Oh - no there is no end date to achieve any more qualifications!

Hi Honeybee and Priority, Thanks for your replies. It certainly is exploitation in my eyes! In terms of qualifications, when she joined this place she already had her BHS (British Horse Society) Stages I and III and was 3/4 of the way through an NVQ Level II. At this place, she is meant to be studying towards her Preliminary Teaching Certificate, but apart from riding lessons, which are sometimes regular and sometimes hit and miss, she is getting practically no other tuition, no theory etc etc. They also told her that the NVQ is a waste of time! Basically a 'working student' should mean that she works part of her time on the yard to pay for her riding and tuition. However, in practice, the students and especially my daughter, seem to run the whole yard. She is the most qualified and experienced person there apart from the boss and her daughter and spends 95% of her time working and teaching clients. She has no contract or terms of employment and is treated like dirt. The accomodation is appalling, a lot of the time in winter she had no heating and no hot water. We have reported the place to the minimum wage hotline, who said that as she didnt have a contract, either educational or working, then she should be treated as a normal full time employee and be paid the minimum wage. They plan on doing a spot check and asking to see everyones contract of employment, but said it could take months as they have a list a mile long to work through. Its been three months so far. I am desperate for her to leave, but she has a boyfriend and social life based there which she doesnt want to leave. I feel so helpless and frustrated that I cant do anything to make her life better. At 18 she shouldnt be struggling like this. She works so hard and is just taken advantage of.

Hi, I have an 18 year old daughter who works supposedly as a working student at an equestrian centre, but seems more like slave labour to me. She is given a caravan and food and receives a whole £40 a week for working 7.30am - 6pm every day, often longer. She doesnt receive proper training, but does receive regular riding lessons. However, she teaches most of the riding school clients apart from the really advanced level. If she moved out of the caravan I think she will be entitled to housing and council tax benefit, but my main question is:- why isnt she entitled to working tax credit? From my investigation, if she was 25 years old she would get it, but not at aged 18 - surely this cant be right - how unfair is that! She cant manage on £40 a week, she has special clothing to buy (riding boots, jodphurs, yard boots etc etc) and I am continually having to help her out, but can ill afford it myself, being a single parent. Am I right in assuming that she is not entitled? Surely there must be some help somewhere for her!! Any advice would be very gratefully received.

Hi there - can I suggest you move your thread (or start a new one) in the benefits section, as I am sure you would be entitled to some kind of help. There are lots of very knowledgeable people on this site who, I am sure, will have lots of good advice to give you - you just need to post in the right place. Good luck. x

Hi, there is a really good website called www.entitledto.co.uk which has a benefits checker. It asks you to put in your details and they will then give you a fairly good estimation of what you will be entitled to, give or take a few quid. I think there is also something similar on the Direct Gov website, but I havent used that one. Good luck! xx

Well, today is my IUC, hardly got any sleep last night, feel really sick and have started biting my nails again!! At least I will have a solicitor with me. Thank you to everyone who gave me their opinions and good wishes. I will let you know the outcome.

I would just like to let you know that most solicitors will give you advice and attend the IUC with you free of charge, as you have the same legal right to a solicitor as if you are arrested and at a police station. I know this because I have to attend an IUC this week and this is the information that my solicitor gave me. It is only if you have to go to court that any fees come into play and thats when you need to apply for legal aid if you think you may be entitled. Good luck.

Thanks for your opinion Jabba - I appreciate your honesty. I understand what you are saying. Obviously there is no denying that I took the money, I just hope that they will take my circumstances into account when deciding what action to take. I dont have a copy of my original email, as it was an online enquiry form, but I do have their response and a couple of emails afterwards. I also have copies of my letters to the council and my phone bills which show quite a few attempts to call IS. I have received an overpayment invoice from the council which I have already made a payment on and asked to make an arrangement to pay the rest - they left me a message on Friday to contact them to make this arrangement. After spending hours at the CAB, they told me that they didnt deal with criminal cases, but gave me a list of solicitors that did. I have now found someone who deals with benefit IUCs a lot and he is looking at my case. I also dont have to pay for him to do this or for him to come to the IUC with me, which is a relief. Apparently I also qualilfy for legal aid, which I didnt think I would as I am working full time. My interview is next Thursday and I am sick with worry. I am trying to keep a happy face on for the kids sake, but it is hard. I know ive only got myself to blame, im just worried what this will do to the children if I have to go to court - they have been through so much already.

Again, I dont think I was clear. By letter from council I mean two letters, one re: hb and one re: council tax, both attached to reams of paper with calculations on them and stating what they think I need to repay (but which could be revised when they receive my payslips etc).

Yes, sorry, didnt make it clear - just the returned cheques. Have received letter from council detailing what they think I need to repay in HB and Council Tax and have requested payslips etc, so that they can work out what hb/council tax benefit I would have been entitled to so they can revise the balance. I have also requested their account details so I can start paying them back straight away, albeit a bit at a time.

Oh God, it never even occured to me that they might think that! I just presumbed it was the consequence of me informing them that I was working - I now feel even more sick!

