Hi Newbie here and I am hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. I've been lurking on here for a few days trying to find out various tips and information regarding my problem. I got into trouble after loosing my job in 2009. I had a lot of debt and couldn't make payments anymore. Entered into an iva in late 2010, made about 5 payments and then lost my new job and had to cancel the iva. I just cancelled my direct debit to the iva and never got in contact with them again. They eventually officially cancelled my iva in spring 2013 and started to get letters from various dcas regarding my individual debts that were in my iva. I paid a couple of credit cards off via dcas with a reduced f and f and got that in writing. But there is one particular debt that hasnt raised its head much. It was for a loan originally with Northern rock which I'm pretty sure was taken out pre 2007. Now I heard nothing about this until about spring 2017. I received a letter from a dca (can't remember who) so I stupidly phoned them up. I said I don't recall this debt so I need some sort of proof of claim. They then left me alone until Cabot sent me a letter in summer 2017. Letter and phone calls ignored, it then went quiet until last weekend when it's being passed to ruthbridge. I presume, because I've not made a payment since originally defaulting, the statute barred clock would start from when my IVA officially finished?? I've only 2 or 3 months to go before it's 6 years from that date so do I just ignore for now? Thanks in advance guys.

Hi Everyone I apologise in advance if this seems like a silly question, but I need some advice/opinion as I have been out of the job seeking market for some time. Basically I have worked for the same company for over 20 years, but due to a takeover and potential relocation of the offices I have been looking for a new job. I have been offered a new job with a local company, they have sent me a a official offer letter detailing just the job title, annual salary and proposed start date. The offer expires in a couple of days and I am not sure what to do in terms of the job employment process. I really want to know more about the terms and conditions of the job like holidays, benefits, etc, but I guess that will be in the contract. My question is, if I say yes to the job offer letter, am I legally bound to them if I change my mind a few days later, what I am trying to work out is at what point is no return, because I am guessing that until I get a contract from and sign it, I cannot hand in my notice with my current employer. Hope that makes some sense. Thanks

Hi all I have been on a DMP for 12 years. I have inherited a little money and want to clear down the remaining debt. I have written to all the creditors and made offers of approx 30% of the outstanding amount split proportionately between them. The total outstanding is £7500 and allocated funds are £2500. I could be pushed to clear in full if I had to, without borrowing, but would rather clear for significantly less. I have so far received one reply from Cabot, the largest of the debts, refusing my offer, and suggesting I pay £3856 to clear. I've listed below the debts and where they came from etc. All defaulted in 2005. What are my options? 1 - do nothing until all creditors reply 2 - make a slightly increased counter offer 3 - continue to pay till end of plan 4 - any other ideas Creditor Debt Full and Final Offer made Cabot (egg loan) £4,820.27 £1,662.23 NCO (Alliance & Leicester CC) £1,464.41 £504.99 Fredrickson (Capital One CC) £829.88 £286.18 Link (Egg CC) £135.15 £46.60 Thanks very much in advance

Hi, Can anyone offer me any advice on an issue I have with the FOS. I took out life and critical illness cover through a tied broker in 2012. In 2016 I claimed and my claim was turned down by the insurer as they did not know about surgery I'd had prior to applying for insurance. Trouble is both me and the wife know we told the brokers agent all about the surgery on the night he came to get our signatures after checking the application. I made my initial call on the 14/4/12, their agent visited my home on 17/4/12. The FOS got involved after my complaint to the company was turned down. The original sales phone call in which I tell the salesman about my surgery is 'missing'. The FOS adjudicator requested the application and signed declaration from the brokers. What she received (and accepted!) was amazing. Pages 1 to 5 were missing and the last 4 pages (the declaration) were scanned in such a way as to obscure the date in the top left hand corner. There were no other dates on any of the remaining pages. It took me 4 subject access requests to finally receive the complete form including dates. Their excuse for their inability to supply what I'd asked for previously was that their scanner could not scan complete pages the right way up!? On each of the replies to my requests the broker states the completion date of the form as 16/4/12 The FOS is not upholding my complaint. I've always maintained that I (and my wife who took out cover at the same time) told the broker and agent all about the surgery and that therefore, knowing that it was unlikely the insurer would offer me cover, the broker and/or agent altered the application without our knowledge. I even had a photo dated 2 days prior of the 4" scar on my part shaven head clearly visible on the night of 17/4/12! Turns out the date on the missing 5 pages was the 19/4/12 - a whole 2 days after my signature was obtained on the declaration. The date on the declaration was 16/4/12. This appears to be the date the declaration pages were sent to the agent and therefore the declaration was produced on or before 16/4/12. This is where I'd really appreciate some advice - the FOS Adjudicator and Ombudsman actually used the application/declaration in their decision. Can they do this?, should they do this? and where do I go from here? Thanks

