Please help....

clairabell

I am hoping someone will be able to guide me in the right direction as to what to do.

My husband was a director of a small local ltd company he and a friend set up (51 shares to him, 49 shares to my husband), long story short the "friend" withdrew all the money that was in the business, told & publicied a lot of lies about him stealing to customers, suppliers, locals and on the internet and then did a runner to France for a month on the money he stole from the business.

Anyway we got over all the upset and anger and my husband wanted nothing more to do with him or the business at all. So we decides that while looking for work we needed to claim Jobseekers allowance which we did on the 25th June.

We have had nothing but hassle claiming and it was only 2 weeks ago that we got our award for jobseekers but they have only awarded us £70 per week instead of £111. They have said this is because we they had to value the shares at £16,001p (instead of the £49 that they are really worth) they said that because we couldn't provide any accounts for the business they had to value them at this.

We no longer have anything to do with the business and are not even allowed on site or to talk to the company accountant. We provided them with the only thing we had which was the share certificate and they said they would try to contact the "friend" so he could tell them how much the shares were worth. The deadline for him to respond was on Tuesday and since they have said that because they cant get hold of him they will have to sick to their original valuation of £16,001 and they wont look at it any further.

Surely it cant be right that this man is effecting the amount of money we are entitled to we have contacted him and he is unwilling to help in any way and will go out of his way to balls it up for us any way he can.

As you can imagine it has been a very stressfull few months for us and now because of this false valuation it is effecting our Housing & Council Tax Benefit, free school dinners and uniform grant for the children.

Can anyone help with any advice as to what i can do

anamenottaken

clairabell wrote: »

I am hoping someone will be able to guide me in the right direction as to what to do.

My husband was a director of a small local ltd company he and a friend set up (51 shares to him, 49 shares to my husband), long story short the "friend" withdrew all the money that was in the business, told & publicied a lot of lies about him stealing to customers, suppliers, locals and on the internet and then did a runner to France for a month on the money he stole from the business.

Anyway we got over all the upset and anger and my husband wanted nothing more to do with him or the business at all. So we decides that while looking for work we needed to claim Jobseekers allowance which we did on the 25th June.

We have had nothing but hassle claiming and it was only 2 weeks ago that we got our award for jobseekers but they have only awarded us £70 per week instead of £111. They have said this is because we they had to value the shares at £16,001p (instead of the £49 that they are really worth) they said that because we couldn't provide any accounts for the business they had to value them at this.

We no longer have anything to do with the business and are not even allowed on site or to talk to the company accountant. We provided them with the only thing we had which was the share certificate and they said they would try to contact the "friend" so he could tell them how much the shares were worth. The deadline for him to respond was on Tuesday and since they have said that because they cant get hold of him they will have to sick to their original valuation of £16,001 and they wont look at it any further.

Surely it cant be right that this man is effecting the amount of money we are entitled to we have contacted him and he is unwilling to help in any way and will go out of his way to balls it up for us any way he can.

As you can imagine it has been a very stressfull few months for us and now because of this false valuation it is effecting our Housing & Council Tax Benefit, free school dinners and uniform grant for the children.

Can anyone help with any advice as to what i can do

Was he employed by the company and did he pay NI as an employee?

clairabell

Yes he was employed for 11 months by the company and paid NI, they have awarded us contribution based jobseekers at a rate of £70pw

marybelle01

Please don't take this the wrong way, but they have to do what they have to do. They have no evidence to support your contention that the shares are worthless, or what happened to the company. All they have to go on is the fact that your husband was a director, possibly still is, and has capital he can draw on. I don't think anyone here could possibly offer much more than sympathy. You probably need professional help with this.

ILW

It sounds like the company is still trading and your OH owns 49% of it. That must mean the shares have some value. Is he still officially a director?

clairabell

Thanks marybelle

We have supplied the share certificate which says that they were issued at £1 each but there isn't anything else we can provide, we are not allowed to give them away or sell them either :-(

He is no longer a director of the company either. I don't even know who professionally could help either.

Its just so upsetting that we lost our business and income, our house and now not allowed to claim what we are entitled to because of this man! :mad:

clairabell

It is officially still trading (according to companies house) but we will never see any rewards from the shares he has made that perfectly clear :-(

The company when we left was running at a loss as there was not much demand for the business in this area.

patman99

[STRIKE]If your husband is still a Director with a 49% share, then surely he has a legal right to find-out the financial value by speaking to the accountant.[/STRIKE]
As it is a Limited company, it will have to lodge a copy of it's accounts at Companies House, this can be accessed by anyone, including your husband. This info should be of use for his JSA claim.

One good thing, if the company starts making a profit, he might be able to claim 49% of the profits (although from what you have already said, he will probably have to take the other shareholder to Court to get it).

EDIT -
OP posted reply before I could.

clairabell

He is no longer a director and the accounts dont have to be filed untill 2013

marybelle01

clairabell wrote: »

Thanks marybelle

We have supplied the share certificate which says that they were issued at £1 each but there isn't anything else we can provide, we are not allowed to give them away or sell them either :-(

He is no longer a director of the company either. I don't even know who professionally could help either.

Its just so upsetting that we lost our business and income, our house and now not allowed to claim what we are entitled to because of this man! :mad:

To be honest, neither do I! There's a really good lawyer on the Redundancy Forum (google - I can't post links from my tablet. Well I probably could if I could figure out how to open multiple windows without getting lost! ) called SarEl. But I don't think this is her field - but you could go and ask. She'd almost certainly have more idea than I do. In desperate straits I'd suggest asking - all she can do is say she doesn't know how to help you.

patman99

SarEl left this site a while back after 2 idiots decided to troll her.