Hello I need to make a Subject Access Request to NRAM regarding the house repossession we went through back in 2011. I've looked on their website and it's very vague what I need to include. The mortgage and property was joint with my ex husband so does he have to agree to me doing this? I need these details urgently as my local council won't let me go on their housing register until I can prove the house was repossessed and not sold for profit. Thanks for any help Lisa

HI I had my house repossessed in March 2011 and have lost all the documents from the mortgage company and court with the details on and urgently need these so I can go on my local councils housing register. The annoying thing the homeless prevention team at the same council were given copies of this at the time so they could help me and my family in getting a new home but the part that deals with putting you on the housing register says they can't speak to that department to get these details, they need to see the documents for themselves (just being bloody awkward if you ask me!) Would I be able to obtain these from the court or the land registry or do I need to get in touch with my old lender (Northern Rock?) Thanks

This is a long story, so I'll try and cut to the chase. Back in 2013 we moved into a property. The landlady who we were renting off asked if she could continue to be registered at the address. She agreed that she would cover all the council tax bills for the property. Two years later we received a letter from the council to "the occupiers" asking us when we moved into the property. We truthfully told them the date. Two months later, we received a massive bill from the council for two years worth of council tax, backdated to the date we moved in. We got in touch with the landlady who admitted she had not paid the council tax. We were now stuck with a £2300 debt when in fact it wasn't our debt. To add to our problem, the landlady admitted she had been illegally claiming benefits from the property whilst we were living there and she could not admit that she was due to pay the council tax as that would lay her wide open to prosecution. We contacted the council and explained the situation, but they wouldn't discuss it. As far as they ( capita ) were concerned, we were liable and they had passed the debt onto Ross and Roberts for collection. We rang Ross and Roberts, who were in fairness understanding, and they agreed a repayment plan which we stuck to like glue. In December 2015 I contacted them to make a payment and they gave us a figure which they said was the amount needed to clear off the debt. I then paid that amount and was told by the lady on the phone that the debt was now paid and we owed nothing more. They would cease any action against us. We didn't think any more about it We got a letter from the council saying we were in arrears with our council tax and they were taking us to court. I went into the offices to talk to them they told me that there was still £470 owing from the previous liability order and that they'd used my council tax payments for that year to clear this off. I explained everything about Ross and Roberts, how they said we'd paid it all off, but the woman insisted that they hadn't collected the full amount and had left £470 uncollected. That was why they were using 2016s council tax payments to clear off those arrears first. After much arguing, they agreed to cease the court action and use the money we had paid for the current years council tax. As for the £470 owing they would simply add it onto the bill and we could repay that on top of the current years council tax over the year. Owing to financial problems we fell into arrears with the council tax, and because as they put it "you have a bad history of paying" they just sent the matter to the courts and we were given another LO. When we contacted Ross and Roberts to sort out payments, they told us that there was still a LO for £470 owing which they were treating seperately, and had added £310 costs onto that bill. Not only that, they added £310 onto the amount for that current year as well. Had Ross and Roberts not told us that we had paid off the full bill, back in 2015, then we would have carried on making all the payments as planned and we wouldn't have been hit with a huge amount of fees, not only for the £470 that they incorrectly didn't collect, but also because that then had a knock on effect for the current year, and owing to us owing the grand sum of £110 for the current year, they whammed us with £310 charges for that. So if you can understand it, we ended up paying £620 in bailliff fees for two liability orders. One for £110 which I accept we owed, and £470 which Ross and Roberts had themselves told us we didn't owe it was their mistake when they didn't collect it as they should have done back when we were willingly making payments to clear off a debt that wasn't even ours in the first place as the landlady should have paid it.