Hey CAG, Hopefully someone can help me out with this issue. I just got a court letter issued 27th of June from MMF via Moriarty Law looking for payment from a payday loan taken out in 2011 from wageday advance for just over £400 (The claim was filled with the Northampton County Court). I went online and responded to the claim with an acknowledgement of service, however I can see that I am over the 14 days I had to respond to the initial claim and now I am a little worried that they may have already filled the CCJ. I want to defend the claim as I am 80% sure they took the money out of my account (even though I had no overdraft facility) from LloydsTSB which left me with a debt with the bank. However it's been over 6 years from the initial default with wageday, I've moved a number times since then, and Lloyds and TSB are now two separate entities so it's doubtful I have the proof of this. I am hoping someone on here could help me with what type of response I should issue to the court, or to any of the claimants specifically? I really don't want a CCJ (who does) and I've recently got on top of some really bad debts so this would be a major blow to my credit. If someone could help me out, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks!

Over the past two years i've racked up an incredible amount of debt, it reached as much as £60k last Christmas but this has now come down to c£50k. I have a gambling problem which is where all this debt comes from and which is why its so hard to shift. The pressures of this debt, personal relationships and job insecurity have started me feeling anxiety and stress related symptoms, i don't want to over-egg this but going to the GP recently i realised that things had to change. As you can imagine the largest problem i have is being reliable with any substantial sum of money in my account. I'm currently living at home with parents and need to move out by March/April, i'm finding this difficult for budgeting purposes as i don't know how much its going to cost me in the future and i'm already struggling. My Debts are as follows:- Sainsburies Loan - c£11k Halifax Card - £9k IHG/Barclaycard - £4.5k Virgin/MBNA Card - £4.5k Nationwide Card - £4.5k Amex Card - £3k Currys/Creation - £2k Onstride Finance - £2k 118 Money - £1.9k Marbles - £1.2k Paypal - £1k Very - £700 In order to make ends meet i've also taken out several phone contracts to sell the handset, this means that i have about £150 pcm expenditure on line rentals across 5 contracts. Current salary brings in about £2490 per month, minimum repayments for all of these are approximately £1900. So if i was continuing to live at home and if i was able to not fritter away my entire pay packet within 7 hours of it hitting my bank account then i could get by. Unfortunately neither of these are true. I'm considering making a change to my working situation resulting in less hours and a higher pension payment (thankfully money i can't access to waste) which would bring my new salary to c£1800 per month, out of that i would estimate £800pcm for rent and bills, £450 for day to day expenses. So i can't work out whether i can put myself through the mass defaulting stage, i don't know if i can bear the constant calls, i don't know how easy it will be to get a place to rent with a wrecked credit file, i don't know what to do right now. I'm currently asking the gaming company for a partial refund of my recent deposits (After i've self excluded), if that provides a decent return i can keep going with the regular payments for a bit longer but its no long term fix. My dream is to own my own home, trying desperately to work out how i feel about pushing that out another 6-7 years. Also wondering if i should leave open the Halifax account or pay separately as its still on a balance transfer offer and presume it would be good to have one high value account with history when looking to get a mortgage down the line... Bit of a stream of thoughts there but i'm really at a crossroads, mostly 0/1 months behind and its about to hit the fan.

I have just found out the level of my 69 year old mother's provident loan repayments. At the moment, she would appear to have 4 active loans and a weekly repayment of £110 per week whilst living on a pension. Surely there has to be some sort of irresponsible lending going on here? Most weeks, her fridge is almost running on empty and I'm lending money from time to time to help her pay things like rent, electricity and even to make sure that there is food in the fridge! I knew she had a loan, but I am shocked at the level of it. She cannot afford £400 a month, on a pension either! Is there any steps I can take to get this into a manageable payments?

