Hi folks, first time here but i am in a sticky situation with Ipswich council. Forgive the lengthy story but i think i need to let you know how i ended up like this. My husband left almost 3 years ago and left me with a ton of debts, not just CT, which my new partner and i have been working our way through them and thought when we got this years CT demand we were free of them. a week later a letter from them stating that i owe £3500 from previous liability orders from 2008 through to 2012. Now call me naive but at the time he dealt, or so i thought with all the major bills and although i did find out that we were in debt i had no idea how deep. he even went to court a couple of times but on his own and all i was told was that its ok, got it sorted. Now this threatening letter states at the end, if 'I' don't pay up i will be committed to prison ! Phoned council today and told them that my partner had wrote a letter explaining what the situation was and all she said back was, well we couldn't find him so it is all down to you to clear the debt. surely this isn't right. i told her i know of an address, his work address and bank account number but again was told nothing they can do. I s this just them using me as an easy way out because they know my address etc ?. I have sent the letter but would appreciate any ideas or help that anyone may have, thanks in advance Jayne

I was wondering if some kinds souls could offer some direction. My wife's father ( who has been estranged for approx. 20 years ) has passed away. She has bee informed by her Uncle that there is no will so it falls to my wife and her brother as beneficiaries. Her Uncle asked if he could be executor of the estate and gone as far as to assign a solicitor. On contact by the solicitor to see if my wife agrees to this, she said no. My wife and brother in law would like to be executor. The fear is that the Uncle will not take kindly to this and may be ...obstructive. How would be best to ensure we obtain all relevant accounts ( there are a few by all accounts) and keys to the property. We are looking to instruct a solicitor to handle but firstly want to get a ball park figure as to the estate size. Any guidance / thoughts appreciated!

Hi all, We have someone living with us who is estranged from his parents and is 17 years old. He was born in South Africa but his dad is a UK citizen and mum South African. He has dual nationality and HAD a UK Child passport. He now needs to apply for an Adult passport and has no current ID. How do we proceed from here? The birth certificate will be in South Africa, His parents wont speak to him although they both live here and he can't get in his house to get his child passport or the South African passport This cannot be the only time that this has happened? What is the best thing to do to help him get an adult passport thanks

Ok I'm going to try to make this as short as possible. I'm 18 and in full time education. I don't live with my parents due to domestic violence (mostly by my father). I live in accommodation provided by a homelessness charity and claim housing benefit and income support while I am in education. So my problem is the following: My 6 month review was today. She asked me if I'm still estranged from my parents. I said yes but I now talk to my mum on the phone sometimes. She made a HUGE deal out of this saying that it's not allowed and that 'estranged means estranged, not talking on the phone sometimes' etc. She also said I would have to write a statement about it. This seems like a bit of an over reaction but hey, they even seem to think they can control who I can and can't talk to now! Anyway, I hadn't managed to get a learner's agreement from college so she stopped the interview and re-booked it for next week. They requested the past 3 months bank statements and this is my problem. The most recent month's statement looks really bad. I sold my TV and deposited £135 cash into my account. This alone worries me, but I also went on holiday to Dublin on the 20th May (with Ryanair and stayed in a hostel so no funny comments about this please) and my mum decided to give me some early birthday money (my birthday is next month) towards Dublin. She NEVER gives me money but decided to deposit money into my account without telling me. A nice gesture if it had been in different circumstances. The worst part is that she put the reference as 'pocket money'. While I was in Dublin, a few days after the first deposit she put a further £25 into my account with the same 'pocket money' reference. Now, if they made such a big deal out of me TALKING to her how will they react when they find out she's given me 'pocket' money?! I've been losing sleep over this and I'm really worried they will stop my benefits. I could never go back home as not only would neither of my parents allow it, but I'm not safe there. I don't even visit my parents and they never give me money- as my two other statements will prove- but I'm so scared the job centre are going to make a huge deal out of these two incidents. Can they really stop my benefits over this? Even though it was a one off thing and she did it without my knowledge? It's not like it's regular income or I asked her for money. I'm really scared

Hi I am a pensioner on pension credit residing in my own free hold house. My children have moved and are estranged from me. I have mail coming to my address care of for them. I do not talk to my children we do not get on. I ignore the fact that they send various mail to my residence. I live with one of my children who I have a good relationship with. He is on JSA and together we do not pay any council tax. However the council feels that my estranged children also make up my household. they wrote to me requesting details of who resides with me. I wrote back informing them of the situation. They have now backdated my claim to 2004 and are demanding nearly £10,000 in over payments. They concluded that my estranged children who are in full time work are residing with me. I told them they are free to visit property and check for them selves as we have a lot of clutter you can obviously see spare rooms full of stuff but no beds. Some of the stuff has layers of dust as it has sat in place for ages. The council does not want to inspect and demands payment. I am going to appeal the decision. They demanded I find a way to contact my estranged children and demand they provide me proof of residency at another address and further more submit that proof to me so I can forward it to my local council. This ask is very awkward as I do not talk to them and they do not talk to me. How can the council make the assumption they live with me with out me confirming the same. advice on subject would be appreciated

Several years ago my now estranged future mother-in-law (had no contact since she fell out with my partner) paid off roughly £2000 in rent arrears for me as I'd fallen behind due to one of the DWP's oh so lovely unexplained "errors" whereby my benefits were stopped with no notice given to me by either letter or phone. 2 months and several phones later my benefits were finally reinstated but I never received an explanation for why they'd stopped as I'd had no change of circumstances at the time, and also no apology for their mistake also plunging me into £2000 worth of debt to Halifax bank - the result of me receiving no notification from the DWP and my household bills continuing to go out which the bank refused to cancel, ultimately resulting in a LOT of overdraft charges. To this day neither the DWP or Halifax have apologized or acknowledged their part in what happened, and I have been left paying the debt back to a recovery company who are thankfully very understanding and helpful. The loan from my future in-law was agreed to be paid off when I could afford it and earlier this year we agreed to £20 every 4 weeks as my only income is child related benefits. Since the fall-out with my partner she's demanded the money back all in one go knowing full well I can't afford it, and is not answering her mobile when I try to call her (land-line says "wrong number"). A solicitor I spoke to on the phone briefly (well done [problem]eron for scrapping legal aid) s aid that if she's demanding repayment but deliberately making it impossible to pay and takes me to small claims court she runs the risk of being forced to accept the agreed repayment plan that I can afford or the case may be thrown out entirely as the courts don't like having their time wasted by people being malicious. Can anyone advise me on how to proceed?

also this Halifax OD, you are paying off a debt mostly made from PENALTY charges to a DCA...urm..i'd question the wisdom of that. dx