Some of these are so old, they are time barred. The letters that you have no idea about them, demand they give you a full explanation and evidence that you owe them, together with statements from inception or the last time you had a statement. If they do not provide this within 28 days, you do not have to pay it. State to anyone that phones you in writing only, hang up on them, tell them not to call again, block their number, change your number, and tell them you will not discus on the doorstep and if you can get an address and an email, tell them they do not have permission to attend on you at the door and if they call at your home without your express permission you will have them removed as a breach of trespass that will not be limited to calling the police to have them removed by force if necessary. The only people who have the right to call at your home are the postal service and people asking for directions. Anyone else you can tell to go to hell! Do not give anyone any personal information at the door or over the phone and if they turn up, close the door and refuse to discus the matter with them and if they refuse to leave call the police! Or do what I did when a debt collector twice my age did not respect the fact that I had opened the door in my nightgown and glared at my breasts even as I was closing the door: scream Pervert after them; they will not come back! As above do not answer any security questions and put the phone down and ignore them. If they do not go away, report them as a nuisance! You can also go to a specialist for advice that does the trick such as the CLA or CAB debt people. it seems to me that you are not in any shape to pay these people and these are old debts: you should not have to pay them and if you have no money then you do not have to.

I feel sorry about this as I wish I had the answer but I am actually unsure as the law changed some time ago, but what is it now? I have my full paper license and a photo license that I got as it was at first the thing to do and then I changed address and got a new card license and my paper license and like you, I have never had my license revoked or taken away from me or done anything wrong while driving. A few months ago my photo on the license ran out and I could not afford the money to renew the photo, but the license says it runs out the same as my paper one in 2033, when I am 70. I have no idea if I need to do anything about this and as I have not actually driven for six years it is not a priority. My spouse drives and he is in the situation were he never applied for the Euro License and has a full paper license and I have been told that is fine; but when you get the photo license the thing has to be renewed every 10 years. I recently actually looked at it and contrary to the letter, the actual license does not run out to end of July 2012 the same time as my passport. I am totally confused, but will now get the card one, having taken a copy of it, as licences have come back with errors on. I would actually, get proper legal advice, contact the DVLA and demand to know why you were not contacted to renew the licence, that you never knew it had to be renewed and that you now want to sort it out. Then get a canny lawyer to sort it out for you and plead NOT GUILTY as you did not do this on purpose and you have no reason to have lost your license. Your license is clean and you did not know that the paper one was not good enough; you are in the same boat as 90% of the driving population. They should cut you some slack here. I hope it turns out, but this is not the place to get help on this, you need proper legal advice from the CAB or the Community Legal Advice or a local solicitor.

I know what I am talking about! I have dealt with these sorts of people for a long time and I have said only get proper advice from a proper adviser! With respect to the people on these forums; the advice is not always sound and insults do not help anyone! Debt Collection Agencies try it on and make out that they have powers they do not. However, you should not just ignore them; you should find out the facts first and ask them for a full explanation to get time to get proper and fuller advice. Do not panic. You have rights, but make sure that you find out how best to enforce those rights as every situation is different.

