We booked a VW Multivan to support our family on a cycling holiday in Portugal. We collected the car from Europcar on Friday, May 3, and drove to our first hotel stop in Pedrógão Pequeno.

On the Saturday, the intention was for four of us to cycle south to Abrantes and for my wife to drive the VW Multivan to meet us at the hotel. As we approached Abrantes, my wife called to say the car had a front tyre puncture, but she had parked in a shopping centre which had an autocentre and that they were looking at the car. When we arrived at the garage there was some consternation: the mechanics claimed that the tyre was not repairable and that both front tyres were illegal and dangerous. At this point we took a picture of the punctured tyre to clearly demonstrate that the tyres were beyond worn.

The mechanics recommended that we call the Europcar recovery vehicle, however this would have meant that we would have lost the car (no Europcar offices were open) and would have had to accompany the recovery vehicle back to the hire point in Cascais. This was not ideal given that we had booked hotels for the next three nights.

After much discussion, the mechanics managed to find a spare tyre to replace the punctured tyre, swapped the other illegal front tyre for one of the back ones and advised us to drive home. They did not charge us (mainly out of sympathy) but they did say they would not accept any liability for the work. At this point we had lost most of Saturday and were faced with the prospect of carrying on with our family holiday in a dangerous vehicle. That is what we did, driving very slowly, although we did return home a day earlier than planned.

The vehicle we hired was clearly not fit for purpose — it was illegal and dangerous. On our return we raised a complaint with Europcar. After eight weeks and many phone calls, Europcar responded to offer €50 as a “commercial gesture”. We have a long, trouble-free history with Europcar and are classed as “privileged customers” but on this occasion we were charged more than €800 for a car that was not roadworthy and ruined our family holiday.

Is this really the way to treat loyal customers?

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Jill replies

You were not exaggerating when you said the tyres were beyond worn. The photo you sent to me showed bare fabric fibres where the rubber had worn away completely.

I initially felt you had made a poor decision in continuing with the van and its dangerous tyres and thought you should have contacted Europcar to demand a replacement vehicle. You then sent me a photo of your mobile phone call list made the afternoon the front tyre expired: it showed 12 calls, all to Europcar. You had tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to get in touch with the company to ask for support and a new vehicle.

I sent the evidence to Europcar and asked it to think again about the compensation it had offered you. This time it offered half the hire cost, €440. It said: “Europcar is very sorry to hear of the poor rental experience and the delay experienced in receiving a response after the trip. None of this meets the usual standards the company sets and it will investigate the circumstances.”

I didn’t think this was good enough. The state of the front tyres was truly shocking, putting the lives of anyone in the van at risk. You had also tried hard — without success — to get help from Europcar on the day of the blowout. I asked the company to refund you in full and pay you a gesture of goodwill. It has now refunded the €880 you paid for the van hire plus a further €50.

It also offered a discount on your next rental. In the unlikely event that you decide to take up this offer, please make sure you check the tyres before setting off.

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Where’s my pension, Prudential?

I have a small pension with Prudential which was due to mature in March this year. I am still trying to get a payment from the company.

My problems started on January 1, when Prudential sent me a form regarding my lifetime allowance. I completed the form and returned it two weeks later with a covering letter.

By March 19 I had heard nothing from Prudential so I called. I was told that everyone was busy and I would get a call on March 22. No one phoned me, so I called and ended up speaking to the same person again. He told me that I hadn’t completed the form sent to me in January. I told him I had. He suggested it was lost in the post. I suggested it was lost in Prudential.

After being cut off and speaking to two more people I was told I needed to fill in another form with my bank details. I said I could provide them over the phone but the representative could not accept this, nor could she email the form to me, and Prudential could not post it to me until April 1. I lost my temper, raised my voice and she cut me off.

On March 24 I had a letter from Prudential informing me that my savings have been moved into a cash fund. However the amount appeared to be £2,164 less than the valuation on January 1.

Since then, I have had a letter telling me that before I could go any further I had to call to speak to someone so that they could ensure that I was making the correct decision — this was part of their customer care. This was the first indication I had been given of the process involved in getting my funds. On April 26 I spent another couple of hours on the phone; I spoke with a customer care representative who told me he would send out the form that I had to sign and return in order to get my payment. I am still waiting for that form to arrive.

At the same time I had a letter from a complaints manager saying that the Prudential supported my complaint and enclosing a cheque for £150.

The problem with dealing with Prudential is that it proudly advertises it has millions of customers but it seems to have just two people in customer care. They know that, to get my money, I will have no choice but to wait for hours.

It is now mid-May and there is no sign of getting my pension money any day soon. If they had paid me promptly after March 11 when it was due, I would have been able to take advantage of last year’s Isa allowance.

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Jill replies

You were trying to draw out all the money from two pension schemes held with the Prudential (now run by M&G) worth a little under £16,000. You knew that you could take 25 per cent of this tax-free but would have to pay tax at the rate of 20 per cent on the rest.

I asked Prudential to look into your complaint and pay out your money. Two days later it told me it had sent the claim forms to you by special delivery, and six days later it had received the completed forms and had processed a payment to you. It also told you it was going to pay a further £150 in compensation — into a bank account that you did not recognise. When this was pointed out, Prudential upped the amount to £450, plus a further £32 to cover postage and the cost of phone calls you had to make.

It investigated your complaint about a loss in value of the pension funds, but the process of paying out your pension took so long that they actually increased in value. If the Prudential had paid out your pensions when it was meant to, it would have paid you £13,097 net of tax, but you received £13,589.

The Prudential has also paid you interest at the equivalent of the annual rate of 8 per cent used by the Financial Ombudsman Service to compensate you for the four-month delay in handing over your money.

You said: “I should have preferred to have had a smoother ride — it would have been better for my blood pressure — but I’m so pleased the whole matter is put to rest. Again, I thank you for your help. I’m sure I’d still be waiting without your intervention.”

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I got three months’ carer’s allowance — then nothing

I am a carer for my 87-year-old mother and submitted a successful claim for carer’s allowance in November 2023. On February 2 I had a letter from the Carer’s Allowance Unit at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) saying that a payment had been authorised for the period from September 18, 2023, to December 31, 2023, and I got £1,161.25 for this period on February 7.

I then had another letter, also dated February 2, saying that I was being treated as an irregular earner and requesting that I complete an accompanying form and submit evidence of earnings for February, March and April this year. I submitted the requested information on April 25, then heard nothing more.

I phoned the Carer’s Allowance Unit on May 15 for an update and was told that the evidence had been received, my application was being “worked on” and would be flagged as a priority. Again I heard nothing more until I phoned again on June 5, when I was told that my application was still being worked on. It was not possible to give me a time frame.

Three days later I wrote to the Carer’s Allowance Unit to complain about the delay and handling of my application but got neither a reply nor an acknowledgement.

It is now five months since I’ve had a carer’s allowance payment, and I believe I am due payments from January 1. I am at a loss as to what to do next. The DWP complaints procedure states that it will not consider complaints until there has been a final response from the specific unit, in this case the Carer’s Allowance Unit, but it is not even responding to me.

Jill replies

You wrote to me on July 1, I contacted the DWP on July 3 and the next day you had a “very apologetic” phone call about the delay in processing your carer’s allowance application. An emergency payment of £2,139.20 was credited to your bank account immediately, in lieu of back payments from January 1 and the Carer’s Allowance Unit confirmed that regular monthly payments would start on July 29 without the need for you to provide any further evidence.

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