I've been on benefits due to health issues for quite a long time now, I was on Incap Ben until Oct 2013 when they moved me to ESA and that's been static since then. Not had any kind of increase in 4yrs. In 2014 I finally had a diagnosis of one of my health issues that had been ignored for years by doctors... Dismissing my issue as weight related when it was in fact a condition called Spinal Stenosis... which is 'made' worse by being overweight. This explained the shocking spasms in my lower back which could turn my legs to jelly and make me slump to the floor at any time and I couldn't walk more than 20-30yrds without getting one. Since then I have lost over 140lbs the condition has remained and not gone away as previous doctors claimed. I have also been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my knees which is further impacting my. the small increase in the distance I could walk has been decreased again by limited movement and pain in my knees. I've also got early stages of the condition in both shoulders and struggle to lift my left arm above my shoulder but can rotate it, whilst my right shoulder doesn't rotate properly but my arm can be lifted above it. Back in either 2014 or 1015 I got the forms for PIP but never sent them in... to say it was a confusing mess of questions that repeat themselves over and over again and with reports that the vast majority of claims are simply dismissed anyway put me off ever sending it in. I'm not getting any better and losing over 10st hasn't had the kind of impact that I had hoped it would... I admit that my weight was out of control due to severe depression and 19 deaths of family and friends between 2008-2016... In short I was broken and whilst I'm still broken, my financial situation continues to deteriorate. I can just about cover the rent due to the fact I rent from family (all legal, proper tenancy agreement in place and council know everything) at a rate well below average (they're doing it to give me a safe place to live not to make a profit). I can just about cover utilities and household expenses, but there's not enough for anything else and although I do have a car it's 12yrs old and I limit how much it's used due to the cost of diesel, insurance and car tax. Without transport I would be housebound and unable to get out and about on my own... I can't even make it to the local corner shop which is about a 300-400yrd walk. On a very, very, very good day... I might make it to the corner shop, but would then struggle to get back carrying anything I bought. By the time I got back (after stopping repeatedly to sit and let the pain subside) it could virtually incapacitate me for hours and I'd be unable to go out again for a few days at least. When I am able to go out to do shopping (once every 2 weeks on average) I have to normally go with some one and require a trolley to hang onto to support myself. Even then after doing a small amount of shopping, we stop at the supermarket cafe for a rest and a drink before carrying on. I tend to load my shopping in small amounts into multiple sturdy bags with handles, so I'm not carrying heavy ones into the house. I can park on my drive so the boot of the car is no more than 6-8ft from the front door and it's an estate so a low tailgate means no bending to lift things up. I know I could do my shopping online but I actually look forward to doing mine as it gets me out of the house for an hour or two. The arthritis needs me to keep moving more not less, but I can't do that where I live due to the area, hills and so forth... it would be nice if I could drive down to the lakes nearby a couple of times a week and do a little walking there, as they have benches and rest points all around them... But parking isn't cheap. After reading so many threads on here about people applying for PIP and being refused... it's making me wonder if I should at all... I'm not asking for expecting a disabled badge or motability car... I desperately need a little extra help so I can perhaps pay for a little more fuel each month, or parking charges... an extra £20 a week would have a huge impact provided it wasn't taken away from my other benefits like ESA/LHA. If I get the forms... where can I get help to fill them in... a lot of it seems designed to confuse and deliberately make it as hard as possible to complete. I think doing it my own will only result in me not bothering like I did last time... which is what I now think is the main objective of the form.

My mum was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia, she has been with Virgin Media since 2011 starting out on a 18 month contract. Five months ago my mum came to live with me, I then went through the process of obtaining a Power of Attorney so I could deal with her housing arrangements ect. A month ago I phoned Virgin Media to cancel her TV services, they said they would need to speak to her and she would have to give them her password. After telling them I had Power of Attorney and my mum had Dementia and could not remember what she did a few hours ago let alone remember a password she was given 6 years ago they said they would have to send her the password. Luckily enough I still have the keys to her old flat as Social Care will not let me surrender the tenancy until they assess her as if I did they would look on it as me making her intentionally homeless.(whilst she waste's £600 a month on rent ect) Virgin Media said they would send a new password in a couple of days, after waiting a week I checked the flat and there was nothing from them. I phoned again weeks ago, again was promised they would send out a password. I was in the flat again last night and all there was from Virgin Media was a new bill for the coming month. I have now cancelled the Direct Debit. Who am I best to contact regarding this.