What happens next depends on a variety of factors, including your present financial circumstances. But I can tell you now: these are debt collectors and not bailiffs and they can do nothing without it first having a hearing that you attend in court, but you do not want it to go that far if you can avoid it . You are unsure about this debt so get more information. DO NOT CALL THEM DO IT ALL IN WRITING AND DO NOT GET LEGAL HELP FROM THIS SITE, GO TO SOMEONE LOCAL AND INDEPENDENT LIKE THE CAB DEBT SPECIALISTS OR THE CLS ON THE PHONE OR NATIONAL DEBT PEOPLE. A JUDGEMENT CAN ONLY BE GOT IN YOUR LOCAL COUNTY COURT IF THE JUDGE IN THE CASE THINKS THEIR CASE HAS MERIT AND YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY IT. IF YOU DO NOT ATTEND THE HEARING THEY WILL GET A JUDGEMENT BY DEFAULT SO IT IS ADVISED THAT WHEN THE PAPERS COME THAT YOU FIRST OF ALL TICK THE PART THAT SAYS YOU INTEND TO DEFEND THE CLAIM AND ASKS FOR EXTRA TIME AND THAT GIVES YOU AN EXTRA TWO WEEKS. Take the letter that you have now to someone to respond for you and ask them to get more information about the loan. The first thing to do is always to ask for more information, statements and a full explanation and tell them you are not sure what they are talking about. This at least will gain more time. Take the information that you get to the people that you get to represent you and let them take it from there. If you do owe the money; you should not have to pay it all at once; you should be able to make them or any other lender an offer, even if it is only £1.00 a week. If you are on a low income or benefits then you may be able to get legal assistance to pay for your costs and that includes if you go to small claims court. Take your representative with you or someone for moral support and tell the court you cannot afford to pay it all at once. The court has an obligation to take your personal circumstances into consideration and if you go to the CAB they will do an income and expenditure form to send off to these goons. They do not have the authority to pass it on to a bailiff. It is a loan that is not secured on your property and it is also a loan that is not likely to be. It is also a none priority loan which means that you have other things to pay first: gas, electric, council tax, TV licence, phone and mortgage and to eat as well and you are allowed certain other things and the goons get a bit of what is left on a pro rata basis meaning that they get a small bit of what is left if you owe other people money. To get any of the things above, there needs to be a judgement and you need to have not filled the judgement. That is how I understand it but I may be wrong, so get proper advice first. However, they should have to go to court first and have some sort of hearing. I have heard that they do fast track things through Lambert court, but they should only hear the case in your local court so make sure that is the case and it is moved here. They can get it put on your property if you own a house, but that is normally a last resort and you will not have to repay it until the house is sold. You should also have a hearing about this. This however, need not happen and will be a long time off,if you get help now. The first thing to recall is they are debt collectors and power = O The courts have to be involved before any of the things that they claim and there is a long process before that happens. You should ask for more time in writing and full explanation and play daft about the loan. You want statements and more information and then you can follow on from there. On their website is a complaint form and an email. Fill it out and get them to contact you in writing and tell them you are going to the CAB and they will only contact you through them. The CAB will fill out an I and E form and will take it a step at a time and they will send them the details and authority to act. If you cannot make them an offer then hard luck; they may have to consider writing it off and there are other things that the CAB can do as well, so stop worrying and go and see an expert. That is the best advice. They do not have the authority to pass it on to a bailiff and you have a complaint if they do. Good luck C

Why do you stupid people give your phone numbers to the people that you have debts with and banks and companies in the first place and why do you phone them when they write to you? never give your phone number to anyone and never give personal details over the net, phone, email, at the front door and refuse to deal on the phone! You complain that they phone you! Why did you publish your phone number somewhere in the first place?

You do not have to pay them anything. If it is more than 6 years ago tell them to go to hell and do not speak to them on the phone. Get the CAB to send them a statute barred letter and even if it is not, they legally cannot force you to pay any more than you can comfortably afford. It is also a none priority debt and if it is a student loan you should have it deferred or written off. if they take you to court, let them and tell the court the full story. Tell them your circumstances and you will find the court will sympathize and you can fill a form in and offer them £1.00 a month and they have to accept it. You could even get it written off and make sure they show you all the statements and the original agreements. In any event if it is that old, there is nothing they can do!

Thanks, yes have downloaded an application form and will be filling it in over the weekend and asking for it to be back dated as they should have told me about this in the phone call in January. I remember from an older email that they told me I would automatically be moved to something like this, this year, but again they have not followed through and it is up to the customer to scroll through forums and websites to find things out, as if we do not have anything better to do. But yes, I will be asking for this discount. Cheers

The goons at Atlantic SSE have reviewed my case: in about 3 hours from when they decided and they have now concluded that they cannot help me at all and the decision stands and told me to go to the Ombudsman, which I have done, but I am not going just let them off in the meantime. I have an agreement in writing from Alan Ward, which was not enacted although he said he had asked them to do this, prior to my complaint. I am not going to allow them not to honour putting my payments back to what they should be as I have this in his email and letter and they will get emails after emails until they do so, outside of my complaint, even though it is now deadlocked. At lease they have no excuse such as we did not know that I did not agree with their decision or the rate they want it paid at. I have challenged why they know I am in fuel poverty, admitted to by their phone call on 25th January 2012, and they admit I am only on benefits and they know I can only afford what I pay now, so why are they insisting that I need to pay double. Needing to pay something and being able to are two different things: and I cannot be forced to pay money that will make my situation worse. If they think that by sending out a schedule that is different to the one agreed and my not being able to pay it they can justify then hounding me with bailiffs and stuff, they are very much mistaken. I am a vulnerable class customer and am registered with them on Extra Care Plus and a social tariff, so just what are they going to do? I have extra protection from the law that states that they cannot cut me off and I am sure that the courts will not force the issue beyond what we can afford to pay. Even if you force someone onto a payment meter: the money that is set at has to be what they can afford, so does taking it direct from benefits! The amount of money we have is not going to magically increase in the meantime and I am prepared to take whatever action I deem fit to keep them out of my property and if that means using force to stop them, I will! I am past caring what these goons can do and say and I am not going to sit here and allow them into my home or anyone else for that matter to force me into anything, not without a fight! If the courts will not back me up; I know someone else who will! I just wish I could win some money and get rid of them and everyone else or change: and may-be I will, arrears or not! Fight these mobsters in our fuel industries and all fat cats. It is the only way to send the message that we are not going to be bullied, stamped, sealed, filed or processed. I am not a number, I am a free human being, I have rights and I intend to enforce them!