Hi In April this year I left my job due to bullying in the workplace and relocated to be nearer my family. As I didn't have a job to go to I wrote to all my credit card companies and explained that I would be unemployed for a period of time and wouldn't be able to make my minimum repayments. Different companies have dealt with me in different ways from continued harassment to being fairly understanding! I have always been employed and in have never missed a payment of any sort. I have now found work but unfortunately I no longer work in a city and the wages are no where near what I was earning before. As things stand I am no longer able to afford the repayments - I have kept in touch with the companies regularly, I have written to them once a month to keep them posted of my circumstances. Now I know I cant afford to pay, I don't know what to do next? A couple of the companies (the ones who seem to have ignored my letters) have issued default notices, I don't really know what the implications of this are? Could someone please give me some advice as I really don't know what to do next.

Having had windows 10 since inception, I have recently been to the 'store' where being silly I typed in TV. Now here is the very interesting point/part you can now add tiles and apps to get free movies TV shows and much more. The part that is worrying is it legal to install the apps and view the movies and TV shows that have not been released yet? (Goldeneye syndrome)! All of this and much more is available on the Amazon fire stick with various apps that allow you to stream the content and now for free from the store. I wont name them here but they are available on a well known auction site. Now it appears you don't even need a fire-stick either, very strange.... Your thoughts please and ideas......

Morning, This morning, some one has called to my house and attempted to get in. I was letting the dogs out, and there was a knock on the door. So, trying to sort them out and get them back in takes a while, they are big bouncy dogs. Anyway as I am trying to get them in, there is a man with a photo id around his neck and some sort of ipad in his hands, after the first knock he was shouting 'hello is there anyone in there, pretty loud and constantly, also looking through the kitchen window. I could see him from the garden. As I got into the house I could see the handle on my front door going up and down, so he was on the other side trying to let himself in it seems. Because of this I did not answer the door and stayed in the hallway. He was there for about 20 minutes knocking and shouting hello, is anyone there. Now there is a debt I paying to Lowell monthly via standing order, it has just started but the payment has gone through to them on 1st Dec. I do have another debt which is outstanding with them but I am not in a position to sort that out for at least a couple of months so I am ignoring that for now until I can pay it off - silly I know, but I will sort it out (no threats of CCJ though from anyone currently) I just wondered, is this a debt company? It cannot be a bailiff because I have not been taken to county court by anyone, or could it be the DWP? I cannot understand the person trying to gain access to my house. If my door was not locked he would have been in here and that scares me a lot. No card was put through the door so I have no idea what this is and I am a little worried. I am in receipt of ESA and HB so do wonder if DWP, but still, would they just try to open my front door and walk in?

Hi , bit of a general enquiry - not sure where it fits really. Our tree company has been broken into and the chainsaws stolen for the THIRD time ! ( In 6 months ) On the second instance - I brought in my own saw to help out as replacements are not easily found on Day1 of a theft . All the tools were locked in a steel bin and lo and behold after coming back from holiday I discovered we had been burgled again ! - My saw had also gone from the locked bin. Now asking the manager would he be replacing my saw , he said no - as he said they are not covered for personal kit . Have I been too kind or is he mugging me off ? Cheers, in anticipation Q

Yesterday Bailiff Advice posted about the recent HCEOA developments but was later accused of publishing a link to an article that was some 4 years old. According to others she should have checked each link referred to in her link was correct and not out of date. So we now have a situation whereby others are going to hold us accountable for the content of external sites. Stupid is as stupid does.

