GUEST COLUMN: Cases are being corrected, by Gloria De Piero, Ashfield MP

Election night in Ashfield at Festival Hall - Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Gloria De Piero Labour candidate.

Every week my office receives dozens of phone calls from constituents who need help resolving problems on a variety of issues.

It is one of the most satisfying elements of my job as your MP that my intervention often seems to hurry a situation to a happy ending.

Recently I have had some good wins on behalf of local residents, which I hope has relieved a little stress and worry for them.

One of these concerns energy supplier Scottish Power, which had been refusing to refund asum of money to a Sutton gentleman whom it had overcharged.

After two-and- a-half years of terrible customer service, he has finally been refunded the £275 he was owed, and was given an extra £100 as a goodwill gesture.

As he said, it is a shame it takes an MP getting involved to sort out such a situation.

A Kirkby resident found himself experiencing financial hardship when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) refused to give him the money he was entitled to following a change in his circumstances.

He had been a carer for a relative but moved out of the house to live on his own and is now eligible for more employment and support allowance (ESA) due to his disability.

He had tried to sort out the problem himself but was getting nowhere with the DWP so he got in touch with me.

When I contacted the DWP on his behalf, they investigated and confirmed that he is now receiving the increased ESA he should have been and has been paid the £1,000 in arrears he was owed.

A great result for him.

Applying for student finance is often very complicated but mistakes can leave young people in real financial difficulties.

A university student came to me when he was not being paid the full amount of loan he should have been and was left without enough cash to cover his rent, food and living costs for this semester.

A delay in processing evidence of his family income meant that he was not getting the increased loan payment he needed and he was told it would take months for this payment to come through.

I contacted Student Finance England to enquire what was happening and suddenly everything was sorted out and this young man has received the increased loan. Fantastic!

Lastly, I wrote last week about the problems people are having with their tax credits being stopped by HMRC.

I am pleased to say that some of the many cases of this are now being corrected and I hope that everyone affected will be receiving their tax credits again very soon.