This is regarding a Car sale , but the [problem] could apply ot anything. ( whats wrong with the word Sc@m ?? ) My Dad is 87 and a bit out of his dept when thing gets outside the simple Ebay type see /pay .buy /get delivered senario. He paid 3k to a Apparently legit Escrow comany ,based on an advert on Ebay , the advert got pulled the instant he asked about it and then went via thier messaging system . But it seems now he's been had , as part of a larger [problem] involving a number of websites , hacked and giving glowing referencesto this fake company . Actually on investigating its not just one fake site there are dozens all doing the same thing. see here ... his is the top one ... Revenna It does fall under the " if it too good " it probably is .. He did a bank transfer fro Santander to Trustees saving bank for £3000.. Just doing an action fraud Report . But is there anything that can be done to try and get the money back ! Our first contact was with Santanders fraud dept who have said, no chance as he did it willingly , hard luck!! cheers for reading this Chris

My Single parent daughter (now with 2 boys) was made redundant a couple of weeks after she returned from maternity ( another thread on here:evil:). Since then she has been chasing all the gov /council departments for here benefits/credits etc , there has been a ridiculous amount of delays/backlogs in getting this resolved and its still on going. So My question is : .. during this time she has spent her meager redundancy pay and some family borrowing just keeping the council house and associated payments going, Should she not have her benefits backdated to the time of her original claims,( which is the 4th Feb this year), to get all or some of this money back ? . take care all .. Chris.

Just had a reply from the company HR who say the Redundancy and Exs gratia have not been taxed but the Pilon has .. C.

Daughter has finally received some payment in the post . Nice lack of detail in the attached letter. It would seem that she has been taxed on her PILON. Which I believe to be wrong, as there is no mention of PILON in her contact of employment. And from what I can see this means this type of payment is then classed as compensation and therefore not a taxable amount . Am I correct here ? bearing in mind the para below !! C. PS the only para in a similar view in the contract is : "If in the opinion of the company it is considered appropriate, the comapny reserves the right at any time after notice of termination has been given, to lawfully terminate your employment with immediate effect, by paying to you an amount equal to your basic salary and accrued holiday pay for the then unexpired period of your notice ".

From scurrying around the web , it does seem that Pilon and or Holiday pay is a very rather grey subject ?.. Any opinons seem varied ? Even Gov's Business Link site tells employers to pay for holiday accrued to the end of the notice period whether it is worked or not? Also in the 1st letter ( 16th Jan ) , the invite to a consultation meeting , there is a statement .. to discuss "The amount of redundancy pay you would receive and any other relevant payments/deductions if relevant ( please note that for the purpose of calculations the date of the 2nd January 2013 will be used, this date is subject to change) ". Any clue what this bit means ? Not mentioning a date in an attempt to backdate the redundancy ? C.

Looks like she did not get the new position .. So its back to sorting out the monies due to here .. Still no mention of the 30 odd days outstanding holiday .. by the company .?. C.

Well there was a meeting today, And the the company are "restructuring " .. both at head office in London and down in this satelite dept in Dorset. 20 or So in London at risk and 4 down here . So here 3 jobs are disappearing and being lobbed in together under a new title. And this job is up for grabs and Daughter has been asked to apply for it , as she is the most qualified . At the other end of the scale .. the redundancy package offer is .. 5 yrs X 1 weeks wages Per .. standard stuff. an Ex gratia ? payment equiv to about 5 weeks salary Plus 5 weeks salary in lieu of Notice . Not sure what this ex gratia is ?? , but Holiday pay ( a full years @ 30 Days ) is not mentioned any where. ( This could be another 5 weeks or so of salary) ? C..

Actually the person who notifed yesterday said quite definitively " your job is now redundant"., and now there's the consultation ? ... Does sound about par for the course at this place .. C.

Thanks for the reply , Typically .. just after posting this , an Email came through, with attached letter. Which give time for a meeting tomorrow (friday) , with HR and MD, to discuss , 1. the selection of the current role for redundancy 2. Chances of re-deployment 3 The amounts of R-Pay to be offered and any other payments Will see what is going on then ! . C.