No one can take money from your account without your consent. If you have cancelled a direct debit and told the company that it is cancelled and they do not have your permission to touch your bank account. They are bound by the direct debit guarantee and they are liable if they still allow someone to take money once your direct debit is cancelled. If they refuse to help, they have failed to protect you and to protect your account. There are also laws protecting unlawful access to your account electronically and through fraud which taking money from your account without your express permission is. Report Microsoft and your bank to the Trading Standards and ask them to help you to recover the money or to take action. Also you could consider bringing criminal charges as this actually amounts to theft. Before you go any further; close your current bank account, cross the road and open a new one for your money to be sent into it and do not set up any more direct debits; there are alternative methods of payment. If you open a basic bank account you will not need a credit check and you can get most of the same day to day operational services as any other account. Take as many copies and download the direct debits and fees and print them out with your statements; you can use them in a complaint to the banking ombudsman. Write a stern letter to Microsoft and to the bank telling them you are not happy, complain about their taking the money and make it clear they do not have permission to take any more and demand a refund and compensation. Send a copy with your complaint to Trading Standards and close your account. Good luck P.S National Westminster did the same to me. I took all my money out; had future money into another account, did all of the above and charged the bank with fraud and Talk Talk. I got £300 refunded from one lump sum that went out; plus every one of the direct debits back and I got all of the charges refunded and £150 in compensation from Talk Talk and £300 from the bank. It pays sometimes to let these people know whose money it is that they are failing to protect.

Tell them to stop and remove your number from their records or you will report them for malicious calls, abuse of how they hold your data, to the police for harassment and then to your phone provider ask them to monitor the calls and block their number. It may be worth for a couple of months to pay for a small fee to be able to block the calls yourself and have them deleted. You could also filter the calls, by having an answer machine pick up all calls, put your phone on silent ring, so you are not disturbed and delete all messages from these and other unwanted pests. No-one has the right to hold your phone number or call you at home if you tell them not to. There are other things that your phone provider can do but they will be able to tell you and it varies with each one. Another thing to do is to register with a couple of on line agencies that protect you from these calls. You can also have yourself removed from the phone book and reject all none registered numbers and silent callers. You can have them prosecuted for nuisance calls and you do not have to deal with them. Another trick I found worked was to answer and put the phone off the hook with them still attached to it for a couple of hours: they did not phone again, or put the automated message on for a day or two that does not accept any calls. They will give up when they cannot get hold of you at all. Send them a registered letter telling them not to contact you again and that you will prosecute them if they do not leave you alone. They will soon go away. Good luck

Hi, Thanks for the link. Before having even read the whole thing I was thinking these are disability benefits and do not count as income. High and Middle Rate Care Certainly are not income; any one who deals with disability matters or any official matters knows that. The sad thing is: most people so called workers and advisers on sections in companies dealing with disabled customers are not fully trained or informed and most of them are not disabled either, and have never met a person with disabilities, or had any rights training or welfare training or even sensitivity training. These people with SSE even make me feel sad to be a Scot. Scots are normally more caring when it comes to community matters. These idiots have no idea. Good luck with your complaint. Unfortunately, I have not been back to my computer for a few days and will not be doing anything for a time as I buried my father yesterday, and still got an insensitive email from these people wanting me to make a decision as to if the customer service person can come to the house or not. Just what part of the word No is not understandable? I would swear at them in Gaelic, but they may understand it. Take care. Lyn-Marie