Hi All, I'm going to go through the facts and I'm looking for advice please. End game I obviously want to be debt free and buy a new house as I've got 3 kids and the Mrs in a 2 bedroom terrace . I want my kids to have some room, garden etc. The things I had growing up. I'm 34, 3 kids, house with mortgage equity of around £10,000 Current Experian credit score of 117. 7 credit cards = £22k 1 loan = £3k 1 Overdraft = £2k 18 months back my credit score was 900+ with around 5 years of no missed payments. I was had my own company and things went belly up. Resulting in lots of missed payments recently but no defaults and my low credit score. I have managed to get all my debts up to date now on minimum payments aside from MBNA who are refusing to do what the others did which and pay a set amount for 3 months then add the arrears onto the card. They currently want a minimum payment of £500 when I only owe £1700. I have tried to get a loan there were some for 3.4% which I would have been happy to pay but I can not get one. My bank said I maybe able to get one but it was 29.9% and I would be paying back £48k+. The bank advisor said its not even worth it and to check online. Of which all are declining me. I'm at a point now where I need to make a choice. I see I have these choices: A) Try and get the loan from the bank and pay back circa £48k. Which mean I will be 39 before I can start saving properly to get a new house. Which realistically means my kids would be teenagers by the time I get a new house. Also the fact paying £46k I would much prefer to set aside for a new house. B) Remove my name off the deed with the land registry so the house is not at risk. Wait until debts all go to debt collectors / buyers and do full and finals knocking 25%-50% off. Stop paying all debts a saving of £970 a month. Which the £970 I would be saving each month there would be a decent amount of money being saved for F + F. I can add £100 - £200 to this a month as well from my DI. At the same time trying to arrange for any default registered during that time to be removed. I'm thinking that process would take me 18 - 24 months, which would give me a big head start on saving for a new house. I'm leaning towards plan B, as I would be not only saving money but also time. As I said at the beginning this is mainly so my kids have a better childhood environment. Opinions please... Regards

Hello…I wonder if I can have help or opinions on the following. First a little background – Several years ago when I was married I got into debt. At the time I thought I could pay it and my husband at the time said he would help with bills as I helped with his. You know a team and all that. Well to cut a long story short - we ended up getting divorced and guess which idiot was left high and dry with nothing. Me. I did try to offer small payments to these people as it was genuinely all I could afford. But these debt collectors did not want to know. And so fast forward. On 7th Jan 2016 I received a court letter from Nottingham Court/ Hoist Holdings 2 for a CC debt that had belonged to Lloyds. It was for sum of close to 10K… that was with all the fee’s and interest etc. I freaked out as I truly thought as I had not heard from anyone for a good long while that the saga was over…. I spent a day or two worrying and such, then I found this site and things did not seem so bleak :0) The first thing I did was log onto the court website and requested the 28 days. Based on advice/basic steps in these situations I checked that the court number was infact genuine and it was. Then I sent 2 letter, both recorded delivery and 1 had a £1 postal order in. 1 letter was for request for docs under CPR 31.14 (Agreement/Contract and Default Notice). This letter requested that they comply within 7 days…. That was on 14th Jan. That letter was sent to their solicitors Howard Cohen and Co. Letter 2 was sent to Hoist for a copy of credit agreement, a true copy. This letter had the £1 postal order in. I asked for this to be sent within 12 days. Again this was sent on 14th Jan. Today is 23rd and I received a letter from Robinson Way. I mean what is going on…. Hoist Holdings… Howard Cohen and now Robinson Way??? All the same this letter I got today is as follows and I have not received the CPR 31.14 credit agreement/ default notice that was supposed to be here within 7 days. Todays letter is as follows - “WE WRITE TO CONFIRM WE HAVE NOTED A DISPUTE QUERY YOU HAVE RAISED. WE WILL MAKE THE NECESSARY ENQUIRIES AND LET YOU KNOW THE OUTCOME IN DUE COURSE. IN MEANTIME WE WILL STOP ALL COLLECTION ACTIVITY ON THIS ACCOUNT. PLEASE LET US KNOW IF WE CAN ASSIST FURTHER” And that is that. My 28 days are up and I am due to “defend” this around 4th Feb. Do I still defend? And what do you guys make of todays letter? I am very worried and confused and really would appreciate help on this. Thankyou in advance x

