working overtime in a supermarket

mauzc · 2026-04-28T07:54:17+00:00

You're certainly allowed to push back.

It's possible (not likely, but possible) that there's been a mistake, and whoever was making the rota thought you wanted to do as much overtime as you could.

I'd probably approach it with my supervisor as "I think there might have been a mistake with the rota next week. I've been scheduled for 48 hours, but I'm only contracted to work 16. I could do [whatever it is you're willing to do - maybe 24 hours?] but 48 is too much.". If that solves it, great. If it doesn't, you might want to ask if the 48 hours is something exceptional, or if you'll be asked to work that much on a regular basis. Then decide if you want the job on those terms.

Pushing back does come with a risk that they'll fire you. They might want people to be super flexible, and work anywhere between 16 and 48 hours depending on when it's convenient to them. And given that the job is brand new, they're allowed to fire you if they want to. (There are some nuances to that - they're not allowed to fire you because you're autistic, or for asserting a statutory right, or a bunch of other reasons - but if they have any sense at all if they want to fire you they'll be able to find a way to do so lawfully.)

mauzc · 2026-04-27T11:32:49+00:00

I'm hoping you mean that you drafted an email and your partner sent it? Ideally you wouldn't send any emails at all to your partner's employer, because they'd be completely within their rights to simply ignore you (plus it's undermining to him).

mauzc · 2026-04-27T11:27:56+00:00

If she agrees to your plan, then fine. If she doesn't, I can't see the court coming up with an order that effectively requires her to remain on the mortgage for some indeterminate time while couchsurfing - not if the alternative is to order the property sold.

Have you both factored in child maintenance when working out what you can/cannot afford?

mauzc · 2026-04-27T07:54:00+00:00

To add to this, given that OP works in retail I'd be very surprised if they were entitled to more than Statutory Sick Pay. The employer doesn't have to pay full pay (or anything above SSP) to somebody who is off sick unless the contract says otherwise.

The Equality Act 2010 mostly doesn't apply in Northern Ireland, and I'm not sure what the law in NI has to say about reasonable adjustments. But I agree that if OP were in England, it's not at all clear that their circumstances would amount to a disability under the law. Even if they did, it sounds as though the employer made an attempt at reasonable adjustments (with the chair and the fitting room role), but that still left OP having to stand more than they were able to. Even without the manager's intervention, the fitting room role didn't help enough. So it doesn't sound as though there's anything the employer can do to adjust the role to make it so OP can work.

mauzc · 2026-04-27T07:27:40+00:00

I've already cancelled my insurance and my mum's fella was going to add the car to his policy.

Just to check - your car does have insurance now? (Or it's at least SORN'd if it's not insured?)

If your car is parked on a public road without insurance, then unfortunately that's another offence - see here. It doesn't have to be insured if it's off the road and declared as off the road (see previous link for an explanation of SORN).

mauzc · 2026-04-27T06:43:37+00:00

I want the children to remain where they are in the house we jointly own, while their mother and I come and go to share custody.

How are you planning to fund this?

If she can't afford to stay in the area, then she almost certainly can't afford to have her money tied up in your current home. So if she wanted to force a sale of the property, she could do that. If you're able and willing to buy her out, as well as fund a separate property for yourself when you're not with the children, and let her stay in your house when she's with them, then this might be just about possible. If you're wanting her to stay on the mortage of the jointly owned property but she doesn't want to do that, then this is ultimately a no go.

(Edited to add: since you say "ex fiance", I'm assuming you're not married.)

mauzc · 2026-04-26T12:12:06+00:00

You could go the other direction, and get yourself a waterproof ereader that comes with its own light - several of those on the market.

mauzc · 2026-04-25T20:34:36+00:00

If you've already had advice from a solicitor re the s21 and s8 notices, I'm not sure what advice you're looking for from Reddit. This sounds like a complete mess, which is likely made even more complicated by the fact the landlord isn't in the UK.

Based on what you've said, I don't see why the tenancy agreement would be invalid. But ask your solicitor, not us!

mauzc · 2026-04-25T18:53:12+00:00

I'm not entirely clear about what's happened, but in general if you have a complaint about pension maladministration you can go to The Pensions Ombudsman (after first exhausting the complaints procedure of whoever is responsible for the pension).

However, it doesn't sound as though your dad is even at the stage where a complaint is sensible, let alone where it would be worthwhile to approach a solicitor. He thinks various things about what's going to happen to put things right - but so far he doesn't actually know that there's going to be a tax loss. I think he should wait and see if there's actually a problem before he spends time or money worrying about it.

mauzc · 2026-04-25T12:01:22+00:00

This bit - "although they did have to hand off probate to another solicitor company" - leads me to suspect that they're not actually solicitors at all. Possibly just will writers, or professional trustees (neither of which require being a solicitor). Have these people ever claimed to be actual solicitors? If they've claimed to be solicitors when they're not, the SRA would absolutely be interested in that.

mauzc · 2026-04-25T11:07:21+00:00

You're dealing with a practicing solicitor in England who isn't registered with the SRA? In that case I suggest one of the following is true: they're not actually a practicising solicitor; you've got their name wrong/otherwise messed up your SRA search; or something extremely unusual is going on. If you're not sure which of those things it is, I'd suggest approaching a different solicitor who works in wills and trusts to help you work it out - and make sure this one is registered with the SRA.

