I have received an email today that I thought was going to be an offer, but it has completely disregarded my complaint and has a statment that says ” Indication of Financial Difficulties: In your recent complaint you suggested that you were experiencing financial difficulties and we should not have lent to you. As such we have considered your position at the time and have found no evidence that you: continued to borrow over an extended period of time, took out a further loan immediately after repayment, borrowed high loan amounts when compared to your stated income. We are not aware of any other factors that indicated affordability. ” I dont even feel they have looked at my statements because this completely contradicts everything my statements show. I have sent an email to the FOS but have also replied to Wonga in a hope that they may look at it again.

Hi, I have what seems a complicated situation to me at least and would value some advice please. I am currently receiving contribution based ESA support.I split from my partner and am currently living in rented accommodation. I am receiving housing benefit and council tax benefit as my partner is currently in the process of buying me out of our joint property. I have been told that my local council regard this as disregarded capital as I intend using this money to buy a property. I am having trouble finding somewhere as the amount is right at the bottom of the market and not many properties come up and those that do are either in need of additional work, are too high up( I need a ground floor flat) or get snapped up by buy to let investors. As a result of this I am considering a shared ownership property(resale). 1) Does the local council pay Housing Benefit to people in shared Ownership properties(on the rental/service charge)? I originally phoned my local council when I moved out five months ago and they said that yes they do, but when I phoned them more recently, I have had mixed responses, one asked her line manager and they said they definitely don't pay housing benefit on shared ownership but when looking on some websites: entitled.to housingandsupport england.shelter it appears that they do and my local council's benefit calculator supports that. However this website: helptobuy Can I use Housing Benefit to pay some of the costs? "No. You need to be able to afford the initial and ongoing costs of buying or renting through Help to Buy without needing Housing Benefit to help you". I'm unsure if help to buy shared ownership is the same as other shared ownerships? Is there a national law or is it up to each council to decide? 1a) If they do pay it and I buy a shared Ownership in the knowledge that I would receive benefits to part fund it rather than keep attempting to find a 100% ownership property, would this cause a problem? 2)What % of disregarded capital must be spent on the new property? I am unsure if I spend for example 75% of my capital on a lower cost shared ownership property if the council will look at my disregarded capital and decide that as I didn't spend it all on a property they will ask for the housing benefit and Council Tax Benefit back? The problem is that there aren't many shared ownership properties up for sale in my area and they are all below my capital level or too high. 2a) Can I stair case either initially or after a qualifying period(one or two years) to bring my % up to alleviate any problems with my disregarded capital( if there is any). 3) Would stair casing be seen as deprivation of capital? As it would use my savings up quicker and mean that I'm a lot nearer to needing to claim for housing benefit in the future. ( that is not the reason I would staircase, I am simply looking to invest up to a 50% share before prices rise and to also negate any problems with the disregarded capital mentioned earlier) 4)Would any additional spending be send as deprivation of capital? Finally(sorry for all the questions) is it okay to spend some of my money on driving lessons and a car after I have bought a property as now I am on my own it is hard to get around so I need to try to sort out my own transport but I don't want this to be seen as deprivation, I would also need to buy a bed and some kitchen goods, furniture etc. How do I know what an acceptable amount is to spend on these items? I am not sure if it's okay to ask on this forum or not, but you all seem to know your stuff so I thought if anyone would know you would! The problem seems to be that I won't know for sure until I apply for housing benefit in the future, but I can't risk buying a shared ownership property if I don't get housing benefit once my savings are done.! The frustrating thing is I have finally found a fantastic SO property that's perfect and I would love to buy it, but its valued at 75% of my deferred capital for a 45% share and without further information I cannot buy it. Any help you can give as I don't know where to turn really. Thanks