/SIZE]I have been totally outraged by the fact that Atlantic Gas SSE coned me into thinking that I was being helped by them and that they wanted to help their more vulnerable customers. I was telephoned, several times over several days and told that they wanted to speak to me as they had a promotion to phone customers on Extra Care Plus and social tariffs and they wanted to help me to reduce my bills and arrears. They have a trust fund and can also replace some old appliances free of charge. So what do I have to do? Answer a few simple questions on the phone for a few moments. Fine but please not longer as it is too hard and painful for me to remain on the phone for long. 20 minutes later she was still wittering on about the trust fund and how it worked and had not taken any details. Sorry have to go! She rang again and this time asked for a meter reading. Sorry we cannot physically give you a reading. She then went on about the account which has been in dispute for two years and started on about them coming out to test the meter. Fine but they have been going to do this for the last 12 months, when are they coming? Then she told me I was entitled to the trust fund and I said fine send me an application form and I will get back to them. Then they cannot do anything to help me unless I agreed to them taking the damn meter for testing. Fine. When? She will put it in an email. Two weeks later and no email or anything else so I complained. Got a response from Alan Ward, putting my payments doubled to what we pay now and double what we can afford. What for and where is the help please? Cannot do it in a form as a form does not exist have to do it over the phone or not at all. I cannot do it over the phone it takes too long and have asked no contact by phone so how do they have my ex directory number to phone me 20 times in one day in the first place? Mr Ward now aware I am on ESA support group and puts it back to my current plan but says they will give me no help unless I agree to the meter being tested. I have already given permission but I am not sitting around for six hours I want AM or PM. They can only come at 8 in the morning. In that case, no it is not convenient. Agrees to leave the meter testing until the customer liaison person comes out and will arrange for them to apply for me. I agree but as my father is seriously ill in hospital ask them to leave it for two weeks as we are arranging some home and personal care for him. This request was not conformed with and I get a demanding email from Mr Ward, demanding a response by return to confirm a time and date that we will be able to have a visit from the liaison person a month later. Mr Ward has gone on holiday for 10 days and wants an instant response! Told him we cannot give him an instant response. Get another email from someone else demanding that we choose one of 3 days at 8 in the morning at the end of the month and that we let them know at once or they cannot help us. The liaison person is not coming to help with our trust fund application but to tell us how to cut down on our consumption. That made me see red! Our consumption is very low and it is there faulty meter that it to blame and they are coming to tell disabled people not to have the heating on or to stumble about in the dark. And what about respect for my wishes! I told them to go to hell. Mr Ward also did not return the payment plan back to what it was and what he agreed and it is still double what we can afford. We have told them this is all that we can afford and are now complaining to the Watchdog. These people are just fond of chaos and cons. They have not helped me to apply to a trust fund they have doubled my payments and now unless I agree to have the meter tested they cannot help me further and without the person coming to the house they cannot give me any help or put on the account the assistance that I am entitled to. All they had to do was to leave me alone for a couple of weeks and instead they hounded me and have caused a lot of upset and trouble and stress. My father came out of hospital for 10 days and then went back in for another 3 weeks and these people have just made absolute terrors of themselves demanding this that and the other at a time we need space and support. And now my dad came home and we have all the support in place and then he has died over last weekend and Alan Ward is still leaving me emails asking me to phone them and demanding a time and date. I have already told them to leave me alone it is now a complaint to the Watchdog. I got it put up further but they have totally failed to deal with it and just made threats to take me to court and to send the account to debt collection. Well let them! I cannot afford to pay anything more than what I pay and as far as I am concerned there is nothing they can do about it. I am really angry and feel cheated and ill used by these people and even my husband lost his cool with them and I had to tell him to calm down. Why can't they just have sent a form? Why not leave me alone for a couple of weeks and put the account on hold until they had applied the discounts from the trust fund application? Are these people complete morons? Yes, and now they are going to learn what it means to treat people in this way.

There are certainly a lot of conditions that both exercise and diet can help. Depression, arthritis, gout, even conditions that confine people to a wheelchair can be helped with exercise, the right sort of exercise, targeted rehab and diet, that is certain foods help, certain foods harm. In my case, light exercise daily helps, and I do not use a gym. I did use a life gym for 6 months on prescription but that was a couple of years ago. They then moved it five miles away and that was the end of that. I had a women only gym at the top of the road and that was great. Some gyms have special sessions for people with a disability. It is worth checking out a few of them. I find light fresh air exercise more benefit to me at present and a gym would not help me as I do not have the motivation at present. But the DWP still live in the dark ages when you were not meant to exist yet alone do anything in life if you had a long term illness or disability and it annoys me that the DWP cannot call something a disability and not long term sickness. I got really angry once when an ignorant person on the phone said that is why I am on sickness benefit: I am sick. I screamed: I am not sick: I am disabled and I am not on sickness benefit I am on DLA! I know it is not her fault; she is just the phone fodder, but you would expect them to actually have some idea which benefit I am on! If you believe that exercise helps then get a letter from your doctor and then go and do whatever it is you think will help. The DWP cannot contradict what is helpful as if means that the sooner you are active; the sooner you are back to work. ESA is not meant for life! No-one should be on benefits for life unless they really cannot work at all for the rest of their life and I would not want to be stuck on benefits for life. As my husbands main carer; there is very little choice while he is on benefits for the time being, but as soon as we can; both of us are going to come off benefits and start our own business from home. It will only mean light work; but I am fed up with a new form every six months. Good luck. Hope you all find something that helps. I certainly am going to soon.

