hi hope you don't mind me commenting but, what gets me is the banks don't tell you about right of approppriation. Surely they should be providing this sort of information making it easily accessible for everybody. Yes I know this sounds naive. However especially for disabled people like myself surely they have a duty to make it easy for us to use this service? Otherwise aren't they breaking the law?

Hi start by doing a s.a.r. request. See if it shows any irregularities in how the loan was decided, such as bank changing your partners details to make her seem a more acceptable customer. Then you can make a formal complaint to the bank. Let us know what happens. Good Luck!

Hi how does this stand legally? How will lovely Jason saying its a mistake hold up in court?

Hi My experience is with chronic fatigue syndrome but like your partner I have missed deferements and incurred arears. They have actually been sympathetic and deferred me for 3 years. Before my partner could talk to them they needed my permission to speak to him via a letter (because of the dpa act). Speak to them, ask who to send the permission letter to, see if they will delay action until you can "officially " talk. Then explain the situation to them emphasising your partners fragile state, they will probably request a letter from his GP as evidence and then disguss options. Make sure you get the names of the people you deal with. Hope this is helpful.

Hi Contact these d.i.a.l About dial UK Do not deal with DLA without expert support. They are very slippery!

Hi all I've just received this letter as well. I contacted DG who have now apparently lost all details of all my claims, lovely way to treat a disabled lady! Actually quite tame compared with the rest of their behaviour. They were going to contact HSBC and ask them to investigate. Amazingly I've heard nothing back.

We've had to do that. They just take a photocopy as proof of id and give the original back.

Housing for disabled families is an absolute minefield and requires specialist help. Contact shelter 0808 800 4444 they are open till midnight. Goodluck

Hi I've been through a similar experience with my local council. In my case even though I was at the top of the housing list several houses that would have met my families needs were given to the able bodied who were lower on the list. With the help of Shelter I made a formal complaint against the council. I also involved my local councillor (not helpful, in fact him and several other councillors decided to make our life very difficult) my mp and the Ombudsman who wanted us to accept compensation without it going to report stage. Going to a solicitor and threatening high court action has worked best. They love cases like this. Try ringing community legal services they'll find you a decent solicitor.

Very shocking. If you are allowed to pass it on, Dyslexia Action provide very good dyslexia training. My youngest has gone from illiterate to 11 yr reading age in 2 years. They have a bursary for families on benefits.

That's awful. Hope your daughter is feeling better, ME is such a crappy condition to live with. I've been through the LGO route and it can be quite tricky. I stopped it before my "investigator" passed her decision on to the officer in charge. She wanted to make a deal with the council I complained about. I wanted it to go to report stage so that their incompetence would be on public record. In the end I took the evidence found during the investigation to a solicitor to achieve a more satisfactory result. As for schools, there are some really good schools that support disabled children. Leas like to keep them secret, after all one size is supposed to fit all!

Brilliant idea Joa These are some of the organisations that have helped my family. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers is the largest provider of comprehensive carers support services in the UK. they help with form filling such as DLA, carer support( trips out, courses or just a chat), young carers support. They have been wonderful to us. Shopmobility provide wheelchairs and scooters some free of charge some for a small fee so that you can shop. One scheme lent me a scooter to go abroad for £25. Dyslexia Action is a national charity and the UK's leading provider of services and support for people with dyslexia and literacy difficulties. For parents on benefits they do have burseries.

Hi All Not saying this will help others but my child/teenager has been on several social training programmes, Socially Speaking, Time To Talk etc which have helped her tremedously to interact with us and other people and teach her about feelings. Also her behaviour is particularly bad when she's managed to get hold of artificial coloured sweets. The last bout lasted 2 hours and then left her in tears for another. MSG gives her the giggles. Like many ASD people (I read it was about half) she gets severe constipation, then her behaviour becomes much more autistic. A wheat free diet helps. To reduce her sensory overload she has used cerum (coloured) lenses. They worked for her, however people were not kind and she chose not to wear them. Hope this is useful.