Hello and thanks for reading, im new to the forum so please bare with me. My mum died in 2008 when i was only 15. She had a mortgage through hallifax and had a loan secured on her house through swift. The loan was taken out on 20.10.2006 for £19,133 (I believe this was the amount with interest added on, i think she only received about £15,000. At the time she died her estate was handed to my aunty to deal with as i was too young. The market wasn't great for selling so my aunt thought it would be in my interest to keep the house on and have a tenant living there in the mean time until there would be a profit from the house sale so this is what she's done. While the tenant was there (the last 8 years) she's been paying the mortgage and the loan with swift. However we have now decided to sell the house. I had a look at some paperwork and my aunts been paying £280 a month, but they've added monthly interest of £300 so the debt is getting £20 worse a month, which I don't understand. We thought it would be straight forward as when the house sells we can pay off the remainder of the mortgage and the loan and bobs your uncle. However after doing some research on here of swift it doesn't look like that's the case. Is it true they will add a huge sum on the original loan amount for a settlement figure? how best to proceed from now? i really do thank you for your time reading this and hope someone can help because im at a loss

Hello all bare with me as I tell my tale( Or wife's tale). In April 2009 I sent a CCA request to Cap1 disputeing the debt. After no CCA only an application form I put the account into dispute, beliveing that would stop the interest. Unbeknown to me my wife used the card in September 2009 but I was still making monthly payment. At the beginning of January 2010 I wrote to Cap 1 offering a goodwill gesture but accepting no liability to pay-off the balance at a figure from September's balance minus the PPI on it, they refused. In the middle of January 2010 I stopped making payments as they would obviously take more notice. 3 DCA's later I heard nothing until July of this year. Last month I received two letters, in the same envelope, one from Cap1 thee other Cabot saying Cabot now owned the account.. This week Cabot sent me a letter asking me to get in touch. Now I believe I am 3 months away from getting it SB'd however finances are good I do not mind paying but not at the amount quoted as it increased drastically from when I stopped paying. Do I ask Cabor for a CCA request and do I ask for a SAR? Any help but be very much appreciated as I haven't had to deal with any of this for around 3 years and the confidence as waned, although it's probably because the finishing line is in sight. Also should a do a credit check or could this flag the account as comming to almost 6 years. Thank you and sorry for the long read

i, I am new to all this, think ive posted in the right place. I have received a court claim from capquest yesterday and its dated 28/2/2014. its a Lloyds credit agreement for the sum of £6188 I am really not sure about this debt. ..Ill start at the beginning: I split with my husband and left the marital home that was in april 2009. we did bank with Lloyds and we had an over draft and a loan but I thought that had been paid I really have no recollection of it. I walked away from everything I had and started again. I am on speaking terms with my husband (we are not divorced yet) and yesterday when I dropped the children off he handed me the letter it had gone to the marital home address. I just went sick as I don't recall any agreement. I asked if any other correspondence had been sent there for me and he said no. I have not been at that address for 5 years now so I am totally clueless as what to do. the particulars box on form has an agreement number and states its Lloyds and a date it was passed. the acting solicitors are HL and the signature is typed. really hoping for some help as it seems I have till next Friday if im right which is to register the claim i cant think straight i don't want a ccj against me as i want to go on a mortgage with my new partner. many thanks

I'm not sure if I have a case? I was a first time buyer if that helps to say in my case? Just looking through my files, the first year (aug 2001) of my mortgage for PPI all I can find is the Halifax mortgage letter saying thank you for applying for a mortgage "As the loan amount you require exceeds our basic lending limit it is necessary for us to arrange additional mortgage security. you will be advised of the fee in due course. Please note that if you are borrowing less than 90% of the lower of the valuation or purchase price we are currently paying this premium." Then on the mortgage offer letter At the end of the letter it says (oct 2001) SPECIAL NOTE We strongly advise you to consider arranging insurance cover to protect your ability to keep up your mortgage repayments if you become ill, lose your job, etc. You can obtain details of such mortgage repayments insurance from from any of our branches or your financial adviser... Then a few weeks later the halifax letter of acceptance for my mortgage says an additional mortgage security fee of £419 is also due. We will pay this fee. (explaining that they are lending me more than they normally would and additional mortgage security is required) But exactly one year after my mortgage I started paying PPI monthly for the next 12 years to St James Place. So who do I apply to and how do I explain the first year? Very confusing. By the end of the first year I must have believed I needed it but £419 per year is extortion, so I must have shopped around. I've never been in debt, ill, lost job or took out life insurance. any advice gratefully accepted thanks

