I am due to go on maternity leave in a couple of months and I keep asking my employer what will happen about pension contributions whilst I am off, but he just answers my question with another question about whether I do/don’t trust him to sort it. To be frank I don’t think he knows what will happen. It’s only a small business and outside his family there is only one other employee and me. Can you explain what should happen, please?

We are a small family business but are planning to take on two, or maybe three workers to assist us over the next few months. As there has only ever been my wife and two daughters working in the business until now it has all been very casual. Will we need to create a formal health & safety policy when we take on new people?

I have worked in the agricultural industry for many years. My employer supplies ear protectors but has never supplied masks or provided training about the dangers of inhaling dust.....

My 93-year-old widowed mother appointed me as sole attorney to her LPA. She now cannot look after herself but wants to remain in her own home with live-in carers, which I pay a private agency for with her savings. My sister in Australia sees this as a threat to her inheritance. She wants mother in a care home, and her house sold to pay for it whilst property values are high. When I refused to discuss this, she visited mother with a friend and to save embarrassment and a falling-out, mother signed the documents making my sister joint attorney. Now my sister is trying to force the care home issue. What can I do?

A friend of mine said he had heard there was a way to get an extra IHT allowance. What is the current threshold, and is there a way to get extra allowance?