Its Not A Crime! - BR 28 Feb

[sisternumber1]

By way of an introduction - My Friend is in her mid twenties chronically ill since childhood. However she did work for part of her life, but 4 years ago had to give up as her health detiorated. This year has been the final straw. She is still alive, but her finances have taken a nosedive as she has not been able to manage them due to long term hospitalisation earlier in the year. She is lucky to be alive.

She is being pursued by the banks and credit card companies. Her income consists of full DLA (both parts) and long term sick pay. She gets housing benefit to help with rent and council tax. She shares a house with a friend who is currently in danger of losing her job as she has also got long term illnesses. It occurs to me that my friend would be best served if she were to allow herslef to be declared bankrupt. Her parents are not able to help as they are currently in arrangements with their creditors as 10 years of to and froing from hospitals has had an impact on their finances and their business.

Her debts are in the region of £10,000 mainly to 3 credit cards. She is not getting very far with the credit card companies to stop them adding interest and charges. She needs her income that she gets to feed herself - she is on a renal diet, and to keep herself warm.

Any wise words or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

[The GodMother]

Has she CCA'd them?

If not i would look in the templates libary and find letter N. With a £1 postal order request that they sent a true copy of the credit agreement.

Send this buy recorded or special delivery. they have 12 working days after receipt to responded and they than have a further 30 calandar days to comply. If they dont she does not have to pay until they do.

[tiglet]

I would try letter K - it's in the sticky above this thread.

It's basically asking for the debts to be written off due to her circumstances.

[The GodMother]

ok i did not know about that letter. What sort of circumstances would they normally write them off for.

[tiglet]

basically, when there is no chance of the debt ever being repaid - the person is permanently unable to work due to ill health and is on benefits, that sort of thing.

[The GodMother]

yer

[sisternumber1]

hello Godmother and tiglet.

Thank you for your advice. So far my friend has done nothing other than talk to people on the telephone, but she is becoming more and more depressed with the situation that she is in. Can one write letter K even though no other letters have been written? We desperately need to bring this to an end or to some conclusion so that she does not need to worry about this on top of her multiple health problems, as it is having such a detrimental effect on what remains of her quality of life. Would I be allowed to write these letters on her behalf? this is where I admit to being her mother, who feels helpless because I have no funds and no way of raising funds to help her. She does not wish to move back home with us, so I cant even help in the only practical way that was/is an option.

I will help her start getting her fees etc refunded but that takes time and I feel that we need to get this all stopped faster then that. Sorry writing this in a bit of a hurry so may not make too much sense.

Thanks you for the help - I will talk to her again later.

[tiglet]

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems - i'm sure your daughter appreciates having a Mum who is as helpful as you. You can write letters on your daughter's behalf and get them signed by her or you can get her to write a letter explaining her health problems and giving permission for you to deal with these matters for her.

Depending on what the circumstances are, you have one of three options.

1. Send a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to each of the creditors to assess how much of the debts are made up of charges. Start reclaiming these once known - you may have heard about the OFT case regarding bank charges, but this does not apply to credit cards and loans and stays can be lifted when there is hardship involved.

2. Challenege the companies' legal right to collect the debts. Depending on what they are, most can be challenged by asking for a CCA to be sent.

3. Send letter K. If your daughter has a consultant and/or a social worker who can also write giving evidence and supporting her claim, so much the better.

I'm afraid it's not going to be as quick a process as you or your daughter would like and it's likely to be challenging - I just wanted you both to be prepared for that. however, if you atke over and ask for all communication to be in writing, taht should take some of the stress away from your daughter.

To be honest, you both have enough to worry about and I think you should be resolute that this can and will be sorted and not let it stress you. at this stage, there is no need to consider bankruptcy - and if this happended as the last resort, it is not the end of the world either.

Keep your chin up and post anytime you need more advice.

[The GodMother]

good luck with everything and hope you both get your finances sorted out soon. I also hope that your daughters depression starts to get better soon.

If oyu need any help then please feel free to ask and we will do what we can to help both of you.

[sisternumber1]

Thanks - today will start reading and get started for her!

I was here once before, under another name, but cant remeber what it was, but managed to reclaim almost 3,000 in charges from A&L despite all their "games", donated to the site as it was money that I never thought I would see again.