I was looking for a place to park near a local station. There is an NPC park and ride there, with a few bays, but I've noticed there is a road that goes around the bays with no yellow lines, and it's not clear whether or not it is a part of the car park or not, as there is only 1 sign at the back. There is plenty of room to park here, and others do, but just wanted to know if it is a part of it or not. Here is a google street view link which is pointing at the place I want to park, spin around and you will see the entrance road and the car park. https://goo.gl/maps/oJRbp There are no "You will be charged" signs anywhere, nothing on the entrance, if you took a right turn from the road leading in, you wouldn't even go past the sign. EDIT: Here are some pictures of the sign taken today. I couldn't even read the T&C's while standing right infront of it. http://imgur.com/a/G9sOM

The following customers have posted about their Npower problems on the My Npower Nightmare Facebook Group -https://www.facebook.com/groups/517771428350844 - but apparently aren't sure how to proceed. [ATTACH=CONFIG]58708[/ATTACH] https://www.facebook.com/david.hillstaylor?fref=ufi https://www.facebook.com/kreedman1?fref=ufi https://www.facebook.com/nicky.vaughan?fref=ufi https://www.facebook.com/michelle.piper?fref=ufi Unfortunately the administrator of My Npower Nightmare has blocked us because we criticised his approach and said that he was acting like some kind of shill for Npower after he recommended paying money for legal help and then recommended a claims company. If there is anyone who has not been blocked from the My Npower Nightmare Facebook group, maybe they might post a message telling them that they can get help about the way forward on this forum - for free. If people have time, they can even consider sending messages directly to those Npower customers.

Hi Everyone, I'm new here, and looking for some help if I may. Many years ago, I had lots of financial difficulties and have spent the last 10 years trying to put everything in order. Various creditors were paid, some have become statute barred. Which leads onto now. I was under the impression that I was finally debt free, until this weekend when I checked my Credit File with Experian, and found that on the 3rd July, a CCJ was registered against me from Howard Cohen & Co, chasing an old joint current account overdraft of £1811.23. I haven't had any dealings with this debt since 2008 I would say, have never been contacted for it, and moved from the address around 2007 I think. On my credit file, the default date was 05/11/2008, and has since dissapeared. However, after calling Howard Cohen & Co this morning, they have informed me that a payment was paid into the account on 07/11/2009, meaning it is within 6 years and not stature barred. I don't recall making any payments and have requested proof of this. They told me they would need to request this from Santander, and would let me know in due course. In the meantime, the account is on hold with them. The thing is though, it is all well and good that the account is on hold with them, but if it turns out the debt is enforceable, and I don't pay it in full before the 3rd August, I will have the CCJ on there for 6 years. This isn't something I can let happen as we are trying to put ourselves in the best possible financial shape for a mortgage. I called Santander myself, and asked if they had any record of this payment, and was initially told no, they do not. However he then asked their collections department if they could see the payment and was told that yes, they can! I asked by what method was the payment made, and by whom, and was told that they do not have this information. I was told to go into a branch and request a statement from that time period to see the payment that way. So off I went to a branch this morning and on their system, there is no activity whatsoever after 12/11/2008, where it just says "account closed contact collections". The branch assistant then called the collections team from the branch, and put them over to me. I was told that they can see the payment, but it just says that it has come from a 'Debt Collection Company'. I then did a little more investigating and have been told that they can see that the debt was with DMS Debt Managers, and then Credit Security, but no other info. They have told me they would see if their back office has any more details but it would be extremely unlikely. So I called Howard Cohen & Co again, and explained that there is no evidence of the payment, and as such the default date remains and the debt is statute barred. I have also scanned in and sent them the statement I was given showing no activity after 12/11/2008. My questions right now are; 1. If they can't see who exactly made the payment on 07/11/2009, does it still count? 2. If they can see it's a Debt Management company, do they still need more than just the companies name? 3. If Santander can provide no more evidence, again, is it unenforceable? If it turns out the debt is enforceable, I will pay it before 3rd August so as to get it removed from my credit file asap. But if I am not legally obliged to pay it, I won't be. Any questions to clarify anything please ask or if I need to give any more info I can do. Many thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help.

