Government could pay out more than £1bn due to benefits 'shambles' The government could pay out more than £1bn in back payments after finding out that tens of thousands of people claiming sickness and disability benefits have been underpaid. Due to a "historic error" at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 180,000 people claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) have been underpaid and may be owed an average of £5,000 each. The blunders date back to between 2011 and 2014, when claimants were switched over from incapacity benefit. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/government-could-pay-more-1bn-due-benefits-blunder-152800162.html https://uk.news.yahoo.com/government-owes-more-1-5bn-152323666.html

Hi All - For those of you who have not read my issue, here is a history on another thread: https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?485667-Got-CCJ-due-to-council-and-bank-blunder!!-what-compo-should-i-ask-for&p=5116746#post5116746 In a nutshell: - own a rental property in another London borough to where I live - council initiated CCJ proceedings for non payment of Service Charges (payments were being made but without a reference, so monies could not be allocated to SC account) - council's solicitors were sending court paperwork to rental property, and not correspondence, despite council providing correspondence address - CCJ issued - Council solicitors have taken the responsibility to remove CCJ at no cost to me - in their draft order to remove CCJ, the solicitors were giving false info in their statement of truth section. AND still continued to send paperwork to rental property, despite having correct correspondence address. There have been invaluable help on this forum, so any help with this would be greatly appreciated. BF I know you mentioned suing them for negligence - could this be something we look at whilst waiting for SAR's from bank and council? Many thanks in advance, Jay

Hi all - Hoping to get some help here with what to claim from Lloyds Bank. In a nutshell, I have been paying service charges as a Standing Order for via Lloyds, for £88.96 per month. This was set up since 2010. According to the beneficiary, my SO's were being made but not hitting my service charges account because payment reference was removed - that's what the beneficiary use to allocate the SC monies. It was found to have been going through but placed in beneficiary's suspense account on investigation. However, according to Lloyds, I cancelled my original SO, set up a new one in Aug 2016, but without a reference. I only went into the bank early Jan 2018 to put the payment reference back on. I have complained to Lloyds, who have admitted liability because they should have asked for a payment reference, but they didn't. And offered £500 compensation to which I declined. During this time, I have also made a DSAR to provide me with copies of the change in SO because I've never gone in or made any changes to my SO set up in 2010. The DSAR reply was that these documents cease to exist. I have since complained to FoS. The CCJ was made in June 2017, and I only found out in early Jan 2018. Ofcourse, if the bank did not remove the payment reference, I would not have got a CCJ issued against me. As a result, I lost a house in the process. What can I do from this point on wards? Many thanks to you all in advance for your help. Jay --------------------------------------------- this thread is a split of a larger thread involving a number of issues. For the history and context see http://cag.tw/273m

Hi! I am new on this forum and would love some advice/guidance in what I can do. Here is the back story where the dates become quite important: I own a council property, and have done so for many years. SO set up to pay service charges to council every month of £88.96. This was setup in March 2011. Any under payments were always taken care of by a cheque at the end of the year to bring account back in line. Fast forwarding to 2017, the council have found that there was non-payment of SC between the period Jul 2017 to Dec 2017. And in light of this period of non-payment, the council also found that there was non-payment between Aug 2016 and Dec 2016. The council have said several letters were sent to my correspondence address (different to my rental property), but I never received any of the letters. If I had, I would have made payment as the funds were there. as a result, council took action in the form of legal proceedings to recover these payments. And subsequently, a CCJ was issued in June 2017. However, the court paperwork/summons were being sent to my rental property by the councils' solicitors, despite council providing my correspondence address (I have email confirmation council even admitting to this). So I had no knowledge of the CCJ in the first instance. Only last month, my family and I were trying to buy a house and upon doing credit checks, I found this CCJ to be in existence, 6 months after it had been issued. I contacted the council, who have said that they investigate and found payments were being made - by my bank as a SO ( bank statements also show this) but there was no payment reference attached to the SO's in order to correctly attribute any SC payments to my SC account. Monies were being held in a suspense account. All those 10 payments for the 2 periods above, were to have been received just without a reference to payment. I immediately, contacted the bank and asked what on earth happened and opened a complaint and told them I have received a CCJ. They investigated, and advised me that: in Aug 2016, previous SO (Mar 2011 to June 2016) was cancelled and a new SO setup in Aug 2016, just as when the arrears started. no reference was put in place when new SO was setup. I only went to the bank on Jan 10 2018 to put this in place. In light of the above, I never have gone to the bank to change any SO details because that bank account was only in relation to rental income and outgoings. there was no reason for me to go and change any details/payments of something I had in place since Mar 2011. But the main question is, what on earth happened between Jan 2017 and Jun 2017? As far as I am concerned, the council received payments with reference; which is what I asked the bank. They could not confirm nor deny this was the case other than a payment reference being put in on Jan 10 2018. Sounds very bizarre. Both the council and bank were not helping in the documents I wanted. There I did the following: Under SAR - from the council, I requested all info held on me regarding the CCJ as well as bank ledger showing payments being received by the council with payment reference in the middle period and not both periods either side; AND Under SAR - from the bank, I have asked the bank provide detailed info of all my SO's between Aug 16 and Jan 18, as well as any proof of documentation me making a change to my SO back in Aug 2016. Both are still pending and should be received no later than 2nd April 2018 under the statutory time limit. And any arrears outstanding were paid immediately by cheque to bring SC account back in line. However, my main question is, who can I claim for compensation - either parties or both? And for how much? is has left me in such a pickle because I lost a house in the process to purchase and to buy a car on finance for my business. And my insurance will be soon come for renewal which will undoubtedly be affected. Council have admitted the blunder, but not apologized, and have got in touch with their solicitor who admitted liability and will be bearing costs to take CCJ off. Do I have a claim directly against solicitor or do I have to go through council as ultimately, its their client...? As a side note, I have started a complaint through council complaints procedure, which is at stage 1 - decision of first investigation to be made by March 19th 2018. I have also opened a complaint with bank which recently closed because they were offering a mere £350 then £500 as compensation, to which I declined. Only because it felt like they were trying to close the complaint as quickly as possible in order to just satisfy my problem. I am not done with them. Sorry for the long winded post but wanted to cover everything. Any help/advice or guidance will be greatly appreciated. ​​​​​​​Jay

