thank you, I always thought it was a priority bill, will definitely make a complaint as well

As a family we have been struggling to pay our priority bills now for over a year, I pay some off everytime theres anything spare but its rare. Eventually we got british gas to listen and give us a reduced direct debit and they also got us to apply to the british gas energy trust for help with their bills and our water bill Now Severn trent refused to let us pay any less than £9 a week on our water which is £39 a month about, we cant we are only on £90 a week with only some council tax and housing benefit help so we still have to find the rest I asked them to accept £5 a week but they refused and said to pay the £9, I tried but missed the odd week as sometimes we dont even have enough for food. Now they have sent a CCJ threat, we already have a credit history in tatters so wouldn't make much difference, however I have emailed them to say weve applied to the energy trust to have the £171 paid off in full and also would they pleased reconsider the £20 a month as surely its better than nothing. Im getting really stressed with all this , no one listens, no one helps we are trying our best to pay these priority bills but when they simply refuse I just dont know what to do. any advice appreciated.

i only have one phone call made to her, the rest was done in person at her premises, hoping its still logged on my phone :\

OK thanks, I assume it will be ignored but worth a shot

I started a job just under a month ago, from day one the woman tried to get me out , my first morning saying she had some great applicants after she gave me the job, and it continued, no training, blamed for things I hadnt done, comments like im surprised your still here, and comments about me being left handed and eventually a big go at me saying id lied in my interview. I should have known when she pressured me about having children in the interview that it was a bad move to accept it But big problem I have no proof I was there, the job was given to me verbally, she didnt take my P45 or give me a contract and I was on 3 months trial which she didnt mention until day two. I only lasted two days the barrage of rubbish I got enough was enough. Is there anything I can do, Ive emailed and tried to contact and all been ignored, I really dont feel I can face this person again but I lost alot of money getting to this job and really could do with the few days pay Im owed. thanks

Yes I agree I did miss out the first port of call which was just talking to their customer service again and went straight to the complaints department, It gets worse over the weekend they set up a DD on our gas account for double the amount I authorised! then emailed me telling me they had done it and again saying I had to ring ref the electric. Isnt there something ref the DD guarantee which means they cant do things like that without my say so?

Have had enough, these people are turning my hair grey! causing me sleepless nights and stress I do not need. We have had so many problems, mainly down to one person saying they will set up our direct debit and not doing, and then cancelling the DD i did have set up and reinstating it but then emailing saying I owe all the money and pay it now as theres no DD, A large lump sum was paid off the electric on 28th feb because our bill suddenly doubled! and they said they didn't receive any of the meter reads id given in 2011 over the phone or via email. We were told a DD was being set up for us. guess what, it wasnt!! and today we are told not only do we have a huge bill that we are outstanding £80odd how come its not even a month since that large payment was made. This has been going on since December yet when I call (mostly email so I have copies but this way no one knows what the previous person said, and if i ask to get a reply from that person it gets ignored) I get spoken to like an idiot and talked down to. Is there another body I can make the complaint to as well? really really had enough.

Weve had an ongoing issue with our account payments but all throughout last year since a meter was changed we had provided readings online for our electric account and as far as I know BG read our meter as they did our gas meter. Our gas account is fine Our electric account was standing at £600 in January, they hadnt set up a direct debit as requested as we couldnt afford the full amount but had previously stated they would allow us to pay less monthly. The person setting this all up disappeared and then we started being told to set up a DD or pay it in full. Yesterday we got the pay now or warrant for meter. So rang up they refused payments we could afford monthly and said really we must have a meter, to which we reluctantly agreed. However when we gave our meter reading they said there was an error and we were moved to another department All of a sudden our bill doubled! to over £1k but the lad on the other end said that it was a technical error and it would be sorted but not till Monday. Me being me didnt trust this so rang again today Now I was being told that actually we do owe that amount of money and it was because all the reads were estimated only and that they had no record of my submitted meter reads or that they had taken any last year at all But I said when did you last take a meter read from us, they said December, so obviously Im arguing the fact that if they took the read then why was it wrong, but they they backtracked saying it was December 2010! The very lengthy conversation was left with us being offered a small percentage off and possibly being able to pay a lower DD monthly will know this next week, but I just feel its all wrong. Any one had any experience with this? am thinking I should do a complaint letter to? Although I was told I should have noticed the bills said estimated, because I was doing my reads online and getting a confirmation via email back, I thought it was OK. Not to mention the last person saying it was a technical error. Any help appreciated as now we have such a high bill

thanks everyone, we are actually not doing very well on the benefit they awarded us so maybe they will be able to help out with that. Its been very difficult this past year so I just get wound up by anything money related. thanks again .

thanks yes i just had a google around as well and one council worked said they do a check like a lucky dip, feel a bit easier now thanks.

Had a letter this morning the council are visiting us on such a date to check our council tax and housing benefit claim and want to see all statements, proof of identity, income etc We only made the claim back in July so I am quite worried as to why we are being checked up on. Is this a normal thing or new thing does anyone know? We are self employed, on working tax credits and get 1/3 of our rent paid by the council and 2 3/rds of our council tax. We havent done anything we shouldnt but its just put me on edge as on previous occasions when we have been unemployed we havent had check ups like this. Can anyone shed any light? thanks

hiya yes 2006 and first dca couldn't provide one then it got sold and second one couldn't either in regards to a loan not a credit card rebel thanks having a look

sorry, does that mean agreements dated 2006 cant be enforced ?