to cut a long story short(ish)... my wife got a car on finance a few years ago from advantage finance. the value of the car was £6,000 ... the amount payable back was £12k my wife at the time was in a well paid job and was able to afford monthly repayments of £260, a year or so after the original start of the agreement my wife started to suffer from various health conditions which involved having a number of major surgical operations that meant she had to take time off work. During these times she had to ask for reduced payments, after much persuasion advantage agreed reduced payments for a few months each time. when my wife went back to work advantage told her that she needed to pay extra each month to reduce the arrears. She agreed to pay £280 every 4 weeks. this amount was quite considerable and on top of petrol, car tax, insurance, mot and repairs it became quite expensive running the car. recently our financial situation has become extremely bad, causing health problems for myself and my wife. in total my wife has already paid over £8,000+ towards the car, but we have also noticed that advantage have added an awful lot of charges onto her account each month.. . one constant one is for being behind with payments!!!! many other ridiculous costs have been added as well. advantage have also claimed my wife is now over £2,000 in arrears!!!! my wife explained her situation to advantage who refused to put the account on hold at first but after 3 letters all explaining her situation they finally agreed. their constant pressure and threats are not helping with our situation, just adding more stress and adding to our debt problems. because our situation got that bad we visited a debt advisor due to the amount being paid on the car our money coming in was far less than what is being paid out. as the CAB was quite rushed we didn't get much info about the car except that we should ask about payments, charges and other costs they have added. now the thing is we previously asked in november 2016 for all the info the had and sent the request with the £10 and got the info on a disc. that was over 8 months ago. the CAB didn't discuss many options what we could do with the car except give it back to advantage. my wife was advised to first send a letter requesting all financial transactions, if they didn't respond within a time frame complain to them, after that if we still was not happy to then go to FOS. the thing is we do not want to be to really be paying another £10 for another sar request. is there a way that we can request all payments, penalty charges and added payment insurance etc from advantage without any cost to ourselves and if so could anyone point me in the direction of a template letter as i am not very good when composing formal letters. at the moment we are in a no win situation...my wife needs a car for work, if she doesn't have a car she can't get to work any advice would be greatly received thank you for your time.

I have had bad right flank pain for 10 weeks, moderate right flank on and off for 10 months Monday I had my cholecystectomy apologies for longish text, just need to get full detail down I met with two consultants on private medical recently. The 2nd doctor (Dr A.) took swift action and with issue of HIDA scan, established I had diseased gallbladder with 12% ejection fraction Now, the first consultant I met with (who I had seen previously on two occasions this year for liver check ups), took the attitude and I quote 'I am a thorn in his side', his exact words to me when examining me for my chronic right flank pains, nausea etc at the time because I was so spaced out I did not think too much about it, but then he seemed to get frustrated, not bothered to do anything about my diagnosis. He said 'we can do a thousand tests, but...' he then stopped himself in sentence, kind of put his head in his hands. I did not want to to do a 1000 tests, only one would have sufficed essentially the vibe of the consultation was strained, he seemed to get very stressed and annoyed with me. Like I was just this pain in the rear, and I got the feeling he would have been happy if I just left him alone with hindsight I should have demanded a HIDA scan there and then. cutting long story short I side stepped this 1st doctor, found a specialist in gallbladders (Dr A.) at same private hospital who took immediate action. Trouble is I was referred to first doctor (Dr S.) from my surgeon who took polyp out from my colon last December this first doctor's attitude cost me 4 weeks delay in getting diagnosis, operation. I realise in NHS world this time scale is nothing, but this is private medicine that I am paying for 1st doctors bills have arrived in now. I feel like writing to him and saying look, your inaction cost me weeks of delays, and 100s of extra pounds. I want to say to him he can have his money, say half first, but does not get rest until I get an apology from him for his attitude toward me. This doctor is on 200k per annum, no problem with that, but his attitude was at the time unacceptable and referring to me as a thorn in his side was totally unwarranted in my opinion if you were in my situation would you write to him as I want to and complain? ok, we all have bad days, but this is private medicine. I had only seen him twice before for different reasons, routine MRI on liver. I did present all my symptoms to him clearly for right side pains, and my GP conducted a positive Murphy's sign test on my gallbladder which this first doctor totally ignored. This was put in writing to him from my GP, asking for swift action. I was losing weight terribly fast too, nausea, headaches, right shoulder pains, right back pains. Nausea after eating fatty foods. This Dr S.'s response was to suggest it was some kind of muscular/skeletal problem His impertinence and lack of willingness to carry out tests I think would have bothered most people I have no need to see this Dr S. ever again. I would not trust him now with a knife and fork, let alone a scalpel if you say don't bother, move on, then that is fine advice, but please no heavy negative replies, I only had operation Monday, I am already very bruised

