Should be 15th March but I'm not even sure if it will be then or if my employment contract has been terminated. I'm struggling to get answers from my employer. I didn't know I was only going to receive £159.40 until payday today when I checked my bank account balance. I queried this with my employer and they told me they had sent a letter to me at the end of January telling me that from February I am only going to receive SSP. I never received the letter so today was a complete shock to me. I did receive my wage slip in the post later today and it showed payment date of 28th Feb so I'm now thinking they have paid me that far and now my contract is terminated but I really can't get them to confirm this. It's a complete shambles and I have been left with no money whatsoever.

BIG problem now, today I have received my salary and it is only £159.40 not the expected £1345.00 (see my other post for explaination) so none of the crditors will be getting any money ever again!! Due to this, my Co-op account will also be closed. I just don't know what I am going to do!! No money to even eat let alone pay creditors.

Well luckily I already took photocopies of the 2 fit notes before I sent the originals to my employer. But can I backdate ESA from the time of the first fit note even though my employer paid me full weeks pay for the first 2 weeks and then SSP for the rest?

How could I apply for benefits when I thought my employer was paying me? They have the fit notes.

Thanks for your responses so far. Ok, I emailed my line manager (Keeping everything in writing and besides which this has given me such a shock that I'm not up to speaking on the phone at the moment). I just received an email back from the HR manager telling me that he had sent a letter to me at this end of January. I never received it until he just emailed it to me now. This is what it says:- I am sorry that you are currently off sick. I am writing to advise you that you will be paid full pay for the month of January and will then go on to Statutory Sick Pay. This is in line with your contract of employment. I have replied to say that a follow up phone call to check I had received the letter would have been beneficial and also to ask him the rate of SSP and for which dates it covers (my £159!) as I thought SSP was £79 per week. Are they right to do this when my illness is depression and I am already working my notice? If they want to end my contract, they have to give me one months notice unless it's instant dismissal of course.

In December I resigned from my job due to health reasons. I gave 3 months notice as per my contract. I spoke with the management at this point and they said that even though my health was bad, they really wanted me to work the full 3 months. In January, after serving over one month of the notice period, my health worsened and my doctor signed me off sick. I have since sent in a further sick note to my employer which covers me until next week. My 3 month notice period is due to end on 10th March by which time I should also have accumulated 4 days holiday. Today (payday!) I find that my employer has only paid £159.40 into my bank account for the last work period from 15th Jan until now. My full months wage is £1345. If my employer is paying me contractual sick pay or SSP, this amount of £159.40 seems low for one month. I have also received no notice from my employer that I will not receive my full salary whilst being sick during my notice period. My first sick note was for hypertension (high blood pressure) and my 2nd sick note was for depression. Can anyone please advise if my employer is right to do what they have done and how am I meant to cope with £159.40 for one month??

In addition to the above PDLs, I also owe Shop Direct £447.08 + £1426.21 for 2 catalogue debts and Capital One credit card £376.05. All my other debts are already with the Payplan DMP.

I guess if you are now looking for work that will be why you are on JSA as the way I understand it ESA is for people who are unfit for work. If you resigned from your job you did very well to get JSA after 2 weeks as I thought benefits were witheld for 26 weeks if you voluntarily leave your job (or is it different if you leave because of illness?)

Heliosuk, how else can it be proven if it is not by thread marks alone?

Hi Andrew, sorry to hear of your problems and that they are still continuing. How come you got JSA and not ESA if you are ill?? So they paid you benefit after 2 weeks did they? Has anyone else had experience like mine?

