Not sure someone with more knowledge will get back to you, but I was under the impression that any benefit that is earnings related cannot be touched, so this should apply to tax credits as they depend on your income.

Thank you Tomterm He will feel so much better, I will tell him to get the free half an hour that most Solicitors offer, or CAB.

Thank you so much for your replies, I will tell him to contact his Building Society to find out details. He is contact with his friend by text, his friend just said he will sort it, although he has no money to pay the debt. Will post any further updates once I have spoken to my friend.

I am hoping someone can give some advice, a friend of mine bought a property jointly with his friend, it is currently up for sale (negative equity) his friend has moved to Spain they are not in arrears with the mortgage. My friend has recently received a letter from another bank, not who the mortgage is with, stating that they have applied to the County Court for an order imposing a charge on the property of over £10k for a loan what the other joint mortgagee owes. This has not been secured on the property and has nothing to do with my friend, he has tried to contact the Bank concerned to find out what it is all about and they refused to talk to him. Can a bank put a charge on a property that is jointly owned, if so would my friend be liable to half of the £10k, as it stands now when the house is sold there will be around £8k negative equity. Sorry for all questions this is an area that I know nothing about. Ant help would be most appreciated.

Hi Hayley Did you have 2 threads and they have been merged together, i just read through them all again and it seems I advised the house insurance Legal cover, when someone had already suggested that. Am I losing my marbles or have the threads been merged if not I must apologise for wasting your time. Good luck to your partner.

If your local union rep can't advise you, you have the right to contact the Unions local or head office to speak to someone who can.Unions are sometimes given a bad name mainly through reps who either have not been trained properly, or they do not know the company procedures.

Check your house insurance policy for Legal cover, some cover you for Employment issues and Industrial Tribunals, you could then use a Solicitor to handle it. As with all claims they will only pursue the matter if there is a more than 50% chance of winning. My house insurance gives us cover of up to £50,000.

Hi Jane Did you send 2 copies of your schedule of charges to the Court in Northampton when you filed on line, if not you need to do this, also send another copy to your Bank (even though you have sent them one before). This is what I did and I had no problems so must have done everything right, I am one of the lucky ones they settled with me 3 weeks ago, did not even have to do a Court bundle. Good luck

I wondered if anyone could advise, my brother in law is in the proccess of reclaiming his bank charges caused purely through his account being changed to an Advantage Gold without his authorisation or knowledge. He had the account for several years and closed it last year when he lost trust in them through thier actions, his wages never went in and it was only used for the odd cheques that he got from little jobs.so there is no question that he would request this type of account. It was only when he watched the Whistleblower programme in March he realised he had been mis-sold this account, without his knowledge. He sent his LBA last week, but due to the test case he is not sure if to file at Court. My thoughts are that he would not have overdrawn if these AG fees had not been applied to the account, so it is the fault of the bank. Any ideas on the route to persue this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I believe it is only on bank charges as the credit cards were sorted out last April, when they were forced to reduce all thier charges.

Just an update, my son received his cheque on friday,they may have been prompted by the order the judge had made, it was ordered that by 10th August YB should provide a full breakdown of thier costs by a responsible employee, or thier defence would be struck out and the claimant could apply for judgement I have made a donation today, it is from my own money as my son needs every penny. I would like to urge everbody else to donate and ask yourself would you have had the confidence to take on your Bank without the support of this site, I know that I would not have, even though I have had no financial gain, It has give me great satisfaction to know that I have taken them on and won.(with the help from this site) So please please please donate to keep this excellent site going.

Sorry for not replying to your question, just got back from weekend away, I see you have the answer now.

I recently requested my statements from an account closed 2 years ago, I had to show ID it still took over the 40 days as is the case with YB. I trawled through them and was very disapionted to only find 1 charge of £25 back in 2003. I have requested it back anyway.probably take this through the FOS, with it being such a small amount. Good luck

If you filed online you need to send 2 copies of your schedule of charges to the Court in Northampton with your case number on , also send a copy to your bank. Don't forget to include the 8% interest.

Hi Boobop The defence you received seemed to be exactlly the same as we received, and I followed the instructions on this site for MCOL POC. Maybe they have stopped reading them now, I would read up on this site for the next step, you might save yourself the £35 if they have not challenged the POC. If you need to file a Court bundle you could make an amendment then.