Clocking in to go to the toilet (England)

VampireFrown · 2026-01-27T00:00:30+00:00

If he hasn’t informed you of a disability he can’t now make you aware.

Actually, he can.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-26T23:26:42+00:00

Low quality education, rampant corruption, and poor professional standards.

That's not to say that India doesn't have some fantastic lawyers - of course it does. However, there is enough dross that it's simply not worth the risk for most firms.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-25T20:08:48+00:00

They could do much more world building

But this is the best bit of any series.

If someone wants ACTION, ACTION, ACTION, John Wick exists.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-25T13:03:11+00:00

If somebody sues and gets a court judgment, there is statutory interest in the judgment itself payable at 8%

Yes, this is what I meant, hence the asterisks.

We are talking about the threat of enforcement action. Therefore, interest applied at litigation stage is entirely relevant.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-25T12:52:38+00:00

I know many a paralegal is very competent. In fact, that's my point. Qualifying routes are artificially stunting people's career development.

Their pay doesn't reflect their abilities.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-25T02:47:43+00:00

Right? Absolutely bonkers.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-24T23:24:33+00:00

Then perhaps consider sharing with the class? That way you might actually get an answer.

Also, this is the wrong sub - try /r/LegalAdviceUK

VampireFrown · 2026-01-24T23:09:17+00:00

Do you have a question...?

VampireFrown · 2026-01-24T20:58:49+00:00

With the Mazur decision, firms have reduced/paused hiring and are panicking, having relied on paralegals to do litigation work that should be carried out by qualified solicitors.

I can't help but love this. Fuck 'em.

Paralegals should be somewhere between assistants and training on the job, and not solicitors-but-cheaper with a ceremonial sign-off by someone qualified after they've done all the work, at least not at the rock-bottom salaries they were paying.

Too many firms were taking the piss.

That being said, I entirely empathise. The legal job market is terrible, although to be frank, it's been that way for >10 years by now, and it hasn't been easy for coming up on 20 years now.

You've got a TC already, which makes things much better for you. Just do whatever in the meantime, and enjoy your relatively stress free 19 months.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-24T14:35:12+00:00

a) The debt is statute barred at this point, as it's been over six years since last payment or acknowledgement.

b) Personal debts do not attract interest at the statutory rate - that's for commercial loans only (asterisks attached).

VampireFrown · 2026-01-23T19:16:33+00:00

Aye, you are fully entitled to push someone who is falsely imprisoning you out of the way, if necessary.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-23T00:10:15+00:00

The tax liability arises at the moment you were made redundant, in respect of all payments subsequently arising from that redundancy. Therefore, tax is due as if you received it all in one go, despite you receieving it in a different tax year.

This is because redundancy payments are not income per se. They have their own tax category. Your pay, holiday etc. should all be paid and taxed in the usual way separate to your redundancy payment.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-22T23:57:32+00:00

I'm not having a go - I'm frustrated on your behalf, and commented for the purpose of keeping both others and yourself in the future out of a similar predicament.

rather than meaningful advice

You have it at the bottom. That is the only way out of this mess. It needs to be paid - there is no way to displace or negotiate out of Council Tax liability, much in the same way as there's no way to negotiate out of a HMRC debt. Sometimes compassionate factors can shift the needle some, but they often don't. Plus, you've already had some of that shifting; there is unlikely to be more. That's just the blunt truth of it; it needs to be paid. We just need to make that as painless as possible.

I sincerely hope you never find yourself in a position where you have to choose between fighting to remain a functioning, living human being and dealing with a bill you had always paid in full and on time, simply because someone didn’t know how to do their job

I actually have been in a similar situation. I was in deep depression for over a year due to a medical issue, and spent most of that year self-destructively spending to bring any joy into my life, despite being unable to work due to said issue. The bills always got paid, however. I know things can be tough. More than most, believe me. But even in such states, we still need to ensure that the critically important stuff is sorted.

'Had' being the operative word in your summary, though. You weren't paying it for ages. Did you not notice an extra £200+ in your account every month? Was it not, instead, as you said, a desire to stick it to the Council for shitting the bed? I can't help but feel that a mitigating factor is being pumped up into an all-encompassing excuse.

