Hi! I'm new here so please bare with me! I've had an ongoing issue with NPower which has escalated to such a stressful level I am now on antidepressants. After 4 years of NPower producing incorrect bills I finally switched energy companies In 2012. There was an arrears of £500 on the account and after 3 months of waiting for a final bill NPower said I owed £795 which I queried for about 5 months before they settled on £745 which I continued to dispute until April 2014 when I had just had enough because I couldn't find anyone to help me dispute this on top of being unemployed. after months of explaining I could not afford to pay this amount immediately I was bullied into arranging an unaffordable payment arrangement of £20/month. At the time I had a monthly deficit of £550 so this just wasn't at all affordable and I struggled to meet these payments but always communicated when I was able to meet the payment. I did however pay more than the agreed when I could and by January 2014 the outstanding amount was £500. Even after discussing this with NPower they still found it necessary to instruct their solicitors Wilkin Chapman LLP to issue court proceedings if I was unable to pay the full sum within 14 days. Again I explained my situation with Wilkin Chapman and produced a full income and expenditure document showing my deficit. There was no question of a doubt that they were fully aware of my circumstances. I made a token payment of £50 leaving a remaining total of £450 and was bullied into making a payment arrangement of £20/Month as they said their client (NPower) would not accept anything lower than this and would follow through with court proceedings if this was not paid. In March 2015 I advised Wilkin Chapman that I would not be able to meet my payment arrangement for that 6/8 weeks due to family bereavement and the fact that my invoices from work had not been paid. This they now claim to have no reference of. Wilkin Chapman followed with Court proceedings in April; and as soon I received the court documents I called and made an offer to pay something to avoid court action but they refused payment and advised that in order to stop court proceedings I would have to pay a total of £538. I was unable to pay this so believed my only option was to return the admission form back to them. I both emailed and posted the forms back to Wilkin Chapman on Friday 1st May and have receipt of both being delivered and signed for on Tuesday 5th May. On Saturday 15th May I received a CCJ (Default due to non response) from the Court asking for an immediate payment of £668.65 forthwith. Wilkin Chapman had failed to forward my admission form to the courts which resulted in this default. Wilkin Chapman have explained that their client (Npower) had advised them not to return the documents to the court. However, The Court have stated that the solicitors should have sent my admission form back to the court and allowed them to come to a decision if one could not be made by the claimant. Wilkin Chapman LLP have now asked me to forward a sum of £693.21 to be paid immediately. Although the original debt was for £450, with the interest added brought it to £538 and court costs total £130 bringing the forthwith sum to £668. NPower customer service team have advised that Npower have sided with their solicitors behaviour and accept that they may have acted illegitimately forcing me into further financial hardship. NPower have refused to accept a sum of £668.65 to clear my debt (my neighbours have rallied together and offered £500 towards the debt) and to add insult to injury ended the phone call with "if you fail to repay the amount of £693.21 we will proceed with collection measures." I just don't know what to do now! The courts have advised that they can remove the CCJ from my credit file if I pay £668 by 10th June 2015 but NPower and Wilkin Chapman LLP have refused to take this amount and want all their legal costs paid on top of the forthwith total on the CCJ.

Not sure how this can be right, UC will mean every self employed person has to earn minimum wage for 35 hours per week, or not be self employed!? So why would they be pushing people into self employment knowing they wont earn any money??? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21260331

Dairy farmers from across the UK have been "pushed to the brink" by cuts to the price of milk, a farmers' union representative has told a summit. About 2,000 farmers gathered in London to protest at the latest cuts by processors of up to 2p a litre. The NFU's Meurig Raymond said: "Society has to recognise what these dairy farmers have been put through by a market place that doesn't work". The government said it hoped to see a "fair deal". Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said he was close to getting agreement on a revised voluntary code for dairy contracts from milk processors. Mr Paice said the average price of a pint was 49p, of which 16p went to the farmers, and the price cuts were "a massive burden for the vast majority of dairy farmers". There is more here :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18792132

