And is there any sort of template letter available telling Wescot that they are not allowed to request proof of my medical condition and basically tell them to get lost. Ta J

Hi, Sorry for the late reply. This debt is a Natwest bank account and I defaulted on the account in June 2007 it is no longer showing on my credit report. Natwest sold the debt and I am now paying Wescot. When I lost my job back in 2006 didn’t know what to do and how I was going to deal with my bills and yes the lovely colourful letters these debt companies sent me did make me panic and worry so I just started paying the debt once I had found a new job. Do you still think a SAR request would be worth a shot? Sean

Hi, The original debt was was for a Natwest bank account I had and opened in 2000. I did have an over draft of around £1000 and in 2006 I lost my job and dipped into the overdraft, things for me then did get worse financially and Natwest managed to rack up about £1200 in various charges on my account. Thanks

Hi, I am wondering if someone could help me with a current problem I am stuck on and not sure how to respond to the debt company. I will try and keep this short. I am currently in a situation where I am out of work and now unable to pay my debts. I work for an agency and am on one of these silly zero hour contracts so my employer has no obligation to offer me work. Over the last 12 month period I have had to take quite a lot of time off work due to sickness with a lifelong medical condition I have and my employer hasn’t been to impressed with this. Becuase my employer is no longer offering me work I cannot pay my debt at the moment until I find alternative employment, I am also in the process of applying for job seekers allowance in order to help me through this difficult time. I have written to my creditor (Wescot) and explained in short my current situation. They have now responded asking for proof of my medical condition. My question really is are they allowed to ask for this and if they aren’t how should I respond the letter. I should also mention that I have been paying this debt off up to this month. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I have used this forum many times in the past and found it very useful but this is my first time posting. I have searched the Internet high and low for any information on my issue but have had no luck so here goes. Background info in brief. First of all I'm a council tenant and receive council tax benefit. Council Tax Band downgraded from E to D but the council now claim I owe them £951.99, this is due to an over payment in council tax benefit dating back to April 1993. On the 26-03-12 I received a letter from the Valuation Office informing me that my council tax band was changing from E to D. I thought to myself "great my council tax bill would be going down" and filed the letter away and thought nothing more of it. Then on the 31-08-12 I received a revised and reduced council tax bill of £256.06 which I continued to pay off on a monthly basis and this is now paid up for the year. But then on the 28-01-13 I received another council tax bill with a balance of £951.99. After a month of trying to figure out how they had come to such a large figure I got on the phone to council tax office and asked them to explain the latest bill they had sent me. The explanation given to me over the phone was the outstanding amount was due to my properties council tax band being downgraded from E to D and that I had been overpaid council tax benefit dating back as far as 1993. I explained that this couldn't be correct as my council tax band had only been downgraded in March 2012. I was then told to write into the office to dispute this. I have written in (1st Class Recorded) but have so far received no communication back. I then got onto the valuation office and asked them to explain why my band had been downgraded as I had not made any request to them myself and queried the effective date of the change. I was told that it was to bring my property in line with all the others on my street and that the effective date was automatically backdated to 1993 as this is when council first started. I explained that their actions had now caused me to end up with a large council tax bill but they weren't interested and I decided I wasn't going to get anywhere with them. My questions are... 1. Can the council backdate this benefit overpayment to 1993 or is there a time limit? 2. Is there anyway I can dispute the valuation office's banding effective date and have it amended to March 2012? I have currently do not have any outstanding balance on my council tax bill apart from this £951.99 which I have written to the council about and put into dispute. I can also prove back to 2008 that my property was in band E with copies of old bills. Thanks in advance.