I spoke to them this morning, and he said its currently awaiting an award decision, and has been since Tuesday morning.

Hi folks, Was hoping someone could give me some assistance in what I can do about my new tax credits claim that is currently in week 5 to be sorted out! I have had numerous phone call conversations with them now, and been told something different everytime! I last spoke to them on Monday and the guy told me that there had been an error with processing my form (which we fixed over the phone) and that the form would now be passed to back office for it to be processed. He also told me that it would be sorted by the end of this week which I am assuming is today, being as they don't work on weekends! We are really struggling to cope financially as all my partners wages have gone on the rent/council tax/bills and the money we'd managed to save is nearly all gone. I have a hefty solicitors fee that I have to pay on a weekly basis which takes up my Child Benefit. What's the best thing to do now? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The conviction was for perverting the course of justice, was purely a mistake as didn't realise what I was doing was wrong got community service for it. My ex was involved in something that I don't really want to disclose on here, but it had nothing to do with me, so don't think this will go against me, and the school are completely aware of what happened anyway. Rach

I applied for a voluntary post at a local school back in May so that I could do a course with the OU. Spoke to the headteacher, who knows me relatively well, and he said he would have to send off for a CRB check. To this day, I still have not received the CRB check back, everytime I ring them I get the same thing 'it's stuck with the local police and we have asked them to provide the data required.' I am getting very fed up now of being messed around, and I am beginning to worry that they may put stuff on their regarding some trouble with my ex partner(had nothing whatsoever to do with me, but not sure if it matters as he is linked to me). I don't know if they can legally do this, but I am worrying myself silly. I know that my one and only conviction back in 2002 (i think lol it was a long time ago!!) will appear on there but the school are aware of that, as well as some trouble with Social Services (again not involving me but it was to do with my children). The headteacher knows everything that happened, so not really worried on that part, but don't know what the police are doing!!! Surely it doesn't take them 3 and a half months to do their checks??!! Hope someone can help me out a bit here...or does anyone know of a way how I can speed this up?? The peeps at CRB are doing all they can, but still the police aren't doing anything.

Right, I have been having problems with British Gas for the last 9 months. At the end of February this year when I changed to EDF energy my final bill came through at nearly £400.00. Obviously I knew this was wrong as I had only been with them 4 months at the most! It turned out they had got the meter readings wrong, which then resulted in the wrong meter readings being given to EDF energy. I have since sorted out the meter readings with EDF energy, but only today has BG sent me a bill with the amended meter readings. I thought oh great can finally start paying this off...but then saw the price...£395.67...112.29 is apparently a previous bill (I didn't know about this one!) then 269.89 is from the 23 Dec 08 - 22 Feb 09. Now I know that that is definitely wrong!! Have spoken to Silverfox and he has said that I need to send a letter of complaint to British Gas disputing the amount, but is there anything else I need to do so that this doesn't go to debt collectors. Many thanks for reading, Rach.

Thank you so much for all your help!! I will get the ball rolling tomorrow. Thanks too to my wonderful Dad for assissting me as usual!! Rach xxx

A morning bump! Can anybody give me some more advice?? Regards, Rach x

Have sent them a letter asking them to stop ringing me...but is there anything else I should be doing? As I'm not sure. Thanks, Rach

I make sure I send em recorded delivery anyway...ive learnt from past mistakes lol. Speak soon xxx

Thanks for that Dad...will send the letter this afternoon. xxx

Hello to all caggers, im a newbie here and I need HELP! When I left british gas, I received a final bill of £150 odd, I couldn't afford to pay it, and I am now receiving numerous phonecalls daily regarding this debt that has now shot up to £395.00. What do i do next, thanks in advance Rach x