Jabba, you seem to know what you are talking about. Does this mean that I will automatically be prosecuted, even though I have brought it to their attention and already started to pay it back?

Thank you for that. It had crossed my mind that this might be possible. I am trying to find a solicitor that has experience in benefit cases, but it doesnt seem all that easy. I most certainly will continue to be honest and upfront, as that had always been my intention from the outset. I am just hoping that it will count in my favour that I was the one to tell them about my actions, not the other way around. I would be really grateful for any more advice, especially from anyone who has experience working for the DWP or have been through something similar, as I am starting to feel really sick with worry.

Hi, would really appreciate any advice anyone can give. I'll try to summarise my situation. Up until just over a year ago, I lived in Spain with my husband and 5 kids. About three years ago, my husband walked out on us (and is still in Spain), and refused to pay any money to us. Despite me working full time, (on crap money, in crap job) over there, we struggled horrendously. I couldnt afford to feed or clothe the kids properly, the electicity and water were constantly cut off (the last three months we were there, we had no water and had to get bottles from a pipe up the road to wash with, flush the loo etc). My ex was emotionally and physically abusive and put me and kids through hell and I was only just holding it together for the sake of the kids, I was emotionally and physically drained. In the end, the bank started legal proceedings to take the house from us, so I made the decision to hand the keys back to them and come back to England - at this point my oldest two had already come back here to study. Anyway, I sold anything I could (furniture etc) to raise the money to return, put our treasured possessions (photos, kids toys etc) into storage and came back Jan last year with just a suitcase each, no home to go to, nothing!! Luckily, my wonderful sister said we could stay with her, which we did whilst I tried to get benefits sorted out and find us a house to live in. I eventually found a landlord who would take us on (if your on benefits, most dont want to know) and we moved in in March last year. I was claiming income support and housing/council tax benefits. At the end of May I was offered a part time job cleaning which I took. I fully intended to tell the DWP I had started work, but I was so bogged down with trying to survive - the kids had no clothes, the house was unfurnished, we had no furniture, the storage company back in Spain were demanding payments and subtly threatening to get rid of our stuff if I didnt pay, my old car was still over there and I couldnt afford to bring it over, I was paying a fortune in bus fares to get to work, to go shopping, had to buy school uniform etc etc. I really just had my head down, trying to survive, trying to sort the kids heads out as it was so traumatic for them, that I let things go on. I then managed to get a temporary full time job, which has carried on (thank goodness), but up until recently was still really struggling, financially and emotionally to stay on top of things. I did phone the DWP on a few different occasions, but just kept getting put on hold (on one occasion, I must have phoned about 30 times in a row and have the phone records to prove it!). I know it was wrong and I always, always had the intention of letting the DWP know and paying the money back, but I just felt so drained and bogged down with everything that I let it drag on. However, when I realised that there was a general enquiries email at the DWP I sent them an email (in the middle of Feb this year) telling them my changed circumstances. I was very honest and told them the exact dates I had been working and why I hadnt let them know. I also told them that I knew I had to pay the money back. I was then contacted by a very nice lady from income support who said she would sort it out and I should contact tax credits to arrange working tax credits. She gave me a number for this,which I phoned and got through after only a few times. I again explained to the lady (who understandably was a bit snotty with me!) and she said I had lost money by not contacting them and would put an award in the post to me. I waited for the award to come through which I was then going to send to housing benefit, but it didnt come. In the meantime, they started to pay money into my account together with a back payment. As nothing came in the post until recently, I wrote a letter to my council towards the end of Feb explaining the situation again, asking them to reassess my housing benefit and tell me what I owed them. I also offered to come in and see them if they wanted. I didnt receive anything back, but did receive another housing benefit cheque which I promptly returned to them with another letter. I then got a letter from the job centre saying I was suspected of benefit (IS and HB) fraud and asking me to come in for an IUC three days later. I phoned up and spoke to the investigator who was very pleasant and rearranged for the 25 of this month. To my surprise I then received yet another hb cheque, which, again I returned to them with another letter asking what was going on and telling them about the IUC and again asking if they wanted me to come in and see them. They did respond to this letter and thanked me for sending the cheques back, told me what I owe and said the returned cheques would be offset against this. They have given me a person to contact to arrange a payment plan. I have also been asked for documents (payslips etc) so they can reassess my council tax etc. Well, I said I would keep it brief, but obviously I havent - sorry! I am now really worried about the IUC and what the outcome will be. I have been really, really stupid in not informing them of my changes sooner. I really didnt intend to defaud anyone and always fully intended to pay everything back. I just needed to get on my feet and get my kids sorted and happy - they have been through so much and my only intention was to make sure they were ok and not too damaged by everything we went through. Does anyone have any idea of how they will look at my situation? I am in a job which I would lose if I had a criminal record. I know I left it for a long time, but I did inform them in the end and have been totally honest with them. I really feel that I am just getting our lives back on track, but that this could be taken away from us because of my stupidity. My gut instinct is to just go to the IUC and carry on being totally honest with them and hope that they understand. Am I just being naieve? Any advice would be very gratefully received.