There is no reason why as long as you get a letter from your doctor saying that he has agreed that some cardio exercise and a light diet to help improve your condition and that you get a prescription to join what is called a Life Gym that you should be called a cheat. You are more likely to be called a cheat if you do nothing to improve your health and your condition, knowing that something can help. Being in the support group does not stop you from doing things that can be therapeutic or that can help you to move from that group at some time in the future. You are not doing heavy work, you are doing something that will help you to get well and with a mind to find work in the future. You could discus it with an adviser if you are concerned, but if you have an agreement with your doctor, then I do not see that this would be a problem. Good luck.

Hi and Thanks, I assume you mean the BBC and no I have received no change of terms and conditions and I am sure this comes under UCTA Section 6 and Section 5 that still applies to mortgage fees. I heard nothing from this mob from the day they last wrote to me saying they cannot find some of my lost payments in December 2010 till they took me to court, notifying me on 8th August of their intention to act on the warrant from 2007, even though the arrears was still in contention and they had accepted our situation and the DWP payments at that time as well. The £5.00 was only put on when we began to pay in compliance with a current intermediate court order. It was not applied before and I do not know how else we can pay as they only accept direct debit and on line payments for the total amount. We are paying a court capped amount and the DWP, I am most certain cannot pay any other way. I am in agreement with my legal counsellor that I am being treated less fairly due to my disability as it is this that impacts on our ability to keep up with the payments in the first place, and these fees prove it. It has to be against the law for these people to make charges based on the way that you pay: it is outrageous and to put them on the portion of the payment made by the DWP is mere stupidity. If they made this change in April why did they not apply it to the DWP payment at that time? I will tell you why, that payment has been made automatically for a couple of years and they have ignored it; I make a change to the payments, by making new payment arrangements, as we had withheld payments due them not finding £8000 lost in payments which the court has now ordered them to do so, and they are also trying now to get out of going back to court as we have provided proof that they lost the payments, but we want a court ruling in our favour, so the hearing is going ahead. I will be asking the court to rule on the fees as well at that time. Thanks Lyn-Marie

Mortgage Interest Payments are the root of all evil, but they are a necessary evil, and one that we could not survive without. My main beef with my mortgage payments is that they took so long to come through is that they are not being paid at the rate that they should have been at the start and now all of a sudden, the Lender, or rather the sub prime bog beast that calls itself a lender: that is Capstone Mortgage Services have started to levy a £5.00 Alternative Payment Charge on the interest SMI payments being made by the DWP. The DWP pays part of the interest and I make a payment as well through the bank and the Capstone say that from April 2011 they introduced this new charge but only applied it last two months. Only found out when the statement of last 12 months came through. £5.00 was taken from the bank payment that goes directly out of my account and another alternative payment fee was made on the DWP payment, which goes to them every month and has done since 2010. We have made payments to them using this method since we were not able to make direct debits since 2007 and they agreed to us making it this way and it is also made clear that it is in the agreement that this is a standard method of payment, so why are they now adding fees for us making a payment that most people use. It is just another way to make money. And as the monthly payment is split, because of the DWP payment they get two Alternative Payment Fees a month. It may be only £5.00 but what is to stop them from putting it up to £10.00 or £15 or more and if we wanted to make another payment in that month, to pay the arrears, say; we would have another £5.00 fee on top of that. What most annoys me is that they are using the money for the interest from the DWP to deduct the fees from and only part of the DWP interest payment is going to cover what it is intended for. We are being penalised for being on benefits in other words and having part of our benefit stolen by the mortgage company! I want to know is this fraud? I think it should be classed as fraud if the lender deducts or charges a fee for your mortgage being paid towards by the DWP! I also think that if the lender takes any of that money for any other purpose than mortgage interest then it should be fraud. Should I inform the DWP and can I force the company to pay this money back to me and to the DWP? Any help with this one would be of interest. Thanks