Nice one. Lets expose these silly people who are supposed fans and admire these nobodies.

Hi Caggers, It has been a while I was on this forum from the Early Bank Charging Days was the last time I was here and am happy to say that this forum was good to me as I was able to get back almost £3.5k from my Bank in charges. It was very good indeed. Okay, now I have another Legal Issue. I worked for an agency as an IT Contractor. I got an IT position to work from a site in Swindon but also had the option to travel to other sites around the UK for the same company. My expenses was always paid when submitted via an online portal system with receipts. When I got this three months contract position, I negotiated the contract with the agency and also get them to pay all my expenses as part of the contract, ie, Hotels and Trains Travels to and from site. This was agreed over the phone and was normal practice as well. I subsequently submitted all my expenses every week to the agency and every week this was signed and approved for my expenses to be reimbursed back to me. Please note, every week I put in my expenses and it got signed off and approved by the agency. This went on for almost 8 weeks with no problem. Then on the sixth week, I got a rejection of my expenses claim and the reason was since I was based on a home site which means expenses cannot be paid for while on a home site. I live in London and the position is in Swindon which was where I was now based for the contract position. All my Hotels and other expenses have all been paid for all this while and even in the contract, it did not say that swindon was a home site for me. The point now is, not have the agency stopped paying for any more expenses claim going forward, they now even want to recoup all the expenses claim they have paid from when the contract started which almost £4k!! So what they are saying is that they will not pay me my contractual pay as well to cover the expenses they have paid on my behalf all this while!! Please note that every week, when I submitted my expenses and receipts on an online portal system, it was always accepted and signed off as approved. My contention is the person who approved and always signed my expense claims seems to have made a mistake from what the agency are saying and I am claiming that I am supposed to get my expenses paid for. Therefore, I am now paying my own expenses as it stands and also facing my money due to my company being stopped as well. The contract I am on, has a week left on it and it seems I will be out of pocket for this blunder and claim by the agency who claim that I was told over the phone that Swindon was my home site and therefore no expenses was to be paid for me. Which I think is all rubbish really. If that was the case does it mean they were incompetent when all my receipts was properly inspected and signed off as approved for a whole six weeks? This really started when funding for the project was not forthcoming for the next phase. I have to say this agency has a very bad reputation and are good at trying to ripp contractors off. I am disputing the fact that not only are they saying they will not pay my expenses moving forward but the fact that they are withholding my contractual pay too!! They are doing this as I have just a week more on the contract hence this attitude from them. I want to sue them and go all the way to court if I have to as I will not accept this sort of attitude from a Recruitment Agency. These are the sort of agencies they call " Cowboys" this one is one of them. If I am right, my next action is to write them a letter before action, is that right? Can fellow caggers advise me on my next move please. I am going all the way with this one!! Some of these cowboys agencies need to be stopped and I will keep you all updated on my progress. Thanks to all indeed.

Paralysed teenager who has been on life support since birth is told to attend ‘interview’ to prove he can’t work or lose his benefits Story http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206976/Paralysed-teenager-life-support-birth-told-attend-interview-prove-t-work-lose-benefits.html No doubt when the lads father insists on a home WCA the HCP will find nothing wrong and award 0 points.