Thanks so much for the response, much appreciated!

Hello,

I hope someone can give me some advice. I am currently in the 26th week of my income-related JSA claim and have received confirmation of a job offer today, so I am starting work on Monday 19th Nov.

I am due to sign on this Friday, should I still attend so I can get my job diary signed or should I just telephone and close my claim that way? I ask because of the potential delay in receiving my first wage packet in this job, I am obviously keen to secure my usual fortnightly JSA payment to help with bills and travel expenses, so two weeks JSA would be preferable to one.

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Many thanks

Hello all,

Am looking for some advice / clarification regarding studying and ESA.

I had my second Pathways interview last week and the advisor stated that I could start studying and still claim some ESA. It sounds too good to be true. I am not able to work at the moment but don't want to be on benefits long term so studying (at my own pace and with support) to enable me to gain qualifications for future employment seems a good choice.

I don't expect it to be the full amount of ESA, that would be ridiculous but any help would be appreciated to help me get back on my feet.

Can anyone please confirm one way or the other??

I want to make it clear that I am not a scrounger but if I am entitled to help I would like to look into it further.

Many thanks x

As a general rule of thumb, noise nuisances from private homes are dealt with by Environmental Health. If the noise is coming from a council property then it is the council's housing team that should deal with the complaint. Maintain your diary and put a formal complaint in, copying in your local councillor, a councillor on the Housing committee (e.g. Lead Member) or MP - that normally gets things moving.

Good luck

Is there a company procedure to follow if a Driver forgets his card and has this been relayed to all relevant employees? Have they had to sign anything? Technically the card belongs to the Secretary of State for Transport and not the company, like a driving licence.

I believe it is three months from the end of your employment, so your last day of work.

My advice would be to submit a formal complaint and cc. your local MP. They have to provide you with a full response within 28 days, you will at least know what the delay has been and what they are doing to resolve the problem. Trust me, a formal complaint with an MP involvement will put a rocket up their backside!

Just a thought, most regulatory services / environmental health departments deal with noise from private tenants, the council's own housing department normally deal with noise complaints regarding their tenants (you say you think they may be council properties) but if that was the case they really should have informed you that the complaint was being passed to them. Regardless, the length of time taken to deal with this is really unacceptable.

Most council's try to encourage recycling but they can, under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 legally ask that residents use separate receptacles (oooo, posh word!) for different types of waste. Your local council probably has Waste Awareness Officers / Recycling Officers who can normally give specific advice or even pay a home visit to look at your complaint re. lack of space. Afterall, if you recycle at a local supermarket then there should be no contamination of your regular domestic wheeled bin so an extra bin would be surplus to requirements!

Thanks for responding Bedlington83.

I moved into the property in 2002 and there was already a prepayment meter installed. I set up an account with British Gas and they sent me a card to use, which I used ever since until I telephoned for a replacement card a couple of months ago.

No problem, as long as I know that it was Eon who had been receiving my payments then I can sort the bill out. I just wanted to clarify if it was them or BG who had received my money!!

Thanks again for your help

Hello everyone,

Just wondered if anybody could give me some advice please?

I am currently using a gas prepayment meter and have always used my British Gas card to make payments. When I lost my card, I telephoned for a replacement and was told that I was with Eon, I wasn't aware that I had ever changed suppliers and asked to re-join BG. Shortly afterwards I received a final bill from Eon for approximately £20. I am currently in receipt of JSA so funds are limited but my question is, who did I make payments to when using my British Gas card but my supplier was Eon? I am going to ring them and arrange payment but would like to be armed with all the facts before I do.

Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Thank you so much postppj, you're a STAR! I will get these letters in the post asap!

From what I recall it was a store card with GE something or other and was approximately 3x the amount of the card limit. It's been over a year since I spoke to someone about it and have recently moved so my paperwork is in a box somewhere.

I'm not trying to avoid paying what I owe, but I don't want my rights to be abused and pay for extortionate and unreasonable charges!

Thank you so much flyingdoc, I thought it may have been too late to question them! Does it show any acknowledgement on my part that I've been making payments for over a year though??

I really appreciate your response, thank you

Hello all,

I wondered if anybody could give me some advice? I received a letter from the above and telephoned them, they advised that I owed money on a store card and whilst I vaguely remember having one I didn't remember not paying in full. They were very aggressive on the phone but agreed to freeze the interest if I were to make regular payments, which I have been doing for over a year now. Suffering from depression I did anything for an easy life.

I really wish I hadn't have been so naive and knew about this forum then!!! Can I still challenge them to produce a CCA even though I am making regular monthly payments or reduce the amount of interest that had accurred???

Any advice would be gratefully received!!! Thank you!

Hello all,

I wondered if somebody could give me some simple advice.

I have been in receipt of JSA for 6 months now after been dismissed from my previous job. I have a long history of depression which I told the Personal Advisor about and they logged it on the system and proceeded with my JSA claim. The stress of being out of work and finding it increasingly harder to get a job has trigged my depression, my last bout was January of this year where I was admitted to Hospital following a suicide attempt, this depressive episode lasted for at least 5-6 months at varying degrees.

I wanted to try and get some normality back into my life and try and get a job but I think, in hindsight, I was too unrealistic and placed more pressure on myself.

A friend told me that really I should have applied for Incapacity Benefit. I've tried looking at these forums and online guides but it all seems very confusing (I just can't concentrate on the information and get it clear in my head). Can I now apply for IB (or ESA?) if I have been claiming JSA for six months. I'm also concerned that the £60.15 I currently receive is barely enough to cover bills, credit cards and minimum living expenses, I can't begin to imagine how I would cope if I had to be put on the assessment rate, which I think is much lower than the £60.15 JSA, for 28 weeks.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks