Hi. The usual apology if this has already been covered or is in the wrong section. I hope someone can give some clear advice for my wife? Just to save time and before we go any further everything I’m about to say has been said to my wife's senior staff member and managers. Their answer is that it’s your job and if I don’t like it then leave. My question is; what hours are legal to work before and after a sleepover, i.e. back to back? She works in a care home and at least once per week she works 3pm x 10pm then stays overnight to do a sleepover and starts her next shift at 7am x 3pm so this is a total of 24 hours. To complicate things, until recently she was only expected to get out of bed and help in an emergency, i.e. resuscitation or as an escort to the hospital if one of the residents became ill. Since the law changed entitling her to be paid minimum wage for a sleepover her boss now expects her to get up and help as a matter of course because she's getting full pay instead of the £30 she did previously. There are 6 residents and from 10pm there are only two staff plus my wife who is on sleepover. One of the residents needs 1 to 1 care and so this leaves the other staff member to look after the other 5 residents. My wife often helps until midnight and then gets to bed about 12.30am. At 2am the 2nd staff member wakes her up to help her attend the 5 residents needs mainly because it is policy/law to have 2 people in attendance when handling them. She will get back to bed at about 5am and then be back on shift at 7am until 3pm with barely any sleep. Her job entails handing out drugs for which she is paranoid about making mistakes but she is also absolutely shattered during and after work. Senior Management have not officially told her, (verbally or in writing), that she is expected to work during her sleep/rest period but her senior staff member relayed a message from "a manager" that she must. Management have installed installed sensors on the sleepover room and the residents rooms. 1. To prove that the residents are receiving regular checks and that my wife is leaving her room to help out. It lets them record when she left and returned to her room. So in a nutshell she works 3x10pm Does a sleepover 10pmx7am but is expected to get out of bed and work for none emergency reasons. Works another shift 7amx3pm Is this legal? Thanks for your help, Andy

There is a tree on the side of a path runs past my house that is overgrown to the point it is coming into contact with the side of my house, the roof and is also hitting the windows of my property. I have contacted the council about this previously in 2011 when it was dealt with by way of a crown reduction, however 4 years later and its bigger than so i again reported it last summer and was advised that it would be cut back in 6/8 weeks. However 16 months have passed since my local borough council made that promise and despite several calls and emails nothing has been done about it and today i received an email from my local county council telling me that they were going to do nothing more about it. Would appreciate any advice, if there is anything i've left out that i should have included please let me know and i'll update. Thanks

Soft drinks makers including Coca Cola are reportedly considering suing the Government over George Osborne's plans to implement a tax on sugary drinks, which could never see the light of day. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sugar-tax-soft-drinks-makers-coca-cola-britvic-ag-barr-legal-suing-the-government-a6943871.html

A friend of mine has just been dismissed from his job due to breaching the attendance policy. The trigger for the first stage is 3 times in a roling 12 months. With that there is a 6 month period with no periods of sickness allowed. If breached you move onto second stage with the same 6 month period. Third stage is the same. Then dismissal. He says the first stage was fair, in that the reasons for sickness were flu, back injury and toothache. But the second which was within the 6 month review period was for an operation on his leg, which was planned with the full knowledge of his supervisor and operations manager 2 months ahead of time. They arranged alterations to the amount of work for his section and did not inform him that if he had his operation he would then be in breach of the policy and would then be issued with the second stage disciplinary. The next absence also included an operation on his shoulder. The fourth a tooth abcess. My question is, should the operations, which were obviously fully known to management and therefore authorised have been taken into account. Or is it just that this is a particularly nasty company to work for if you need to have any sugery. I understand someone who needed to have a biopsy done was also given a warning.

Some useful information on universal credit, the bedroom tax, discretionary housing payments and a welfare reform calculator to work out if and how this affects you. http://www.jephson.org.uk/index.php/changes-to-benefits Please note that this guide has been produced by Jephson Housing Association for their tenants, so while the user friendly guide is helpful with general information, it only provides links to local authorities where Jephson are located for more specific detail, particularly regarding discretionary payments, which will be extremely limited.