Hi all, Writing this for my daughter actually.. Yesterday , completely out of the blue , my daugther and 3 others were called to a meeting and told of their position ( in my daughters case, an assistant Editor) was to be made redundant. She has been in this post for the last 5 years. She was told that she could apply for voluntary, but this offer, with no details whatsoever is only available for about 24 hours or so . ?? So far there is no indication of any written notice appearing . The actual current editorial work is still on going and is most definitely going to to be passed to another "safe" employee" . The contract of employment aligns basically with the legal minimums . for 5 yrs 5 X weeks salary. It also has a clause stating my daughter is NOT allowed to be employed in a similar capacity with any publishing company for a minimum of 6 months ?. Is this enforceable ?? or legal ? Any redployment looks unlikely as the local workforace is very smaill in number and the only cummute option is 120 miles by train..so with 2 kiddies not an option. My daughter has only recently returned to work from maternity leave ( she is a single parent) and during that time, the HR dept made a total hashup of the p-leave and accused my daughter of not apply for it .( this after 8mths !) . But having kept copies and emails we were able to show the HR manger was lying about the situation and she had to eventually back down. Because of this , we have a suspicion this is slightly more than a business decision , rather more personal ! well one would wouldn't one . I know this is a long story .. but Any advice peeps ?? thanks in advance.. Chris

Maybe its age thing ?? I just don't take any S**T from anyone these days I get MAD and then get even !! plus I just don't like ANYONE being treated unfairly , probably why I frequent this forum But when its family... it becomes very personal .. and the opposition better look out!! .. Plus being a part timer , workwise now , I've got the time . phew better go and sit down !! Chris

She has been getting a stressed about the whole situation , esp as not being at work you just don't know whats going on !! And its only about 4 years since she had to go bankrupt, due to debts left by her previous partner. and she has been gettong on very well managing her finances up til now !! .. All not been helped by her phone line being down for the last week C.

Well, Things have moved on a fair bit since, my last post. My daughter went to visit her line manager at work yesterday. NB Her line manager has been very supportive and has been furious about the whole situation .Especially as she was told by HR to keep out of it as “it’s a personal matter”. My daughter took a small “crib sheet” I compiled for her, I wanted to accompany here but decide for this visit to stay at home. NB the HR Dept is over 100miles away in London so a face to face meeting is not practical. Whilst at work my daughter spoke to the HR manager again, Who Just still wanted to change the subject whenever the Admin error was mentioned and every time my daughter wanted to negotiate a lower amount all she got was “I can’t make that decision”. Yet as far as we know she came up with the payment plan. During this my daughter intimated she was not happy about all this and was going to raise a grievance. After this HR telecom finished my daughters line manager decide to change direction and she telephoned one of the owners of the company, (also a female). To explain what’s been going on. And as far as I've been told the owner " Blew her top" amd She said “leave it with me?” NB this Owner of the company was also one of the instigators of the company’s “investor’s in people”. Well within an hour both the line manager and my daughter got an Email. My daughter got an apology from the owner of the way its all been handled. She now will not have to repay anything until she goes back to work. And a report on the whole sorry affair is being compiled for the owner and in the owners words , "the last thing a new mum needs to do whilst looking after a new baby is to check up on whether her company is doing its job properly !" We will see where this all goes later. the greivance is presently on hold . ------ Next instalment soon. LOL.

the only notification of this witholding of SMP was in the letter mentioned in my first speel, that was laying out the very high payment plan they had come up with. . A very Basic precis of the letter is " you are at fault for not noticing the overpayments, we want you to pay it back according to this payment plan ,and we are witholding your June SMP until this is resolved ." As she is close to the minimum wage at her normal rates, SMP is a lot lower and they want to take out an extra 200 a month from this SMP !! . C. C.

Just found out they are presently witholding this months SMP until this is sorted out ?? Unbelvievable ?? C.