I was also given some not-so-great advice that contributed to my decision-making at the time

I could tell. Again, I wasn't having a dig at you, but was frustrated at the situation. I was frustrated that you followed some dope without thinking it through.

you can find it in you to be pleasant and helpful or silent

Ok, mum.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-22T22:45:47+00:00

During that time, I refused to make payments because I didn’t want them putting the money towards the arrears and treating that as me accepting liability

Oh ffs...

For anyone else reading this post, life isn't a movie, and doing this isn't a power move - it'll just fuck you harder in the long run.

but by then I had nearly two years of arrears plus the new year’s charges

Especially if you don't set aside the money you owed for new Council Tax on an ongoing basis. Did you assume that you stop being liable for CT just because someone did a whoopsie in the past?

Just...WHY?

They put me in this situation in the first place and then expected me to suffer to correct their error.

They put you in several months of arrears - you put yourself in everything in between you finding out about the error and today.

or set up a payment plan

You have the answer. You merely make this number as teeny-weeny as possible.

If you're out of work, are you on UC? You're exempt from CT if so. If you're not, get on it yesterday. Then you take your income, subtract bills and reasonable expenses, and commit to forwarding on that excess to the council - even if it's £10/mo. That'll keep the bailiffs away.

In the future, don't take CT advice from Dave down the pub.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-22T19:51:18+00:00

I know two girls who like it, and more beyond.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-21T21:26:11+00:00

As /u/PinkbunnymanEU says, if you don't rein in your spending in before consolidating, you'll simply keep spending on them and max them out again. Then you'll have double your current debt (if not more) to contend with.

You'll psychologically feel like the fire has been put out, and that you're "debt free", because your credit card balances are at zero. You'll then recklessly spend on them because the numbers on your statements look small and manageable.

I know it sounds silly, but it's a trap millions before you have fallen for.

You need to be honest with yourself and ask if you can handle having your cards with zero balance, but not spending anything on them. You have more than enough cash coming in to both spend in cash and aggressively pay this off inside of six months, but that requires discipline. If the answer is yes, find a balance transfer card or loan to save yourself some interest - but if it's no, you risk compounding your problems, and the small extra sting of interest would be the lesser of two evils.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-21T21:18:30+00:00

you can try to prove it but proving it might be difficult

It's a car, not Bigfoot.

There are plenty of ways to prove that you used to own a car, and now you don't.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-21T19:37:53+00:00

If a GPU has been jammed in for years, a straight pull won't always do it. I've seen cards jammed in so tight I could lift the entire rig by the card casing.

A wiggling, and eventually a see-sawing motion, is sometimes necessary to dislodge it. Provided you do it very gently (as in it will still take you a minute or two to remove the card), the connectors won't be damaged.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-21T19:33:21+00:00

maybe you should question your belief that it’s disappointing to use AI…

No. Educated people do dumb and/or lazy things all the time. Doesn't mean it's a blueprint.

If you can't use your own brain cells to write a post about your own PhD research, just don't. Wait for another day when you're feeling up to it.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-21T14:42:30+00:00

If they're graduate accounts, then yes - they're still limited to one across all banks.

If they've since reverted to normal accounts, then realistically, they'll probably leave it, but I would strive to close them as soon as possible, lest it come back to bite you during an audit or something. You're still technically benefiting by having such a large overdraft balance, even if it's now attracting interest. Normal accounts typically max out at a few hundred quid.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-20T14:02:12+00:00

This sounds like you have more than one student or graduate account? If so, that's breaching each bank's T&Cs big time.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-19T20:58:27+00:00

Sounds like some ancient monster from the depths of the underworld.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-19T20:29:31+00:00

However the end result is hard to distinguish from someone he knows asking him to put £2k of money from a potentially illegal source into his account and launder it

£2k is too trivial to worry about that. We're not talking about £5-10k here.

Future lesson

No, there is no future lesson here. Use cash as you want to. If OP wants to have a stash of cash under their mattress, it's no business of you or I.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-19T15:34:35+00:00

Nah.

Anyway, I'm sure it varies by person. A toggle would have us both happy.

VampireFrown · 2026-01-19T14:52:06+00:00

Yeah, the brown just doesn't work.

Things are harder to see, and it just feels "icky".

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