Hi, In Dec 2013 i took out a two year mobile phone contract with Vodaphone. In Dec 2015 the contract was up and i called Vodaphone to end the contract and get a code from them so i could transfer the mobile number to a Virgin Mobile handset. This all went well until i got a letter saying i was being charged £171 for early cancellation of my contract? I installed a call recording app on my mobile and then I called Vodaphone on December 17th 2015 The lady i spoke with found that someone had written a date on my contract in the U.S. style (switching the month and day from how we write it in the UK. aparrently my contract was due to end on the 19th month lol She agree'd it was a mistake, apologised and said they would fix it. I never heard from Vodaphone again. Today, fifteen months later i got a letter from Vodafone telling me that i owed £158.60 for "outstanding call charges/line rental" and that my "debt" has been assigned to Lowell Portfolio LTD. This may be my forst post here but i have read the forums plenty so i was very suspicious and decided not to contact Lowell Financial (who aparently are the debt collectors for my alleged debt) but to instead call Vodafone (and record them of course) I ended up speaking to a nervous sounding indian chap who i can only guess was on his forst day of work, he told me there had been a charge added to my account AFTER i cancelled it??? I did lead him to confirm that it was Vodafones mistake too which he agreed and said they where having problems... So, i have the recorded conversation from dec 2015 and today which both confirm my account ended in good standing but i somehow have these financial leeches latched onto me also? Do i contact them or ignor them? also, if i do contact Lowells do i tip my hand about the recorded vodafone calls and that i am also recording them? Thanks for any advice

Im fuming. It just seems to me that car owners are one big cash machine for councils. Stick some cameras up and let the money roll in. I recently moved to a new area and started driving to work. Unbeknown to me one of the roads I was turning into on my way to work each morning at 7:30am has a time restriction in place that you cant turn into it after 7:30am. Its dark, its christmas , the streets are empty, no one was killed, no traffic was caused. But yet I have appealed against these tickets and am told by the council they are 'certain an offense has taken place' and I need to pay £390 thankyou very much. That is like almost half a months wages. For making a mistake that has harmed no one. Does anyone know how I can fight this?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2895425/Lloyds-life-misery-insisting-DEAD.html

Can anyone give me advice? We were first in line for a Housing Association bungalow and a multi viewing was arranged last Monday. It was pouring with rain and there was no electric so very dark. We looked around with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th in line, some with babies which made us feel very uncomfortable. We had to make our mind up at that viewing and although we had some reservations about the size felt we had to say yes there and then or lose it. We had to pay the first month's rent immediately although obviously we have not had chance to let our (private landlord) know and give notice. We now wish we had a cooling off period of even a day as we've now looked in the light and realised we haven't room for hardly any furniture. We take responsibility for our decision but feel we had less rights than buying double glazing or something where there is a window to change your mind. We are now stuck with 2 rents and possibly 2 council taxes for the next month. My question is surely we should have been given more time and a month's grace to give notice to our existing landlord. Would welcome any feedback.