The so called help people from Atlantic Gas and in fact any of these large companies are useless and have no idea how to really help people or rather how not to cause disabled, elderly or seriously ill people stress. The recent initiative to call people out of the blue to see what help they can give you is just a con, another way to put up your bills, double what you are paying, make threats and to cause you stress. Out of the blue on 25th January I got the last of 17 calls in 2 days; as I had been out most of these two days, as my father was in hospital with a stroke and had better things to do than respond to a call were the caller could not be bothered to identify themselves and wanted to talk to me asking me all sorts of personal questions over the phone for two hours. When I did get back they first of all demanded a meter reading; I told them they have to come out to read it themselves: it is not possible physically to read it. They then explained they had these trust funds to help people on low incomes and vulnerable customers, all well and good so far and wanted some information. Then she went on about the meter that is faulty and wanted to arrange to come and test it or rather remove it for testing. Again! They have been going to do this for the last two years; no-one is stopping them! Then the big catch! We missed a payment in September and November; well, actually no we did not! We are also paying not enough to cover the arrears and she wanted to look at what we need to pay to cover the arrears! Well, you can just stop there young lady! We have an agreed payment plan in place, we have card payments set up, we make those payments as agreed and in any event the arrears is in contest and has been for the last two years. We are also vulnerable customers and on income related ESA ever since Stephen had prostate cancer. This is our only income as I cannot walk or work either. We have other medical problems that they have already assessed us for and we have filled out two forms last year and the plan only started in July so why are they bothering us now. Then, the sweetener; they need to assess our needs as they have a Trust Fund to help with the arrears and they can also look at what older appliances that we have. She could not do it over the phone as we are not able to do it over the phone, physically and mentally. She would send it all out to us and also send someone out to see us. Then they would assess to see how much we needed to pay. Fine, please send me the details. No details sent; so contacted them by email and was not pleased as this now they want us to pay double what we currently pay, despite being on low incomes and struggling to pay what we have to pay now. I got threats now that they will not help with the Trust Fund unless we do exactly what they say and they take the meter and test it. Well no-one is stopping you testing the damn meter! They cannot allow the arrears to build up and will take me to court to force us to have a payment meter! Well, sorry no you will not and we will show the court the agreement and the income and expenditure form done by Shelter who are trying to re-house us in more suitable accommodation at the moment. If they want to see the assessment, please send an SAE; that was two weeks ago. We can send someone out to do an assessment but it will be this week; that is the same week as they called, at 8 in the morning or we can wait in for six hours and someone may turn up, without any notice. No, sorry, you cannot! I need seven days notice! Now they agree I can only afford what I currently pay and they will do another assessment later on. They cannot send me out an application form; it has to be done on the phone, even though I cannot do it on the phone so I will miss out again on what I am entitled to. So, I went on Twitter and face book and every other social network and Tweeted the problem to the world! Now they will not take me to court; they would not win in any event and have now sent an SAE to look at the Shelter assessment. They have arranged for an liaison person to come out to look at what I need and give me advice on my consumption, but they will not be able to sort out the problem with the meter. But they will only be available between 20th and 23rd and 27th and 31st March and this is not at all acceptable. I have to go to court on 27th to stop my home from being re-processed and my solicitor wants to have a few meetings at that time so this does not leave much time for this person to do this. And again the bit about they will tell me how to reduce my consumption! It is not my consumption that is the problem; it is their bills! I do not need advice on how to save on my bills; I am not an idiot; we have energy saving and we only have the heating on for a couple of hours a day; at less than 65 degrees and otherwise it is 12 degrees in the house which is actually too cold. I hardly use any heat or electric lights and we probably use much less than the average person. We do not cook in the summer and we only use the heating in the cold in the winter. We are not like most people having it on all day. Even on the coldest days it is on medium and will be on for no more than six hours total. That means that the rest of the time it is off or on low. We have insulation and this was just made again this week in the loft and the walls and we have double glazing. We have old appliances and could do with more efficient ones and as they are all 15 years or more old; we need new ones. The purpose was meant to be to see what our needs are not to accuse us of using too much gas and electric. Why is it always assumed that the customer is at fault and not using efficiency and that the company are not to blame? As far as I am concerned this so called help for disabled customers is just another excuse to look at ways to make us pay more money than we can afford and to make threats that they will take us to court unless we agree to all that they say. Well I am not going to agree to anything. I have now withdrawn my agreement to them testing the meter, which they are keen to do and will not agree to any payment plan or anything else until they have done my assessment and given me what I am legally entitled to: the £120.00 a year discount and replaced all of my old appliances and I am not going to allow them to discus my account or the consumption. If they try to force me to agree to anything else the police will remove them from my home. And I will keep Tweeting in public and contacting the papers and the world until they do the right thing; otherwise as far as I am concerned they are only going to get what they already agreed in writing and they can go to hell. And as for the appliances: since I will get those when we are re-housed in any event I really do not care; I just want my bills correct and the discount applied and my payment plan agreed and they can just leave me alone and go to hell. After all they contacted me. Extra care! Extra stress more like!

