I need help in looking for compensation
Q. I recently had an industrial accident at work, I am an agency worker and employed in a full time, temporary position but presently off sick and not receiving any pay. I am looking for compensation and advice on how to obtain withheld pay.
A. The term industrial accident applies to all accidents that occur in the workplace and is not restricted to claims arising from industrial settings, for example, factories and heavy industry.
Your employer must keep an accident book or electronic accident record wherever more than ten people are employed. It must be accessible to employees and kept for at least three years after the last entry.
It should record fatal and serious injuries, dangerous occurrences and reportable diseases. Employers must report accidents involving fatal and serious injury, dangerous occurrences and reportable diseases to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or local authority. Any work injury involving more than seven days absence (three days absence before April 6 2012) from work should also be reported.
An employee should report any accident suffered to the employer as soon as possible. If the injured employee is unable to report the accident, another employee should do this.
A failure to report the accident may mean the employee’s industrial injuries benefit is delayed or lost.
The employee’s name and address, the date, time, place and cause of the accident, and the nature of the injuries need to be reported.
If a client has suffered a personal injury as a result of an industrial accident, they may wish to claim compensation against their employer. From October 27 2003, a client can also claim compensation if they have suffered illness or injury arising from their employer’s breach of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Please note that Citizens Advice Scotland is no longer insured to advise on personal injury claims. This means we would not be able to give you any information on this.
If you want to take legal action to claim compensation for a personal injury, you will need to get advice from a solicitor specialising in these types of cases. A bureau adviser won’t be able to give you legal advice about personal injuries.
Get legal help as soon as possible as there are strict time limits on taking legal action. Obtaining your withheld pay would involve speaking to your employer informally and asking them why they have not paid the money owed. If you are not happy with their answer you would raise a formal grievance.
A. Most energy companies review customers’ direct debits every six months to ensure that customers do not get into debt, and if customers have been using maybe more energy than what covers their direct debit amount the company are allowed to increase the direct debit. However, you should have been notified of this by either letter, email or text and if this is not the case you should complain.
It sounds as though you have an online only tariff which means that you will not get a paper bill and you may have given your supplier an email address when you applied for the new tariff. It may be helpful for future reference to check that you have received such emails from your supplier – check both the inbox and the junk folder as you may have messages.
You could make a complaint to your supplier and ask to have the payments reduced if it would put you into financial hardship. You may have to provide the company with an income and expenditure sheet.
Keeping in mind your next “review” it might be helpful to a) check your emails if possible and b) keep a note of meter readings and actual monthly payments so that you can keep tabs on whether you go over the direct debit payment amount.
Q. I met someone recently on a friendship website. We have been out for walks and dinner, and they claim to be in the armed forces. During the past few weeks I have given them small amounts of money for groceries.
We have drifted apart and I have asked for the money back.
They claim they were given the money voluntarily, not a loan and are refusing to give the money back. What can I do?
A. You would be advised to report this person to the website you met them on. Then you can phone 101 and report a) a serving person in the armed forces has taken money from you and will not return the money and b) If they are not a person serving in the armed forces you can report him as they could be arrested if they are an impostor with the intent to deceive.
It may help your case if you can prove that you loaned the money to this person, especially as you kept giving them money when they had not repaid previous sums. They may have had no expectation of repaying.
A. All trafficking cases are different, but there are common signs. A victim of trafficking might: have a lack of freedom, work for very little or no pay, seem to be in debt to someone, live in fear of someone or even the authorities, have signs of physical abuse, like cuts and bruises and move location regularly.
If you want confidential advice about trafficking before calling the police, there are a number of specialist organisations you can talk to. You can contact :
•Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance
(TARA)
• Modern Day Slavery Foundation
helpline on 0800 0121 700, open 24 hours a day.
You must explain to the person what will happen to them: what the National Referral Mechanism is, what support they can get through it, what the outcomes could be for them.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has been set up to protect victims of trafficking. You can’t report trafficking directly. Only certain organisations can report trafficking to them. These are called ‘first responders’. Check the list of first responder organisations on Migration Scotland.
Part of the Home Office called the Single Competent Authority (SCA) will consider reports of trafficking.
If the SCA believes this person has been trafficked, the person will get safe accommodation and support for at least 45 days. This period is to help them recover and think about what they want to do next.
They don’t have to agree to report the traffickers to the police to get this help.
■PLEASE NOTE: Rutherglen & Cambuslang Citizens Advice Bureau is open for telephone / e-mail advice on Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 3pm.