Our land lord lives on the premises, he is joint land lord with his brother who lives in Australia, The one here, is in massive debt, we are talking £50,000, he uses our front door to his granny flat but we have the run of the rest of the house, we are and have been happy for the past 12 years here, we pay minimal rent while basically keeping the house in sort of repair, we dont have the funds to keep the property as it should, we have just fitted a new kitchen and bathroom at OUR expense, along with many other repairs etc. He has been going down under to visit his brother several times over the past two year or so, I have even asked him if he was thinking of emigrating, he said no, which was obviously a lie, he told my wife yesterday he was moving to Australia on 5th Nov this year, this has come as a bit of a blow as we have lived her for 12 years, how can he just drop all his debt and emigrate....???????????????? we are talking £30-£40,000 on credit cards, which include 2 charges against the property, and about £4500 in water rates, couciil tax coming out of his ears, i mean mega debt (we have checked with the council that we are not libel for the CT arrears) he said we can still rent but we know his brother will hike the rent up to market value, but he wont do the repairs that need doing, we may have an option of buying the property, due to repair of the house that would valued at £100,000, but how would the debts that he has at the property and charges on the house if we buy it. But we think he is lying to appease us, to keep us on the good side and he will still go for good, we know the process of moving and getting accepted takes about 2 years for the application, he says it's all accepted and sorted Now, if he drops us in it which we know he will, is there any way we could put a spanner in the works for him regarding his emigration, if nothing else but to bide us time

Hello I'm new here, but just wondered if anyone has experience with successfully challenging and overthrowing an ombudsman's final decision. The Financial ombudsman has made lots of poor excuses and failed to look at the significant evidence that yes car credit/direct auto have mis sold ppi and other insurances without permission. Many thanks if u can advise

Simple terms: Lloyds overdraft, defaulted mid 2011 balance around £600. Had a claim open for bank charges on same account which I was hoping might of cleared the od was of course declined with court ruling. Had been paying Lloyds £1 a month till 12 months ago when I moved from HSBC to Santander, have not paid since. Lloyds have now passed debt to Cabot who are telling me they will accept an offer. I am absolutely in no position to repay at more than £1 a month, self employed, private renter, skint... but could maybe pull a bit together in order to get them off my back. Now considering the debt is made up i'd say of mostly bank charges at some point between 1996 and 2008 when I banked with them how much would be a reasonable offer?. Otherwise its a pound a month for the next 20 years. I was thinking of going in really low, like 10% which is now about £58. Any advice would be appreciated. I know the numbers are all pretty small really and not enough for me to lose and sleep over but it would just be nice to get this out the way if possible. Ps have debt collectors gone soft?, the tone of all letters compared to 5 years ago is very gentle.

Is it possible as a claimant to make an offer to only one defendant and not the other? Or is an offer to one automatically an offer to all?

I've called in sick at 10:30 this morning to work for a shift starting at 2. Had a reply about an hour ago (that I've only just seen) saying they've got cover for the first 2 hours of my 9 hour shift. They've got no one to do it, and I'm just to tell the other person what to do with regards to work, but I'll still be expected to work with the customers. What do I do?? When I drove home last night from the shift I also tried to call out for I was not 100% safe on the roads, and had 2 bad moments. And I wasn't as bad yesterday as I feel today. I just... there's so few of us at the moment that are trained. More and more pressure is falling on a select few, while others seem to get away with all sorts. The rota is always a mess, if you've got a spare hour you're expected to be on call and available to go in at a moments notice for when other people are sick... but only for a select few.

Does anyone know if I can do a SAR request to Natwest Credit card & natwest bank in one go & save myself a tenner? I know that they are separate companies, but at a higher level, there must be a single company, but can I send a SAR to that company & get everything from the others, or will they respond with nothing, because the data is held by their subsidiaries? Grumpy

Hi all, Hoping somebody may be able to shed some light on my question.. I have a judgment against an individual. I have come to realise his name is misspelt on the judgment. Have been advised by the court to make a formal application to correct this using an N244 form 'Notice Application'. My question really is regarding what court fee I am supposed to pay. Ive read the official fee guide but it doesn't make it very clear regarding this type of application. Any thoughts? Ive already emailed the courts to ask but thought somebody may have the answer on here. Thanks in advance

