Thread: Job Seekers Allowance

HI

My daughter was made redundant in June and although she had been in full time employment for over 4 years she wa only awarded Jobseekers allowance until end November (1 week to go). She has been getting about £45 per week. She in hindsight stupidly reduced her overdraft from £1000 to £200 when she was made redundant and then whilst trying to rearrange direct debits etc she went £1.00 over her OD. SHe was charged £39 - to cut a long story shorter she was never able to catch up she cashed in her preium bonds to get under the OD but th charges were coming in at £39 every few days so it was never possible to get back under. They then decided to up her overdraft to £800 so they could add more charges. She now 'they' say owes £900. I have sent them the letter asking for her situation to be taken into account but they feel that no income at all is not a genuine financial hardship case.

They intend to charge her a further £28 per month until she gets back under the OD. What is genuine hardship if no income isnt.

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She doesnt have any benefits after next week as her NI contribuitons after 4 years work areapparently not enough. AS she lives at home with still she doesnt qualify for any benefits at all now. Halifax dont think that she is classed as a hardship case.

HI
We have all of her statements and have asked for the charges back, today she received a letter which says,

"As advised in our previous letter we have asked the Financial Services Authority to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints.
Until the banks legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are concluded we will not issue or respond to any further communications received from you (or a chosen representative) on this matter.
We can assure you that your complaint has been registered and will be resolved as quickly as possible onece the banks legal proceedings with the OFT are concluded.
We will keep you updated appropriately about the proceedings with the OFT and you can also check the latest position on our website"

Does this mean they will stop threatening her and wait until the test case is done do you think. As long as they stop harassing her we are quite happy to wait as she has no money going into the account and is hopeful of staring work soon and will arrange for her wages to go into a different bank account which she hasnt used for a while but is still open. I dont know whether I should write again and ask if they are going to leave her alone or whether to keep on asking for the money back. ANy one got any suggestions?

Thanks

Thanks for the advice

Updating on this daughter was contacted in December by a company called IQOR who said they had been asked to collect this money. At the time we had a family bereavment and I really couldnt be bothered to argue with them so I contacted them by letter and made an offer of £5.00 per month until such time as the outcome of the OFT court case was decided. They accepted this and this is paid by standing order from my account each month. She began work in January and is starting to get back on her feet, but with a different bank. Since starting the £5.00 payments in Januaryn she has received 2 letters 'offering 'greatly reduced' balance if she paid in full. I dont agree it was greatly reduced as they only knocked £50 off. Last week she received a letter from IQOR saying that they needed to review whether they would continue accepting £5.00 as this was too small a payment and she must contact them to discuss it. Then today she received a letter from Halifax saying that they may have been a little hasty in saying that someone with no income was not suffering hardship and asking her to complete a financial statement and send it to them. Neither IQOR or Halifax have been advised that she has began work. As its all bank charges that make up the amount I dont know what to do. They stopped adding charges when the payments to IQOR started, so can anyone advise should I be asking IQOR for proof that they have a right to collect or should I stop paying them and get back in touch with Halifax. Thanks in advance all