Hi Jamie, Ok, I have a DMP with Payplan so it doesn't cost me anything but do you think it's worth my while to stop this with Payplan and do the whole thing on my own? Regarding the PDLs, my next payday is tomorrow (15th Feb) and the lenders and outstanding payments and due dates are as follows:- PAYDAY UK £262.50 O/S - I am due to pay £92.50 on 15/02 so this will have to go ahead as it's too late to change this month POUNDS TILL PAYDAY £695.40 O/S - I am due to pay this in full on 15/02. Again, too late to change this month and will have to reloan to keep me going until next month LENDING STREAM £130.00 O/S - I am due to pay £80.00 on 15/03. Again, too late to change this month TEXT LOAN £234.00 O/S - Due to pay on 16/02 and I will pay this off this month E-PAYDAY £375.00 O/S - Due to pay £102.00 0n 18/02. This is one of those cheque lenders and it is set up with a different account to where my wage is paid in. It's a Halifax account that I hardly use...only keep it open because my CO-OP basic account doesn't have a cheque book. WONGA £840.67 O/S - Due to pay on 23/02 but will not have the money to pay it. This is the big problem one. Can't rollover anymore as I've reached my rollover limit. HELP! ONE MONTH LOAN £130.00 O/S - Due to pay 23/02 WAGE DAY ADVANCE - £187.50 O/S - Due to pay £37.50 on 28/02 MISTER CHEQUE £437.94 O/S - Due to pay £145.98 on 28/02. Again, this is a cheque lender and it's coming from my Halifax account MINICREDIT £132.00 O/S - Due to pay 01/03 That's the PDL's. I'll confirm the catalogues and Capital One card asap. My salary is £1345.00 this month (hopefully, if I am still on full wage as I am on sick leave). It will be less next month due to my notice period ending on 10th March. Hope you can give me some advice on how to proceed with this mess and BTW, can I be done for fraud??

I resigned from my job in December due to illness and am currently on my 3 months notice period but I have actually been signed off by the doctor for the last few weeks and so quite likely will not work the rest of my notice. Once I receive the last of my wages in March I am out of work, unfit to work and don't know if I will receive benefits as technically, even though I haven't been fit for work for the last few weeks, I DID voluntarily resign from my job (well, illness forced me to). Can anyone please confirm if I will be eligible for ESA at least and will I receive it straight away or will I have to wait? Should I wait until I have left my job before I apply for benefits?

I'm very relieved to find that there are lots of people on this forum who have multiple Payday Loans (I thought I was the only silly person out there until I discovered that!). Just wondering HOW those people have managed to get multiple Payday Loans since most of the lenders don't lend to people who already have a Payday Loan?? I did not admit that I am already in a DMP or I don't think they would have given me the loan in the first place. Has anyone else got Payday Loans when they are in a DMP?? I now have a MASSIVE problem though......I have NINE Payday Loans (very stupid I know) plus Text Loan but I don't really count them as they are very short term and WILL be repaid (I never know when I may need to use them again). I resigned from my job in December due to illness and am currently on my 3 months notice period but I have actually been signed off by the doctor for the last few weeks and so quite likely will not work the rest of my notice. Once I receive the last of my wages I am out of work, unfit to work and don't know if I will receive benefits as technically, even though I haven't been fit for work for the last few weeks, I DID voluntarily resign from my job (well, illness forced me to). I guess that's a question I should be asking in the Benefits section though. Anyway, by the time my final wage runs out (probably the day I receive it because of all the money I owe out!), I will either have little money (if I receive benefits) or NO MONEY AT ALL. Either way, it will be impossible for me to pay my DMP and the Payday Loans. Firstly, would Payplan who manage my DMP, allow me to add the PDLs to my DMP (plus 2 outstanding catalogue debts and a Capital One credit card that I haven't owned up to them about yet)? Then would they be able to negotiate with ALL my creditors so that I can pay each and every one of them no more than £1 (one pound) per month? I have February and March wages to be paid to me yet (although I still don't know if these are full or lower due to my sickness), however, March will be lower in any case because it will not be a full month. I'm thinking that I could really do with every spare penny from these 2 wages so if I stop paying my PDLs NOW, I can at least save the money I would normally give them so that I still have a bit of money to pay for essentials and utility bills. Can anyone please give me any advice on this? Also, because I have taken out PDL's when I am on a DMP (I have never lied about how much I earn though), once I stop paying the PDL companies can they report me for fraud? I'm really worried that I can get into deep trouble for lying. Help please!

Thanks. I hope I get lots of opinions! This needs to be sorted very soon before it's too late to challenge.

So do you think the police are the first step before trading standards and the small claims court?