My debts are under control now. But the route that I took to getting mine sorted is not necessary for my daughter, she will never work again and she will never be running a business ( and believe me having personal debts makes running a business tough). Any way one of the first things I need to do is to get the daily and sometimes 3 times daily telephone calls to stop. She will not answer the door nor the telephone any more and thats not good, as it is turning her into more and more of a hermit, and it means that she is phoning out all the time and it goes onto her bill instead of ours.

So of to read and then compose the first letters.

And if any one can think of any one I can go to to actually get some help with all this I would be grateful, its the busiest time of the year at work, and though I will make time for all of this I also need to keep things going at work.

Thank you

[Hopeful1]

This link may help you with the telephone calls: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...telephone.html

Originally Posted by sequenci

Call National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 if you can, they are a debt help charity and have better training for Debt than the CAB.

This organisation may be able to offer advice / support. You've got nothing to lose by calling them.

There isn't going to be an easy route to deal with this situation, but people on here will help as much as poss.

Just deal with 1 bit at a time, becasue it can be overwhelming.

Best wishes

[tomterm8]

Does your daughter have any income/assets at all? Or any prospect of ever getting a job?

If not, bankruptcy might very well be the best option in this situation.

The truth is, simply changing your telephone line to an ex-directory number, and ignoring the letters but sending them a £1 nominal payment every month might very well also work. If they have a statement of affairs, and no house etc even if they get a CCJ there is little they can do about it. They are unlikely to apply for a CCJ if there is little or no chancve of them recovering the money.

If they take your daughter to court, and the credit cards were made before 2004 it is very likely we would be able to prevent the court enforcing them anyway. Very few credit card agreements are of that age are enforceable.

Sending each creditor a credit agreement request might be a good idea.

[sisternumber1]

hello tomterm

this is timely, no my daughter has no real assets, about 500 in an ISA, which she needs to dip into to feed herself at the moment, she has no prospect of getting a job again, she dialysis 3 times a week at a hospital 40 miles away, her pain levels are such that she is under the palliative care team. Credit cards where acquired before she gave up work for good, which would be before 2004.

I had worked out that bankruptcy would probably be the best route to go down in her situation. However we will start with requesting credit agreement requests, and also letting them know both her health status (with a doctors letters to be acquired) and where her income comes from.

I started another thread on the legal bit about the charges that are being made by her bank on a monthly basis, which of course is also not helping, and has made her situation so much worse. Any idea of how long Barclays bank will take to admit to and then refund such amounts? (I will have to ask for the statements, unless they are all in the drawer that all unopened post was put into) but the couple that I have seen it seems that at least £100 per month is being taken in various "fees".

I so wish that i had considered that she was not even looking at her statements etc in the last 18 or so months as her health was detiorating - we all just assumed that her partner (or as she now conveniently calls herself her housemate) was doing this. Watching ones daughter approach deaths door for the third or fourth time in her very short life does strange things to your thought processes. Unfortunately I believe that that is not an excuse in law.

[tomterm8]

Originally Posted by sisternumber1

hello tomterm

this is timely, no my daughter has no real assets, about 500 in an ISA, which she needs to dip into to feed herself at the moment, she has no prospect of getting a job again, she dialysis 3 times a week at a hospital 40 miles away, her pain levels are such that she is under the palliative care team. Credit cards where acquired before she gave up work for good, which would be before 2004.

I had worked out that bankruptcy would probably be the best route to go down in her situation. However we will start with requesting credit agreement requests, and also letting them know both her health status (with a doctors letters to be acquired) and where her income comes from.

I started another thread on the legal bit about the charges that are being made by her bank on a monthly basis, which of course is also not helping, and has made her situation so much worse. Any idea of how long Barclays bank will take to admit to and then refund such amounts? (I will have to ask for the statements, unless they are all in the drawer that all unopened post was put into) but the couple that I have seen it seems that at least £100 per month is being taken in various "fees".

I so wish that i had considered that she was not even looking at her statements etc in the last 18 or so months as her health was detiorating - we all just assumed that her partner (or as she now conveniently calls herself her housemate) was doing this. Watching ones daughter approach deaths door for the third or fourth time in her very short life does strange things to your thought processes. Unfortunately I believe that that is not an excuse in law.

I hope that your daugher has opened a basic bank account with a different bank, so any income is NOT going to her original bank at first.

Are all your daughters bank statements for the last 6 years available? If so, I would go for a swift complaint to the FOS. In a case of such extreme hardship, the bank really should not try the waiver defence. If they do, personally, i would forward it to watchdog and make them squirm