I put a claim in to my bank for hardship..

They wrote back saying I didnt fit the criteria.

I am on benefits and get DLA. I would be alright if it wasnt for the bank taking over 2990.00 in charges in last 2 years. They have put me behind on many of my household paynments. I have no family and cant work. so if i have this money taken out constantly I have no way to replace it. This week they are taking £150 out and I only get £147 a week and my DLA isnt due for two weeks.. They dont realise the money the government give you is minimum to live on.

I just seem to be overdrawn all the time and when they take charges out it makes me overdrawn again and then they charge me. and it goes on..

Any advice would be appreciated.

The FSA hardship provision is really just a piece of marketing intended to make people think that the banks really have a heart. Of course they do have a heart -- but it is made of stone.

Claiming for hardship is mostly a waste of time and energy. It raises hopes and then hurts when those hopes are dashed.

The best thing you can do is to start sending the bank letters of appropriation. When you can finally persuade the bank to take notice this should (in theory) put your benefits outside their reach. Warning -- the banks don't like to receive this kind of letter and we have lots of instances where it is ignored until repeated complaints are made.

The second thing you should think about doing to open a parachute account and to start using it.

The third thing you should do is to send a SAR to the bank and get all the information about all of the charges you have paid back to the beginning of 1995. Start claiming all the money back including any interest they have taken from you. Put your claim to the courts. Don't bother about going down the wishy-washy Financial Ombudsman route which is the preferred route of the banks -- and therefore you should avoid at all costs.

Seapower templates and think about claiming restitutionary damages which would allow you to attempt to recover not only your money but also all of the profits which your bank has made on your money as a result of their unjust enrichment. This will very likely add up to an enormous sum of money because they will have been investing your money at a commercial rate over a period of years.

Don't hang around. Get going now

When considering whether a person is suffering from financial Hardship, the banks have to take the following into account;

a.

evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;

b.

evidence of the following events:

i.

items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;

ii.

failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;

iii.

discontinuation of regular credits;

iv.

notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;

v.

regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;

vi.

making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and

vii.

repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty).

A few questions;

1] Which bank - some are easier to claim off than others

2] Do you fulfil some or all of the above criteria &

3] If so did you you send evidence of this to your bank

Have a look through the information in the following link to give you an idea on eligibility for Hardship to see if you omitted to include something.

Hardship Waiver

enamae

The bank is Natwest... fulfil a lot of the above criteria.. and I have sent evidence.. but they said I dont fit

this morning my benifits went in 147 and the bank took 298 out. so now I am overdrawn again and have nothing in the bank for food till next week.

i have had same thing.i get no benefits at all and rely on partners income to pay all bills etc etc.I was made redundant and had PPI which was told by local branch manager would be settled by them with no problem.Now i find that they have reneged on this on flimsy basis.To get thier money they just emptied my account and went upto agreed overdraft limit and then as i forgot to cancel a d/d they refused to pay it and charged me and of course i went into unagreed overdraft which i now get charged each month for even though they are and have been told i have no income,both by me and CAB.I evne had to close my daughters account with them as it had my name on otherwise they would have taken that as well according to thier rules.if you open an account do not use same bank.The FOS had ordered them to stop chasing me for payments until case of mis selling PPI settled (bank refuses to sort it out) and CAB have written at least three times to which bank refuses to acknowledge and refuses to talk/deal with CAB on my behalf even though clear breach banking codes but this seems not to worry bank in question-all i get is a letter saying 'we are sorry to hear about your complaint.......' I have even had to change phone number as calls were getting annoying (even sundays).I reported to phone company as harassing calls and the number was changed within hours.send a hardship ltter to bank with amount you are owed and keep copy and send copy and make official complaint to FOS and go see your local CAB.They can complete an expenditure and income sheet and send to bank on your behalf.As the banks refuse to discuss with CAB and breaching banking codes any legal dept will see this in bad light.As for my PPI ,well i have been put in this predicament by bank,as if they had paid PPI life would be easier.So i have mis selling claim going along with others claims all lumped together,and the bank seems reluctant to take me to court(as they keep threatening to do)as they realise they would be hammered.the amount i have spent on PPI with this bank would pay off the debts and they know that if they have to pay it all back.i did a subject access request,which should have encluded all data that held me as subject (including videos) and they deliberatley missed out all copies of agreements for credit cards/loans/accounts.when i asked for them they said i would have to pay a fee-this is rubbish as this data had to have been included in original request and so i have sent complaint to ICO for them to take over.The other tactic they use is when they answer your complaint they put 'final response',this has actually no meaning in legal avenues and they just put it on letter to stop you writing back.They did it to me but i just kept writing,in the end i have dealt with over 60 people in same banking group over this matter.Trust me Al Capone would be seen as extremely honest person compared to them.I have not escaped entirely unscathed all this has damaged my health,but thats another claim.