I was transferred to an outsourcing company 15 months ago and I’ve had nothing but problems since. I am a cleaner. First my manager tried to take away hours (Sundays) replacing me without letting me know and has continued to try and take them away ever since. The problem for me being that the hours in question were agreed on, verbally, before the transfer. So I posted a thread on this forum, and followed the advice. I asked my OLD manager (from before the transfer) to sign something to state the contract took place, he never did, but did have a word with them on the side which at the time worked. Since then, I have been accused by my manager of not doing my job during these hours and not coming in on these days. I am continuously being told I can’t be trusted because of poor attendance on these days. I have taken a lot of time off in the past but all because of genuinely unavoidable reasons. They reassure me its 22 days sick leave taken in the last year but I think it’s more like 15 (estimate). I’m sure they are adding days that I actually booked as holiday because I haven’t taken any Sundays off without booking them. But I can’t prove that. At the beginning of February my mother’s health deteriorated I informed work I wouldn’t be in for at least a week. Sadly, a week later my mother passed away so I took a further 6 weeks off. I returned to work for a few days when some complications arose (in conjunction with my mother’s death) and I required another couple of days off which I informed them of. When I returned fully I was sent an email from head office telling me I had a disciplinary hearing because of erratic attendance, after I pointed out that I was entitled to the time off, that changed to inadequate communication. I told them that I could prove that I had contacted my supervisor (namely texts sent and received) and tried & failed to contact my manager (phone always off) but was told that the hearing would be going ahead all the same. (I think they thought I was bluffing – at this point they didn’t know what the proof was). I pointed out that they should talk to my supervisor as he could vouch for me this seems to have been ignored and I was reminded it was procedure. The letter also stated that I would not be doing Sundays again until my attendance improves. My claim was that my manager knew of my comms but failed to pass this on to head office. I asked that my managers manager (sorry don’t know his title) hold the hearing - that was a no. So I asked that he at least be there - again no. I asked someone else from head office be there, yet again - no. The hearing was held by my manager and he brought along another manager who has little to do with me. The usual accusations were thrown at me but the main attack was my lack of comms. I defended myself and was then told that all I had was my word. I said the same of them and then showed my proof. They quickly shifted the blame on to my supervisor. I received a letter a few days later explaining that “Having taken all the facts into account the company has decided not to take any further action against you on this occasion” I thought I had proved I wasn’t guilty. The letter continued “I trust we can now move forward and expect you to continue with your improved attendance and communication”. I cant see what ive actually done wrong other than voice my opinions. Now my manager is really going for it. He comes in to check my work every day picking up on the smallest thing I miss out or neglect, he tells me not to concentrate on some things too much one day and then has a dig because they have been neglected the next. In the two and a half years I’ve been there I haven’t had any problems raised but suddenly now my work’s unacceptable. Extra work added and schedules changed are making my job harder and there’s no reason for it. I’ve also had my Sundays stopped again as an outcome of my “poor attendance”. I’ve emailed my managers manager with my complaints about him in the past but the usual reply has been its there procedure and it’s down to my manager. He no longer replies to my emails and I now have to go through someone else in his office to communicate with him(HR). I am constantly having their terms & conditions shoved in my face and being told its procedure but don’t they have to go by my original T&Cs I had (under Tupe)? I’ve now emailed my OLD manager explaining my situation and to ask if he could spare one of his staff to check that I’ve done my work when they arrived in the morning. His reply was that he thought it would be inappropriate to get directly involved and proceeded to tell me how vital it is to communicate any absences I may have. That tells me that he too is under the impression I never contacted them. There are many other little things that have happened that I see as unfair but don’t know if they come under tupe or if they have any relevance, but too many to remember and list here. It seems anything they can think of to make it more intolerable for me is implemented. I have no witnesses to the fact that I actually do any work or that they act this way (just managment) as I am put upstairs out the way of the rest of the team and I don’t exactly get to "mix" with them. My job is kind of based on the fact that it’s trusted I do my work and if there’s nothing for me to do I find the supervisor and get reappointed (which rarely happens). I asked my manager to move me somewhere else if he isn’t happy, he wont. So I’ve asked for him to write me a day by day list of jobs he wants me to do. He said he would but a week later – nothing. Everything he says about me seems to be believed by everyone He acts and speaks to me one way and then completely changes when other people are around. It’s a bit strange. All I know is I wouldn’t have been treated this way by the company that I originally applied to, for the job but isn’t this what tupe is supposed to protect me against? Who do I go to now I’ve run out of managers to go to? As i mentioned earlier emails I’ve sent in the past to head office, touching on the subject of my objection to this treatment have been ignored. Could this be classed as a grievance they haven’t followed up on? Or do I need to write something more official? Would it be worth it or could it bring more problems for me? I want to keep my job I work hard and cant see how this new company has contributed (other than denting morale) in any way. So any advice would help. Thank you. Jaspa.