I have received a letter where my previous landlord is making a claim against me for a property that I moved out on the 25th of Sept2016. The said property was a temp accommodation through the council so he had put the claim in to the council but I want to appeal this as when I moved out I offered to repaint the flat but he said that he was remodelling the whole flat that I didn't need to paint it so I did not have it done but I did hire a cleaner to make sure that it was clean when upon moving. The landlord did do a walk-around with my son upon our vacating the property and he said it was all okey. The landlord even brought me the cupboards out of the flat to my new home as I needed some in the kitchen. I have been by the old flat to see the new construction and he has totally redone the place... knocked out walls, resized the stairwell, made the two bedroom into one and put in a larger bathroom ... now my problem is that he has claimed against me for re-dec in both bedrooms, lounge and hall, stairs and landing due to heavy marks in the amount of £384.00 (I was in the property for 3 years) also, for the replacement of the carpet in all the rooms listed above too due to heavy marks it says (there was a previous tenant of two years before me and my move in sheet says small marks on carpet several spots) £996.00 What I am wanting to know does he have to show pictures of this damage or will the court go by his word? as I know that it isn't true but I did not take pics thinking that he was satisfied with the property. I am going to appeal the claim but I am wondering if anyone could tell me if I had a chance of winning this as I am disabled and this letter has upset me and I don't have 1380 to pay to the council as they are the ones trying to collect the payment now since it was a temp accommodation through them. The flat, as I said, has been totally remodelled and I don't feel that I should have to pay for his remodelling of the flat since I did offer to paint it before moving and he was fine with how I left it.

Hi Cag community! I really hope you can help. I’m afraid I’ve never posted in a forum before so not too sure if I have posted in the right please so do let me know if I should post somewhere else! On 30th June 2015, EDF (representing Scottish Power) entered the communal corridor for my flat, and removed all the electricity meters for the whole building. We own a flat in a block of 5, and we had a prepayment meter with Scottish Power. In the few days following this we discovered (from the EDF officer who removed all the meters) that the meters to Flats 1, 2 and 5 (owned by the freeholder) were bypassed, and that my meter and the other leasehold flat were in credit. This proves that we were topping up our prepayment meters as we ought to, and that they theft of electricity was being done by our freeholders who were bypassing the other meters to the flats they owned. Whilst this was all going on, my mum spoke to Scottish Power’s Revenue Protection department on 9th July 2015 and was asked to pay £300 for a replacement meter, as the freeholder had still not sorted it out, and was instead trying to reconnect the electricity supply illegally (for which we reported him every time). She paid this £300 in advance so that I could book the time for the meter to be installed once we had the necessary certificates. The issues with the electricity have highlighted criminal acts by the freeholder, and these have been reported to the police (I have a crime reference number). Our freeholder illegally reconnected the electricity several times and we always reported him immediately to Scottish Power. We just wanted justice to be served and to get proper official meters installed as soon as possible so we could go on with our lives. In the end, we did not book Scottish Power to install new meters for us as the freeholder finally organised British Gas to do it (Scottish Power had scuppered his attempts to reconnect illegally). Scottish Power are now refusing to refund us the money as they have told us they are keeping it to go towards repaying the debt owed by our freeholder. Our freeholder has also (without my knowledge or permission) transferred my account away from British Gas and back to Scottish Power by posing as me. Scottish Power will not let me move my account back, presumably because they are taking a portion of money from my prepayment meter when I top it up to repay the freeholders debt. I do not know what state the freeholders meters are in at the present time as he now keeps them in a separate padlocked cupboard with a CCTV camera pointed at it. Scottish Power have told us that they have no interest in finding out who the freeholder is. The police have not followed up on the case either. Despite raising complaints with various departments I have been unable to resolve this issue. Scottish Power are still refusing to refund the £300 and are also holding me responsible for the rest of the freeholders debt. I really hope someone can help as I’m at the end of my rope with this one.. Here's to hoping.. thanks all for reading!