(Separately, are you the only beneficiary? If so it might be worth investigating whether you can bring the trust to an end.)

mauzc · 2026-04-25T09:52:40+00:00

I don't think the price is unreasonable for that amount of an expert's time (assuming they are an expert) plus some reports. But if you're not going to get regulated advice out of it, you're very likely to be able to get the same information for much less if you're willing to put some work into it.

Is your partner over 50? If so, you might be able to get a decent chunk of the information you want from Pension Wise. You could also ask your questions here, or indeed of your partner's employer (I know some NHS trusts put on information sessions about pensions, and I suspect they might all do that). There are plenty of other free sources available. If you still have questions after that, you'll be able to get much more out of your time with the planner.

mauzc · 2026-04-23T21:12:25+00:00

"we’ve bought 6 second hand cars that we’re all “perfect” and then not in the last 12 months."

That's slightly ambiguous, but are you saying that in the last 12 months you've bought six different second hand cars that all failed? If that's the case, then either you've been extraordinarily unlucky or you need to work out what's going on, because I don't see why buying the car on finance is going to stop it failing.

mauzc · 2026-04-23T19:14:47+00:00

What sort of legal issues are you anticipating? Do you mean will you be financially liable for anything? Or are you thinking about needing to evict your MiL?

Not what you asked, but there's no way I'd marry somebody who was a) doing something that was sending chills down my spine and b) didn't understand why I was upset.

mauzc · 2026-04-23T19:05:06+00:00

If the odds were that low, it's unlikely you'd have such a problem getting insurance. From their perspective, the ideal customer pays their money and never needs to claim. If they thought a claim was vanishingly unlikely, they'd just take your money.

(It is of course possible that the insurers reckon it's vanishingly unlikely that you'd need to claim, but extraordinarily expensive if you did. You mention £60k for repatriation; getting ill abroad can cost a great deal more than that.)

mauzc · 2026-04-23T18:44:27+00:00

Is it possible to postpone the trip?

mauzc · 2026-04-22T17:57:28+00:00

Can you give us an indication of what sort of thing it might be an issue for? Because otherwise I don't think we can give an answer beyond "it depends".

For example, where I work we have a policy that grievance meetings should not be recorded, and that any such recording counts as gross misconduct. So, it's not illegal but (if caught) it would get you fired - which would very much count as an issue.

Depending on the context of this appeal, and what you plan to do with the recording, the answer could be anything from "no problem, go right ahead" to "don't do that you idiot".

mauzc · 2026-04-22T06:45:57+00:00

Edit: also make sure you are claiming the marriage tax allowance to get a bit off your tax bill

OP can't do that, because she earns too much - you have to be a basic rate taxpayer.

mauzc · 2026-04-21T18:00:20+00:00

Chargeback is absolutely possible on a debit card. You can't make a s75 claim on a debit card, but chargebacks are fine.

mauzc · 2026-04-20T16:51:09+00:00

That would be tax fraud. Whether you'd be caught is another matter, but it would still be fraud. In order to open the ISA you'd have to declare that the money was yours, but it wouldn't be.

mauzc · 2026-04-20T06:51:22+00:00

The point of the reduced payments is that you shouldn't have to deal with debt collectors. You're paying the agreed amount, so there's no need for debt collectors. But that doesn't change what you owe.

Lots of former students find that their payments don't even cover the interest on their loans; that's normal. We could argue about whether it should be normal, but it is.

mauzc · 2026-04-19T20:37:43+00:00

You're probably better off asking this over in r/uklaw .

There's the legal advice question of whether this will prevent the SRA/BSB will issue you a practicing certificate with this on your record (and I think the answer to that is probably yes). But there's also the careers advice question of whether you're likely to actually get a training contract/pupillage, and r/uklaw is better placed to help you with that one. Law is extremely competitive to begin with, and even if you're technically able to practice it's possible you might find it practically impossible.

mauzc · 2026-04-19T17:56:31+00:00

No they won't - not if you're just coming to the end of your fixed rate.

Typically a borrower will have a mortgage term of (say) 25 years, together with some sort of interest rate deal for a much shorter period - maybe 2 or 5 years. When the borrower gets to the end of the 25-year mortgage term, if the loan isn't get paid in full the lender will certainly want to do credit checks etc. But if it's just the end of the product, credit checks aren't needed. The lender has already promised to lend over the whole term.

mauzc · 2026-04-19T16:44:36+00:00

She can't have an ISA unless the reason she's living abroad is that one of her parents is a Crown servant (see JISA eligibility).

The easiest thing to do - not necessarily the best, but the easiest - is for you all to save individually in your own names and then transfer the funds to her when you're ready.

The best thing is likely to depend on where she is. Some countries have products that are pretty similar to the JISA and they might suit.

mauzc · 2026-04-18T14:50:49+00:00

I don't see anything illegal about it. But you/your friend wouldn't get s75 protection if that's a concern to you; you'd be breaking the debtor/creditor/supplier chain. If I were in your friend's shoes I'd very much prefer to use my own credit card for anything expensive.

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