You need to go into the bank and hand in a Right of Appropriation letter (Ideally this should be done 7 days before payments the money was due into your account but you can adapt it accordingly). Advise them that you need to withdraw the money today for food and priority bills i.e. rent/utilities.

You then need to open another account for future payments to go into, ring DWP and advise them of your situation and request that future payments are made by Giro until you have a new account set up. Do the same for your DLA.

First Right of Appropriation

enamae

thanks above,but sadly they have made sure any money that goes in goes to cover unauthorised overdraft which lloyds tsb caused in first place.I have FOs and CAB taking them on but they seem to be ok wth ignoring banking codes.

I have got in touch with ombudsmen... they are sending me some forms...if I close my natwest account i am scared I wont be able to claim my charges back..I went in to talk to them, they told me to phone head office.. i did day after and they said they would give me 50 to live on for a week, but I had to go in a nd collect it..I told them I had MS and was too ill to go in and they told me that I would not get anything unless I went in..how do they sleep at night taking all this money off people

not only contact FOS but FSA as well.From what you said i think they may be in breach of banking codes namely s14.4-we will work with debt counselling organisations..i have CAB working for me on my debts but Lloyds refuse to deal with them-they use excuse they cannot talk or deal with anyone but me as account holder-this is wrong.after this is S14.2 which states 'we will do all we can to help you overcome your difficulties'Banks completely ignore this but it is a legal requirement.The amount that a fully fit person (according to government ) needs to live on is around 64.00£ a week so them giving you 50£ seems strange and why do you need to collect from bank-if you have bank card why not use ATM that a friend could do for you.Thier stance is to stop you coming in and hopefully go away.If this is your money and you are in credit they cannot put any restrictions on you taking out where and when,and maybe you should also contact your disabled dept and put the case to them.Another thing would be to contact the CAB

When considering whether a person is suffering from financial Hardship, the banks have to take the following into account;

This is the advice I would give you and thanks to enamae for putting this here. You need to show that a change in lifestyle ie one on list (a) has caused a loss of income meaning that you have insufficient money to cover priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities) whic normally means the evidence is contained in ( B )

a.

evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;

b.

evidence of the following events:

i.

items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;

ii.

failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;

iii.

discontinuation of regular credits;

iv.

notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;

v.

regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;

vi.

making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and

vii.

repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty).

 

A few questions;

 

1] Which bank - some are easier to claim off than others

 

2] Do you fulfil some or all of the above criteria &

 

3] If so did you you send evidence of this to your bank

 

Have a look through the information in the following link to give you an idea on eligibility for Hardship to see if you omitted to include something.

 

Hardship Waiver

enamae

You need to complete an income and expenditure form with evidence of arrears. If NatWest have said NO then you need their final response letter because the details within that letter will be what you will argue the point with the FOS. If you don't then all the bank has to prove is that they have assessed the claim properly and it is game over.

It's your choice but charges back to 27th July 2001 will only be considered under the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges so any charges back to 1995 will be discounted on financial hardship claims as will interest. Charges will be repaid if agreed in part into the account where the charges have come from albeit some firms will also pay directly to the priority creditor direct but I would expect them to send you proof of this.

Hope this helps as my knowledge of the FSA Waiver and Bank Charges and how a financial hardship claim works is pretty good.

If you do have credit card charges which many claimants do sometimes have alongside their hardship claim then I would reclaim them as well as they are easier to reclaim.

thanks below.but i think the system has changed somewhat.i hve put all these in financial hardship letter which i copied into FOS.they have now fast tracked my complaint against bank.this includes mis selling PPI and non payment PPi etc etc which has put me into financial hardship.I sent also to bank but they refuse to respond.I have cAB also contacting them on same but the banks management have told the enployees not to deal with CAB at all