Ignore them; they cannot enforce the fine as you have not been convicted of any crime. Why not go to a no win, no fee solicitor and have them write to them and demand that they clear your name, remove you from all of these database things and apologise with compensation? They may not listen to you, but solicitors know of ways of speaking to these people to sort things out. Your local law society should be able to advise of a good local solicitor in the area of law that you need. And there is no such thing as a black list; bailiffs make false claims in this matter and they do not have any powers if you do not owe the money. Do not let them in and ignore them as well. These people try all sorts of tricks, but most of them are illegal. I am sure that you will get it sorted, but it is really worrying and you must be very anxious. Make sure you get a lot of damages for this: these idiots have damaged your reputation and hurt your professional name and slandered you needlessly. They have also caused you a lot of time and inconvenience and they deserve everything that your solicitor can think to throw at them. For the humiliation alone; they deserve to be taken down an peg or two. Good luck.

Good luck with these people, it seems you have reasonable case, but be prepared, these people are a nightmare and will lie in court. You have to make sure you challenge everything that they say and have your own case prepared. If you find anything they say is not true, then ask for time to prove it and stay calm. Also get this cheque followed up; that should help you to pay something off the arrears, but also be aware, they also lose payments as well. Make them prove everything! Good luck.

They are trading illegally as you will see from the Action Group to which I also belong; they have changed their name, but that does not mean that they are trading fairly or legally. Yes, they are one of the fallouts from Lehmans and they were first London Mortgage Company, then Capstone and now Acenden and they have directors under investigation. I disagree, they have nothing with my signature on, so how can they enforce or prove anything! They have also lost, found, lost, found and lost again my payments. I have sent them the proof and they still do not acknowledge the payments. There was no second hearing or we would have won and when we tried to get it heard; they refused to attend and it was adjourned again, but our circumstances changed and this has been stayed twice! I think we have a very good case to have the attempt to steal my home stopped and no they are not our primary mortgage lender, this is a second charge on the house, no actually it is a third as the first two are with the Nationwide who have now put the original on a 12 month interest only concession and are taking no further action in this matter as they get the interest paid, so do the **** from Capstone! I would say that losing my documents and losing the agreement, refusal to show us the warrant that we have never received and the 28 day order, and the disputed payments as well as their perjury are good reasons for having this looked at again and with a fresh pair of eyes from the courts. I will get this **** to court and this time; I will destroy them!

Tell them to leave an you do not want any further contact and send a letter saying same and telling them you will have them arrested for trespass and harassment to both Excel and to Lloyds. You do not have to let them in. I had to force them to leave as they became aggressive and hurt my shoulder. Then I told them on their answer machine what I thought of them and sent an email and letter with the same. I think they got the message.

You did not have to allow these people into your home and you did not have any obligation to give them information about anything. You should have politely but firmly told them that you did not want them to visit you and that you would not deal with them coming out to you as you had not asked them to come to visit you. You should have told them to leave and not to come back and then told them that you would not allow them to come in again. Also they do not have any power to force you to accept them. You have the right to say no and you should never allow these people in. They are being used to try and put pressure on you. You should have asked for only contact in writing and told them that you do not deal with people you have not made a former appointment with and that you will only deal with these matters in writing direct with your mortgage company. It is always better to fill in an income and expenditure form through the CAB or a housing organisation, or welfare or debt management such as the national debt line, someone that can help and that is free to deal with. There are many organisations out there and they can help you to fill in a form that will take everything into consideration and that is accepted by most mortgage lenders. You do not have to accept the service sent to you and charged for by the company and you should tell your provider this in no uncertain terms. Get proper advice fast from an independent and free debt help service who may also be able to negotiate with your company and if you feel bullied into this item, then try and get it changed. Tell them your circumstances have gone worse since you signed it and take it from there. Never let these people into your home; refuse to pay the charge and demand it is refunded. I had a visit from this company today, out of the blue, without any prior notice, despite the company coming to an agreement over the payments last week and they are accepting the DWP covering the interest is enough for now. The man, John McCarthy, was very aggressive and he knocked and rang the bell several times. My husband is ill at the moment and did not want to deal with him. I came down stairs as he would not go away and Steve had decided to open the door and ask him to leave. He tried to force his way into the house, but I got in his way and demanded his identification. I could not even see it; it was that small. I told him to leave and he tried to force his way in; as I tried to close the door. He said he was from our mortgage company to get information from us, so I told him no and to leave. He said he was not selling anything and tried to push the door open. I hurt my shoulder as I tried to close it, but we both managed to get him out and told him no and to leave. He stayed outside, banging and ringing for 5 minutes, until I screamed at him to go away or I would call the police. He put something through the letter box and went. He called on my neighbour who swore at him to go away or they would also call the police. I took the letter he put through and left two messages telling them not to come back as I do not want any further contact and will have them arrested for trespass if they come back. I sent an email and a complaint to the company. I hope for their sake that they get the message. If they want any information they can find my missing payments, send me a form and negotiate with Riverside Housing, acting on my part. I will not tolerate bullies at my front door, and I would encourage everyone else to refuse all debt collectors and bailiffs information or entry into their homes and tell them not to come back.