If a company hasn't provided a credit agreement does that still hold in court? I thought I read somewhere that they didn't have to provide one to prove a debt belonged to the debtor? Also how does this affect anything if a debt has been purchased by a DCA and they havent provided an agreement? Hope that makes sense thanks

that sounds worrying. I have 2 hsbc debts which I did all the CA requests etc which all came back and ended up paying a small amount per month, I did get a lot of letters from MCS when I was paying ,saying I hadnt etc it because it became such a joke I just ignored it and kept paying and wrote them a letter saying whats going on stop sending these letters, Nothing happened and no letters came through until this year when I started getting the Rockwell ones saying I owe this debt and their client hasn't been paid. So far I have just contacted them and said I'm paying a dca plan that was set up 3 years ago and what are they now playing at. Currently awaiting reply. what is the 9/10 ? thing I dont know what that means ,. thanks

I have been paying MCS for an HSBC debt for about 3 years now, recently however I got 2 letters from Rockwell saying I haven't paid this outstanding debt and how am i going to pay it. Are these companies related? I've never had a letter to say they took over just these 2 letters, tbh I thought the first was an error and didn't take much notice. I've emailed them saying what's going on as ive been making payments in good faith to MCS. Just wanted to ask on here see if anyone could shed any light. thanks

Both my husband and myself have a Halifax easy cash account, from the days when we had to do a DMP and both still use it because its always had a £10 overdraft where you could go over that amount and not get a charge. Some weeks ago they updated their on-line systems, unbeknownst to us husband let something go over 40p as we knew or thought we knew that £10 was there however it bounced and he got a charge, but rang Halifax the guy on the other end was adamant that the £10 was only for debit card purchases, erm no! because the card is an electron and removed the fee saying it must have been an error. Q some weeks later same thing happened to OH, this time the woman swore blind that there was never a £10 overdraft on their accounts and that we would have been charged £28 for unauthorized fees, she basically told OH to get lost and refused to refund the charges. Another mystery is we had a letter stating that the charge was going up to £15, however again the woman from Halifax said no its still £10. Ive found out a couple of letters that say that if your account doesnt go more than £10 overdrawn you wont get charged, Im going to copy this and send it to them as apparently it never existed. Has anyone else had the same problem? or know anything about it? thanks

Can anything be done about a DCA visiting several times then parking outside the house, also slowly driving up and down past the house ? thanks

After many months of unemployment my husband and I now work for ourselves ,we successfully got working tax credits, some housing benefit and some council tax help. The house we currently rent is going to be sold so we have to move, however now most agencies do credit checks etc they are wanting several months rent up front, a family member has offered to help out with this but we have to pay it back. Can we still claim housing benefit if we've paid several months of rent up front to the agency/landlord whoever it might be, I had a look around on the internet and noticed a few people being advised its ok to do so, but I'm not sure, is it? We would be moving to a completely new area so would have to go through the full forms etc again. if that makes any difference.

thank you

I wrote to barclays debt recovery section over a month ago, as CCCS cancelled my plan due to me having to go on benefits. However it was a PO BOX address and Ive not heard a word back. Which address is best for contact? or is it that they are just ignoring me like the rest of them? its quite a substantial debt so I want to get a payment scheme reset back up before they start threatograms etc. thanks in advance

thank you

Thanks for those, Ive not been unemployed long enough but i think theres probably nothing stopping my husband starting it up. The NEAS must be a new version of the one the JC were talking about although it seems it was available in April when they told him it wasnt

My husband has been unemployed now since October last year, I had a business which I had to close due to not being able to sustain it due to income. Despite myself trying to get part/full time work as well as the business it all went wrong and I have recently had to admit defeat and sign on. However after 9 weeks it is driving me stir crazy, applying for 10 or so jobs a week getting the odd interview but still not getting work I spoke to the job centre about starting a business again, this time not one where a huge stock outlay was required. They said I can work under 16 hours and declare anything i earn so basically be working for the £10 joint allowed amount, but it seems they dont really like you doing it hope this makes sense so far Apparently they've now scrapped the £50 a week for those starting their own business and obviously they had to be unemployed for 6 months anyway. Is there anything I can do to get help to run a business again? I do know we can still get help with housing and council tax if my husband signs on and I dont, but last time one of the nails in the coffin was that the powers that be took my 'turnover' into account not my 'profit' so took £50 a week off the jsa benefit when i was only earning £2,500 for the whole year The last 10 months have been such a struggle, being behind with bills etc and I really want to try and turn this around, but it seems thats just too much to ask:!: I looked at working tax credits but im in my 30s and looks like id have to be doing over 30 hours and then its not guaranteed you get it. it feels like a no go at the minute I'm just wondering if there's anything I've missed or dont know about, help appreciated thanks

Last year they contacted us about a property we rented briefly for 3 months. They said we owed them money for water and that their records showed we have lived there for over 1 year. I asked them to provide the exact bill etc for when this time covered as the bill is only £60 and I know for a fact we dont owe it but was fed up with getting debt threats from it. Despite my constant requests they ignored it, the time was 5 years ago and they asked me to prove when we lived there, but the agency we rented through no longer has those records/isn't willing to help Now we are getting power2contact threatograms and I'm just not sure what to do with it now, I told SW not to contact me again as they had no proof and they were chasing the wrong tenant but they have obviously chosen to ignore this and wont send a copy of this supposed bill. How can I proceed from now, have ignored it but its getting ridiculous now. thanks in advance