Yes afcwben, that's what I was wondering too. It seems I have effectively had the engine I paid for stolen. Would the police be any help? Also, surely this is also fraud too as they have claimed they have done work they haven't. The even more suspicious thing is that someone with the same type of car lives near the garage (these cars as I said before are Japaneses imports and not something you see on the road every day, once a week or even once a month).....could it be they were looking for a new engine, the garage fitted my AWOL replacement engine into it, charged the other owner for the engine and labour, then did a patch up on my original engine without removing it (so that the tapping noise vanished for a while) and charged me for the labour and starter motor?? They would certainly make a lot of money by doing that....charging 2 people for engine replacements, charging one person for the engine and they haven't had to pay for any engine at all!! By the way, can anyone please confirm with such a dispute if it is up to the garage to prove the correct engine and starter motor have been fitted or is it up to me to prove it??

I know the VIN number for both cars but the VIN number does not show on the engine and it is a totally different number to the engine

Yes all mechanics who have inspected it so far have concluded the engine has not been removed because there are no clean threads on the screws....which would be clean if the engine had been removed. There is no sign at all that anything has been moved, removed or fitted. Also, there is no sign that the bonnet has been taken off but the garage say they dropped the engine out from below rather than taking it out from above. I even took it to the garage where the previous owner who imported the car took it and they say it still has the same engine it arrived into the UK with (in 2006). I will see if my camera can get some good shots of the screw threads. The starter motor is also still completey bolted on like it's never moved since the day it was installed at the factory so even though I have paid for a NEW starter motor and the garage are saying it is reconditioned, it appears that I still have the ORIGINAL starter! I have been in touch with the Ebay seller this week (although I have not told him the tale with the garage). He is still helpful but unfortunately, the engine number on his V5 of the vehicle which donated the replacement engine does not have the actual engine number but the engine part number and he can't recall noting the number stamped on the engine. The V5's for both cars are not helping because the one for my car shows no engine number and the one for the donor car does not show the correct engine number. If both showed the correct number this would prove the issue once and for all. By the way, can anyone please confirm with such a dispute if it is up to the garage to prove the correct engine and starter motor have been fitted or is it up to me to prove it??

The garage were happy for me to source the engine and they were informed of this from the start. They didn't say whether or not they would guarantee the engine but I didn't expect them to anyway This car is a Japanese import and unfortunately the engine number does not appear on the V5 (quite common for Jap imports apparantly) I was not given an option on the starter motor (new or recon) Asked for the old parts before the work commenced but they now say they have scrapped them. Are they correct to do this as for one, I asked for them back and two, they are strictly speaking my property? I really don't trust this garage to go anywhere near my car again

Hi, this is a summary of the scenario:- A few months ago, my car began to make terrible tapping noises from under the bonnet and then broke down. I called the AA and they told me it could be the tappets and I would have to I take it to a garage as it wasn't something they could help with. The garage that I took it to said the engine needed replacing. I bought a used car engine from Ebay which I believed was in very good condition and arranged for it to be delivered directly to the garage (I never saw it, apart from shrinkwrapped on a pallet when I went back to the garage to see how the job was going). I paid a few hundred pounds for the labour and the garage also charged me for a new starter motor to be fitted as they said the one which came with the replacement engine didn't work (?!!). Now, several weeks after collecting my car from the garage, the tapping noise is back. I have had several mechanics check the engine and they all say it has not been replaced and I still have the original engine. The garage MAY have transplanted some parts from the replacement engine but they have not replaced one engine with another which is what I paid them to do. I will now have to take the car elsewhere to get my original engine repaired as other mechanics have told me the original engine is in good condition (apart from the tapping of course!) so the garage should never have told me it needed to be replaced in the first instance....it just needed to be fixed. I have now spoken to both partners of the local independent garage about my grievance. They have admitted that the starter motor is not NEW but reconditioned (I paid for a new one) but they ARE saying they replaced the starter motor even though it looks like they haven't. Payment was made by cash but I have a receipt.

I am certain that a garage has not fitted the parts they have charged me for. I have asked for a refund but they insist they have done the work correctly. They say if I want a refund I have to prove that they have not used the parts. Who is responsible for proving if the parts were fitted...me, the customer or the garage, the service provider?? Quick replies will be greatly appreciated please as there is a lot of money at stake here.