I have recently been kicked off ESA by Atos, scoring zero points with mental health issues, I recently seen citizens advice which done the mandatorily reconsideration for me, I should have scored about 30 odd points but none of the questions that citizens advice showed me were asked, the mandatorily reconsideration phoned me the other day asking me questions, I got so stressed I couldn't do it so put the phone down due to my condition, she then phoned a few days ago telling me I still score 0 points I explained I got stressed and couldn't speak but that didn't help so I lost my cool with her and swore, anyhow I got the letter through this morning saying they uphold the original decision, also on the letter says that the Atos medical examiner said I looked fit and well and was well tanned and muscular, it was the middle of August of course I would look tanned I think anyone did the summer we had, I was even crying in front of her due to not seeing my children and my father recently passing away, but she lied and made out I was alert I couldn't even keep eye contact with her, but she said I did, what are you supposed to do go in there with a rope around your neck is it, anyway I'm thinking of appealing what do you guys recommend? i seen my doctor on Monday he give me a sick note for 13 weeks as he agrees I am not fit to work at the moment and said he was not surprised with the decision as they are doing it to everyone. Thank you

Hi all, I have sleep apnoea (diagnosed a few weeks ago as a severe case) and am frequently so tired that I cannot work, or cannot work effectively (e.g. fall asleep in meetings, feel like a zombie all day so i can't perform up to the standard that an employer would require of me) I have lost 3 jobs over the last 5 years due to this, although at the time I was unaware of why I felt so awful. My current position is as follows: - I am unemployed. - I would like to be working and lead a normal life. - I have begun treatment for my condition but it is not working yet and it's unlikely to resolve within the next few months. - I don't feel like I can apply for jobs because, in my current state, my performance will be so variable that an employer won't tolerate it, therefore i will be dismissed again. Has anyone any idea what I can do about benefits? As I see it - jobseekers allowance is not possible because I'm not looking for a job - sick pay is not possible because I am unemployed - some sort of disability allowance maybe? I'm unsure if I could qualify for the personal independence payment. I checked using the calculator on the benefits and work website and I score enough points to qualify. The problem there for me is that my day to day activities aren't affected every day, only on the bad days which occur on average about 2-4 days per week so would that disqualify me? If anyone can help me with this, I'd be very grateful. It's causing me massive stress! Thanks, Oliver

Had an appointment at the JC on Saturday - first time I've been asked to attend at the weekend - and was annoyed that my JC didn't have a cash box available to pay my (and others) travel expenses. I can get it next time I sign on but this is totally unacceptable. Now I wasn't in dire need of the £6, but there's plenty who would have needed that money reimbursing immediately, especially younger people on lower benefit rates. If you're normally paid expenses in cash at your JC and are called in at the weekend, best to get confirmation that you'll get your expenses on the day. I have 2 emails to write now; one to my District Manager (who I know) and a copy sent to the PCS Union - may as well rattle their cage too. Will also report the adviser I saw who didn't offer expenses at the start of the interview as per guidance and ended the interview without mentioning them, also against guidance.

My father passed away on Tuesday last week and we are totally devastated as you can imagine. Mum is in care as she has althzhiemers. Dad left a will which said that he wished his half of the house to be divided between my brother and I and obviously the half my mother owned would go towards her care under the asset rules. (i believe anything over £14,000 is used to pay for her care) We have since learned that mum and dad owned the house under a joint tennancy which means that dads share of the house doesnt become part of dads estate and passes to my mums sole ownership. The house needs to be sold in order to fund mums care and as her daughter it falls to me to do that however in order to do it i have to apply for a "public guardianship" which means that I have to pay a bond to protect mums finances and this is something like £500 (annually i believe) so in effect the government are wanting me to pay for the right and privialige to sell my parents home and then give them the money! To be honest there was barely enough to pay for the funeral so my brother and i have had to use our savings to do that and at this moment I dont even have £500. So my questions are: 1. what would happen if i just refused to deal with the sale of the house, would someone be appointed by the government to deal with it? 2. If mum was in care due to being sectioned and currently funded under section 117 of the mental health act, does that mean that she will be continued to be funded by the government? I know that this is a sticky one but dont know where to turn, unable to get appt with cab for weeks and really at the end of my tether. Dealing with the grief and organising funeral is bad enough but having all this over my head at the moment is making me ill. i just hope someone on here can help. Thanks Monx