Gobsmacking! That is a particularly stupid article written by what appears to be a very lazy journalist. Why is it not OK to write abusive comments on race and religion but perfectly OK to be abusive about the disabled? You'd have thought the Guardian had more sense, obviously not.

Thanks, we don't want to make it easy for the LEA, especially as they seem to enjoy making life particularly difficult for parents of SEN kids. It was much easier for our other daughter as she already had a statement, but they still left the decision about her transport (schools 14 miles away) till the day before school started. Apparently that was done to make a point, so a senior says a senior member of the LEA. Nasty isn't it?

Hi all Wondering if anybody else is in this position. My daughters dyslexic and we want her to go to my other daughters secondary school which is mainstream but does a brilliant job with special needs children, its also not in our catchment area. We have just started the statementing process and know it will be a long fight. LEAs don't like statementing dyslexics! In the mean time to increase her chances of getting into the school do we just put this one school on the LEAs schools application form, or should we also add our local school (a foundation school) as a secondary choice? The only other school is in special measures. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Dyslexia can be helped. My youngest is dyslexic and receives no support from school. We had to go to Dyslexia Action (who train adults as well) to get proper tuition to help her, its been fantastic, she can now read and spell with all the phonic sounds she has been taught. We received a bursery for her tuition as we are on benefits. She also has cerum glasses, tinted lenses help dyslexics to see and read better and write more legibly. Rayners opticians do them, the test is £60. We are now requesting a statement from the LEA so her needs can be met in school. For those who would like a legal solution, a family in Leeds recently sued the LEA for over £145,000. Hope this is useful.

Thanks everybody. I've spoken to my court who told me to initially write a letter to explain why the case is different from those being dealt with by the OFT. Also spoken to DG solictors (HSBC) who seem to think its perfectly ok to take mine and my daugters disabled benefits. I'm very angry. Going away for a few days I'll let you know what happens when I get back.

Like many others my bank has been taking charges from my benefits for years. I am a disabled lady with a long term dibilitating illness. I have just had my case stayed and want to know what to do? I started my case like normal as a request for penalty charges but it wasn't until the OFT case that I looked at Martin Lewis's site and realised I should have just requested my benefits be repaid under a separate law. Do I challenge the stay or do I start again?

Hi No they can't take charges from your benefits, the following applies in the case of accounts which have money from state benefits payed into them , such charges are contrary to section 187 of the Social Security Administartion Act 1996 or seection 45 of the Tax Credits Act 2006. Due to long term illness I am on my third go at HSBC and haven't been stayed yet, I decided to do it in three chunks. I'm not sure but I think you may be able to proceed against your bank based on the above acts. If any body else can confirm? Good luck!

hi thankyou for doing the spreadsheets they are wonderful! When is spreadsheet 25 going to be live? thanks

Yes that would be good. The site is wonderful but a more robust search engine would: make it easier for users looking for more common answers free up time for the volunteers to answer urgent questions make it easier for users to find others in similar situations be less frustrating Is there any body out there who could suggest a free search engine, that would do the job and is easy to use?

Ring up the LGO and the Housing Ombudsman explaining your position and ask them.Then get help to fill in the complaint forms, is there a Key House Project where you live or the CAB? My housing complaint goes back several years but the LGO only got involved recently, so it is worth a try. Goodluck!

hi all about to go back to HSBC to get back more charges and also want to claim back interest on part of consolidation loan which covers the charges it paid off. The rate was at 11.9%. Can anybody advise me on how to work this out on a spreadsheet please? thanks

Dear rdm2006 Just to add can I claim the charges part of the loan back even though some of the charges were from a credit card from another bank? Dear jazzyb Yes it does sound similiar, I have had a chat with financial ombudsman who does sound interested and has sent me the forms out but will take longer than court.