stressing a bit here! (updated)
This is no longer protected - you can’t be accused of libel if you just state facts.
There has been a strong suggestion that the private ambi company that Duke works for is not kosher. I don’t know all the "ins and outs" but there are suggestions that there is no insurance whatsoever on the trucks, no public liability insurance and no medical indemnity.
(eta - and one of the vehicles at least, if not more, has been driving round still registred to the previous owner and without an MOT )
There is also a suggestion taht although he has been doling out "wage slips" with tax and NI contributions recorded taht actually there has been no tax or NI paid - lets face it, it’s not hard to buy the software to produce pay slips now is it. Duke is owed about 9 weeks worth of wages (but at least the last cheque seems to be staying put - fingers crossed)
(eta - if I were to say BOI-ING!! would that give you any ideas about what that last cheque just did?)
So it looks like we are back to managing on whatever the Red Cross deigns to remember to pay me and his £11k salary, those nice people at the tax credit office had better not f**k up the calculations on this one…… otherwise i’m stacking shelves at Asda every night from now on or we move to one of those nice "park homes" down at the trailer park.
(eta - if we sell ours for £150,000 which seems reasonable compared to waht stuff has gone for round here recently we can clear the mortgage and get something like this with the change or this with the proceeds from those endowments, be closer to where Duke works, be walking distance from Morrisons but be on one of the roughest estates in the area with no garage to store campign stuff in etc. I’m beginning to think that between this and the ***** endowments that moving is going to be what it has to be. )
aaargh it does sound dodgy. TBH if there is no indemnity arrangement - has Duke got some of his own?? otherwise I would stop unless they have a statemnte that they would cover his liability. you would HATE for it to be you stumping up legal fees and payouts.
Comment by HelenHaricot — May 4, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
I am with Helen on this - while you aren’t likely to get had over for liability so long as you have no firm knowledge that he is not covered, and I don’t think the IR are likely to come after you for unpaid tax, at some point you stand to get royally screwed, one way or another.
Comment by Tim — May 4, 2007 @ 10:23 pm
No, we don’t have indemnity, whilst we are on Red Cross time we are covered and if we stop at an accident in our own time we are also covered (Godd Samaritan clause) however, if we are working for someone else then they don’t cover us.
As for continuing to work, Duke ended up switching his mobile off last night as A&E kept phoning to see if he could sort out jobs as Ant wasn’t answering. He’s doing no more work until he is paid up to date and has wage slips, a P60 and has seen evidence of all the relevent insurances.
Comment by Administrator — May 5, 2007 @ 7:44 am
sounds like the safest way forward, even if it’s a royal pain in the whatsit.
Comment by jax — May 6, 2007 @ 5:15 pm
hugs Katy. I would get tim to CAB bureau to see how he can take the firm to small claims court to claim back what he is owed. H needs to do it pronto before bankruptcy is declared by the dodgy firm! You still might not see much of the money, but will stand a better chance.
Comment by HelenHaricot — May 7, 2007 @ 12:54 pm
what about making stuff to sell again? local advert on being a seamstress - curtains, clothes etc etc?? reenactment societies etc etc
Comment by HelenHaricot — May 7, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
hmm, not sure I want to do a business again. It’s precious little reward for the hours of hassle - you don’t get a lot for sewing so you need to do a lot (ie full time) to get a decent wage from it. I wondered about knitted/crochet baby sets but then not that many babies seem to wear woolies these days between warm houses and warm cars.
Arg! I know it will all come right in the end etc but just now I’m really pissed off with the whole thing. We just seem to lurch from one disaster to another and never catch up financially. At least if we moved to a smaller house we could save a fortune on the mortgage and start getting some sort of savings and pension together for the future.
Comment by Administrator — May 7, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
well, then rainbow flavoured hippy look does well on ebay.
have you popped to CAB or wherever about making a claim about your endowment - well certainly dukes yet?
full of sympathy and hugs here. I can’t believe how crap it is for you again.
Comment by HelenHaricot — May 7, 2007 @ 8:17 pm
not thought of rainbow hippy stuff! Will look into that…. wonder what there is in the way of organic/fair trade/alpaca multicoloured baby yarns….
(I like baby knitting,they knit up fast which is good for my poor attention span and all that….)
Complaint letters for both endowments are probably on the desk at the companies just about now with an instruction that I want to hear from them within 2 weeks so here’s hoping we will have some sort of provisional answer on them by the end of the month. Also am writing today to the company that Duke has some life cover with as, now i’ve looked into life cover I realise we are being totally ripped off (paying £22pm for about £40k worth of cover just on him when there are loads of policies with big names for under £20pm joint life for the whole £60k to cover the entire mortgage)
Comment by Administrator — May 8, 2007 @ 9:16 am
endowment mis-selling took over a year for me to sort out so expect that to be a long haul thing. Our life insurance is joint on a mortgage of 90K and is under £20 a month so yeah, definitely overpriced on Duke’s.
Hope things improve soon for you, this sounds tough
Comment by Nic — May 8, 2007 @ 9:35 am
sigh, I know Nic, they aren’t going to let go of the money without a fight now are they…. gits!
Now if only I could find the details for Duke’s life insurance I could write that letter too…. tempted to stall the payment this month so they write to us to slap us over the head so I get the details…..
It was part of the mortgage originally but they passed it over to an outside company some time a few years ago and I can’t find the details anywhere 
Comment by Administrator — May 8, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
at least a start has been made with the endowments. jsut carry on harrassing them! and rainbow babies must be an easy sell - ditto bees and ladybirds
Comment by HelenHaricot — May 8, 2007 @ 10:46 pm