Thank you, I have been contacted and they are offering me a free H D box and no extra costs on my monthly bill. I may have to pay £15.00 to install it, but they can credit that back to me. Accessible Customer services have been contacted by a manager and told to sort it out next week and they are monitoring the account personally. Now all I need is my £105.00 missing payments found and I am laughing.

[email protected] Try this it goes to their ECO and mark it Personal and then explain first of all although you are not a customer you are receiving other peoples letters and phone calls meant for another customer. Tell them another person's emails are coming to you and that you are going to report them for breaches of the data protection act. Also report the matter to your phone company and to the mail: they can also take action. Tell them that you want to know how and why Sky have your details in the first place and why they are sending things for someone else to your address and demand that they delete these details within 7 days and that if they contact your phone number or email again: you will also report them for breaching the above act and intrusion of your privacy. They do not have the right to hold on file any details that you have not personally given them permission to hold. If they do not comply complain to OFCOM. This is your privacy and they have no right to get any of your date mixed up with another person and it is a worrying breach of someone else's security. There are people that you can report them to, but I do not have the full details. Get on the phone to OFCOM and ask how to report a breach of security from a telecommunications company; they will give you a complaint reference and point you into the next thing to do. But if you feel that you have been put out by this, and it is annoying you: you are actually entitled to compensation. Demand it! Hope they stop. If you get letters: keep them, bundle them all up together, put them in a large envelope, put a large label on it, RETURN TO SENDER NO CONTRACT DO NOT SEND ANY MORE POST HERE AGAIN in large black letters. Also wrap all of the letters in a large piece of paper stating; I AM NOT A SKY CUSTOMER: STOP SENDING STUFF TO MY ADDRESS: DELETE MY DETAILS NOW OR I WILL REPORT YOU FOR A BREACH OF MY PRIVACY AND ABUSE OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT. I am sure that they will get the message. Good luck. Lyn-Marie

Thank you for the information. It does not change the fact that Capstone are trading illegally, have no contract with us as they have lost our signed agreement with them or anything with our signature on. It also does not change the fact that they got the order when the arrears had been paid and not previous to this, going by the date on their last letter. They also took two years to mention this document and I have checked the original file and the court papers are in there and there were no terms imposed by the court and no order granted at the hearing. In fact the hearing was adjourned and the judge ordered Capstone for more information, which they never provided. The hearing was meant to be recalled and it never was. The so called 'terms' were foisted upon us by Capstone and not agreed by us. After this they refused to comply with the order of the judge to negotiate and they added something like £2000 in charges to the so called arrears. We then got an eviction notice six months later in April and were shocked as they at that tine had agreed to fresh payments of £300 a month which we had paid. It was only because my mother borrowed money from an aunt that we paid off what they claimed, even though we now know that they had lied about that amount as well and have since had a refund from them, via the court. In 2009, we cleared any remaining arrears and put the account in credit and then we put a STAY in place. When my husband's health problems arose later that year, and we ran into arrears again in 2010, but no were near what they claimed, that is when they became criminals and got all ridiculous and things started to go wrong again. But they were also now getting paid by the DWP and after some rough negotiations via Riverside Housing, during which they lost most of the previous years payments, found them again when we demanded a full list received and then lost them again, they also made it impossible for Riverside to talk to them, and in the end, they were contacted via their own solicitor who told them to negotiate, and when the DWP paid a lump sum that more than cleared the arrears, this time they actually cancelled any action that they had been plotting. At the same time they also were getting into trouble with the insolvency service, it came to light that they are subject to criminal investigation and are trading illegally. It also comes to light that they actually had lied to the court to get the so called order in the first place. I think that an order obtained by deceit is invalid and that they have committed perjury. Is it not perjury to lie to a court? Now they intend to do the same thing again. I am going to stop them. I understand that the judge will adjourn the case if it goes to court as we are in dispute over the payments, but I need to stop them from going to court in first place and keep them busy. I intend to complain to the Ombudsman next week and I have also furthered my complaint to the DTI. I am also going to get a SAR to demand the details of every payment and charge using the form letter. I have also asked for a transcript of the court proceedings as I am sure that this is where they lied in the first place. I will also follow up on your suggestions and information and thanks for the clarification on the order. However, surely, if it was granted through perjury and deceit, then it should not have been issued in the first place, and there must be some redress in law. Any suggestions? Do you also know any remedies that exist via the government to help with people who are in these sorts of difficulties, any rescue plans or to help you to apply to social landlords to buy the property? This was an option suggested last year, but our ill health meant that we did not follow it up. Thanks.