Do we take Bracknell Forest Homes to court to force their hand? Thing is, she's been without heat for three days now, so it's getting rather urgent!

Just to explain - Caevans is my partner and she's asked me to comment about the current situation. Right - last week they took £50 out of her account putting her just over £6 overdrawn - this week the income support came in - and they took it all again and put her back into overdraft. They've ignored the letter of appropriation (twice now). The poor girl has been left with no money at all - everything is being taken up with these bank charges. We've got her to open up a parachute account - but the DWP is still paying her money into the Abbey account - where it's going to feed the bankers bonuses. We really need to know what steps to take now - could someone point out the sticky that was mentioned above? I haven't been able to find it! With no money for solicitors, we really need to know where to go. I've been advised that the banking ombudsman is about as much use as a chocolate ashtray, so we're thinking about going to CAB.

Can anyone help with this? Is the bank correct about the age that appropriation letters work?

Seems to be the way that they work - they have the book.

No book - the collector had one, that's all Seems a bit of a loose area, this. What would happen if the collector didn't hand on the money? How could you prove that you'd paid? I would assume that the collector would be acting as the lender's agent and, therefore, as soon as the money is handed to them it's the lender's problem to get the money out of their collector.

Hope you can help with this.... A friend of mine got a loan from Greenwood (which appears to be part of Provident). She finished paying for it with a single payment of £80 - and the collector said "well, that's you paid off, I won't be seeing you next Friday!". Nothing's been heard from them since (the collector never appeared again) but she received a letter from BC&W this morning claiming that she owed just over £80 to Provident. She intends to just completely ignore it - is this the way to go?

You suggest letter "N" as a start then? I was thinking of putting some "I don't actually live at this address, it is only a contact point for correspondence" or something like that.

I did have that thought myself - however, I would like to get this cleared up - at some time in the future I intend to rent a place of my very own (as opposed to living out of boxes) and, apart from the fact the serious negative credit scores might preclude my renting somewhere, if I did manage to get a place in my own right I'd probably end up getting all of this at the new addess.