Hi all, Hope you had a great Christmas. Anyway, about this time last year I was carrying out sub contract work for a company called Betta Living installing kitchens. On this particular kitchen Betta Living made a long line of ordering mistakes supplying incorrect kitchen units and doors. This was nothing to do with us as installers this was all down to Betta Livings Installation management Team. We completed the kitchen as far as we could, around 90% and thankfully left the kitchen completely usable over the Christmas period. We were then asked by BL to return to fit the last two remaining wall units. I should point out that at this point I was already in dispute with BL with regard to already outstanding payments. So, we scheduled a day to return to this particular job but when we arrived they had once again supplied incorrect items so could do no work. Another week goes by and I received a part payment from BL with regard to the previously mentioned outstanding payments. (All this is just background info) So a week later when the new delivery arrived I was asked to return again to which I refused as I was convinced that I would be doing this for free. In short I finally agreed to return on the provision that we were paid the outstanding £400 to complete the work. I was promised that this would happen but being cynical I had the installation manager in question agree to me sending him an invoice via email for the outstanding sum and to reply to this email agreeing to it before commencing the work. I have the invoice together with all of their emails and ours in reply. To this date I have not received any payments from Betta Living with regard to this and would like opinions on whether or not I have a case worth pursuing via MCOL? Any input gratefully received. I think I have got it all down in this post but if any further clarification is need dont hesitate to ask. Many thanks

From the BBC. Some hospital trusts in England are making more than £3m a year from car parking fees, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have shown. Of more than 90 trusts that responded to FOI requests, half are making at least £1m a year, the news agency Press Association (PA) found. The Patients Association said the charges were "morally wrong". But many trusts defended their revenues, saying some or all of the money was put back into patient care. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35157425 HB

Hi all. I need some advice for my sister. Main points: She has worked at this company for almost 3 years now; Never has any problems, and always gets her work done; Recently, she has a medical problem, which is unconfirmed and investigations are still ongoing; Apart from her self, our mother had a few hospital appointments, which ordinarily, she would have gone with her to understand exactly what the issue was, and therefore asked if she could work from home. They always replied, its only given at the company's discretion. Due to this and also then [everybody] receiving an email further stating that working from home was now not allowed, whilst she did ask, when things were a bit crazy personally, she respected the company policy and didn't ask again. Our mother sadly passed away. Understandably, everything is just not normal anymore. Her direct manager noticed that something was wrong, so he spoke with her via an informal talk. She spoke to her openly, with the hope that this can only sorted out. Since, she's been back to work, despite the changes, her mind has been up and down at work, and she has been told by other colleagues that they were granted to work from home, but they need to remove it from the diary and don't tell anybody about, furthermore, since the talk, a 'mate' of the manager who was working from home, his entries were changed to hospital the very next day in the work diary. Overall, the company seem to have been good with her, and were happy with the work she has been doing. Now the company seem to be trying to escalate this all formally, although she has not yet put in a formal grievance, hoping to get these concerns sorted out without the grievance route. There is no reason for it to be this way. So my questions are: How should she deal with this? should she put in a formal grievance if the next informal meeting resolves nothing. As it stands, its my sister that's trying to clear this issue. I wouldn't like to think that this is a colour problem, but other coloured people are no longer there, but if they still make things difficult for her, it might be thought of as an issue, does she include that in a formal grievance? If it gets to a point that she feels she has to resign for her own sanity and health, does this count as constructed dismissal? If they dismissed her, can she argue unfair dismissal? This is all I can think of asking at the moment, I'm sure down the line other things may come into this. Any help and advise would really be appreciated. Kind regards

Making the Veterans badge a decoration will protect it because it is illegal under section 197 of the Army Act 1955 to use these to pretend to be a member of the armed forces. (This act will be superseded by the Armed Forces Act 2006 in November.) The act makes wearing any military decoration, badge, wound stripe or emblem without authority a criminal offense. It is also illegal to wear a replica "as to be calculated to deceive", and to falsely represent yourself as someone entitled to wear any such award. Making the Veterans Badge a military decoration will give it protection under these said acts and illegal for non veterans to wear it and use it to secure favor such as discounts given to true veterans https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/110201

http://leaderlive.co.uk/news/153109/parking-enforcer-swaps-sides-to-fight-penalties.aspx it's absolutely disgusting that he STILL profits off the misfortune of drivers that got caught out by PPC's. More so that the local media is actually advertising his business.