I can't pretend this is expert advice, no doubt someone with good knowledge of the benefit system will be along, but I think the simplest thing to do would be to ask the Benefit office. If you can prove you're not making money, then you can prove you're not committing fraud. If you were advised to undertake some theraputic voluntary work, all you've done is take up that adivce. Call the Benefit office and run it by them. At the very least they'll see you're being up-front about it. Common sense? As I said, not expert advice, but I hope it helps.

Well, I finally made some headway on this one. Not a [problem] (other than the usual offer to reduce your monthly payments by simply putting you in more debt for longer) just, it would seem, a terrible company employed as cold-callers to provide leads for a UK company - OneDebt. After a couple of aborted calls from 'Money Managers' (their line was so bad I couldn't hear them) I finally got a chance to pretend I was interested. Felt sorry for the poor lass on the other end - she had clearly just started and was being prompted at every turn by a woman next to her, who took over the call when she thought there might be an actual lead. After a few 'simple questions' I was put through to a UK based sales person. I made up a load of twaddle about mounting loans and such. He offered to halve monthly payments for a £30/month fee and a £50 registration fee, and the form's in the post. I also told the guy I spoke to that if they didn't make sure 'Money Managers' stopped calling, said forms would find their way to the bin and his employers would get the telephone harassment complaint. Thought it was worth a try. The form won't go in the bin of course, neither will it ever find its way back to OneDebt. But, if it ever arrives, I'll keep it for future reference. OneDebt aren't registered with Companies House, as far as I can see. 'Money Managers' seem to have a new angle too - now it's a "Government-Backed Programme" to get people out of debt! I'll be wording a letter to those in charge at OneDebt, and to BT, OFTEL etc about all this - at least we have somewhere to point fingers at last. The letter to OneDebt will mostly be about what a pathetic cold-calling company they're paying. Money Managers - or whatever the actual company is called, are, of course, off-shore and can't be touched I suppose. I put a link in here but it turned into an ad for them - sorry. I'm sure anynoe interested enough can choose a search engine 0800 408 05 01 OneDebt The Old School Loughborough Road Leicester LE4 5PJ [email protected]

I wonder if that would work with a 0000 0000 number? Not an option for me anyway though - I have siblings abroad and we call back and forth quite a lot.

My first post here, but I've been a spectator making use of the excellent advice on here for a while. I've been subject to constant calls from this crowd recently and it's got to the stage where I'm seriously considering changing my 'phone number. The 'hang up when they call' idea really isn't an option - the calls come daily and when you have a busy household (4 kids, 3 of them teenagers and 3 jobs between two parents) it can drive you to distraction. No matter how often I tell them not to call, they keep calling. Until recently I haven't been able to get any information about them. After deciding on a new approach (more on that in a minute) I decided to Google the name for the umpteenth time and actually got a result (got nothing before). Below is a quote from a company called Money Managers, who claim they're nothing to do with the setup of the same name that the calls are coming from..... Money Managers "Money Managers have received a number of phone calls concerning a company purporting to be MONEY MANAGERS cold calling people. They seem to be based from a call centre in Asia. This is a [problem] operation and is nothing to do with ourselves. As stated above we are fully regulated by the UK authorities and do not engage in such practices. Although we have not been able to track down this [problem] operation there are a number of things we do know. They leave you a telephone number which is an 02 something number. This number never connects to an actual telephone number. These people can be quite threatening and intimidating. Do not give them any details and especially not any credit/debit card details or bank details. If you are at all concerned we welcome you to contact the office of fair trading to verify that we are a UK based company established for many years and are fully licensed and regulated. You are welcome to call us if you wish to discuss this, and we can only apologise that you have been troubled by such a company. It is unfortunate that we live in a world where such things happen." ... for now I'm willing to give them the benifit of the doubt but if I can't find any info on the 'other' Money Managers' I may well send them an SAR just to be sure. It'll be worth a tenner if it gets me closer to stopping these calls. In the meantime I have another plan. They called again yesterday, while I was watching Wales murder Scotland at Rugby I said I was busy and asked them to call back in an hour. I'd toyed with the idea of repeating the request every time they call until they got fed up - but they didn't call back. Then I decided I'm going to play along and ask for their services - VERY carefully and without, of course, giving them one shred of personal information. They have my second name (although they haven't quite got that right), my 'phone number and nothing else. I'm hoping if I go along with them a bit I can find out at least whether they're a genuine company or a [problem] to get bank details. If it's the former, I should be able to get them to part with some company information. If I can't get any information from them without giving some of my own details - then it's obviously a [problem]. In that case I'll keep a very loud whistle by the 'phone until I've changed my number - which may be my only option. I'll let you know here how I get on - if any one else is being hassled by these calls maybe they have other ideas about how to deal with it?

Thanks for the input folks. I'll do just as you suggest Noggsy. I tried to look up T&C's on their website but can't find anything. There's a link to 'Codes of Practice' - these turned out to be a series of leaflets advertising their services. Sent them a request for the information via the website and it just went blank! (I'll see if the requested 'copy to me' turns up in my mail box). AshleyJane - no apologies needed! It's good to know I'm not the only person this ishas happened to, I couldn't find any references to it happening anywhere online. Glad you got your issue sorted out, I hope your new supplier's more co-operative. Insult is added to injury here because we've been harrassed by BG for the last 3 years for a bill from our old property after we moved out. The tenants that took over didn't pay a bean and BG couldn't trace them, so they started on us instead. Despite sending them tenancy agreements and even their letter confirming we'd changed address this one goes on and on. They've used three different collection agencies (not at the same time though, or I'd have them for that). Given their complete lack of co-operationon the meter issue, and the on-going harassment problem, I'm of a mind to start some serious complaint procedures. Thanks for your help. ps - huge thx for the tip on ebico AJ, looks like a great move - think I'll do the same

Hi, I've had a good search around this forum and elsewhere but can't seem to find anyone in the same situation(not quite the same issue as CSJ2K's post). I'll be as brief as I can and hopefully someone will be able to advise... I have prepay meters with British Gas which was installed to deal with a gas & electricity bill debts. Back in in April the remaining debts finally hit zero. For a couple of months now I've been enjoying paying for gas only, rather than an additonal £10/week towards each debt. Then last weekend when I topped up - it suddenly started taking money for gas debt again! (£7 of a £10 topup). I checked the stats on the meter and there's another £53 debt on there, to be taken off at £10/week. I was livid and spent almost 2 hours on the 'phone to BG over a couple of days. Their explanation is that it's for the difference between the debt that built up between me agreeing to a meter and it being installed. I still have to check my bills to verify that - which I'll be doing this weekend. But my main point is - what gives them the right to do this? I explained that I wasn't informed this was about to happen, but the guy from BG just said it doesn't matter - they're allowed to under the terms and conditions. I asked him to quote the section of the T&C's that allows for this but he couldn't - he said it wasn't explicity mentioned that they could do it, but neither was it explicitly forbidden. I pointed out that neither was it explicitly forbidden for a team of BG engineers to turn up at my door and re-plumb my digestive system from behind with 15ft of copper piping - but it would still be an unacceptable shock if it did happen! So my questions are - has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone know if British Gas really are allowed to chenge the setting on the meter without informing the customer? Thanks