Appt with MP...any info for me to take??

[mrsfoot]

Hi all Caggers!

 

I have an appt with my local MP on Friday 16th Feb. He has given me 2 hours and I want to make sure I fill it with current and legitimate info.

 

I want to bring up bank and mortgage charges, as well as misappropriation of Benefits by the Banks.

 

I have the regular laws used for bank charges, but would really appreciate some cases as evidence, other relevant info you feel is appropriate, info on misappropriation and any little pieces of gold you have individually dug up which may be of importance.

 

If you are happy for me to use actual cases then for confidentiality reasons feel free to PM.

 

Thanks and dont forget to look back on here from Saturday when i will post the outcomes of the meeting

 

Mrsfoot

[stan5131]

Any possibility that you can bring up the matter of the new bill giving bailiffs the right or forced entry? This will be devastating for those in debt. There is a thread going on this site and a petition.

[tracy4334]

Hi mrsfoot,

I will be happy for you to use my recent media/tv appearances in the corby evening telegraph, daily mail, daily express, anglia news, bbc-lookeast, and gmtv, if any of that can be of help, then please feel free to use any snippets you feel would be helpfull,(if any).

Cheers Tracy4334

[natwesttookmymoney]

Hi, Stan

 

Your PM inbox is full! You can't receive my words of wisdom, penned last night at 3am!!

 

Westy

 

(PS - sorry for the brief hijack)

[Calculator]

On this theme, Yorkshire Post (Newspaper) 17th January 2007 (Yorkshire Post Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More) published an article which you may find interesting, entitled 'MP accuses banks of mugging customers with illegal charges'.

Reported that Mr Taylor (Truro & St Austell), in a Westminster Hall debate, said that the banks' illegal charges were a major contributor to the UK debt crisis and to social exclusion. Also said that the banks are using poverty as a source of profit.

(Ed Balls, Treasury Economic Secretary, is also mentioned in the article as referring to the current Office of Fair Trading (OFT) inquiry into bank charges).

[mrsfoot]

Thank you for the link, this was published after the debate was held at House of Commons (see link on my name)

[natwesttookmymoney]

Calculator

 

Can you give us a more direct link? the one you have takes me to the front page.

 

Westy

[midge61]

I will be very interested in what you find out about the banks misappropiation of benefits.

My daughter is a single parent and only has benefits as her income. She banks with HSBC and in Nov they allowed a dd out which took her overdrawn and charges then got applied. She ended upp with not being able to have any money for 2 weeks untill overdraft cleared.

I gave her a copy of Letter of Appropiation to use to be able to buy food and nappies.

Bank staff said they didn't know what it was and that they didn't have to help her and she should be more careful with her money.... no sympathy or understanding at all.

We had to lend her money to get by and I will now help her to get charges back; but the point is the banks and poorly educated in these matters and I feel flaunting the Banking Code and MP's need to do something about it.

Midge

[natwesttookmymoney]

Midge

 

It's not just about the Banking Code, whihc is guidance only and, when you come right down to it, has no standing in Law.

However, the bank may not know what the Letter of Appropriation is but ignorance is no excuse under the law. What they are doing is illegal. Have a look at ad'enuff's main thread (I think it is he/she) and the extract from the Act is there.

 

The Bank can get itself into serious trouble by that sort of behaviour. Let them know asap that they're in potentially big trouble.

 

Westy

[midge61]

Hi Westy

Thanks for that will take a look.

[midge61]

ad'enuff comes up with no matches have you got a link?

[natwesttookmymoney]

Hi, Midge

 

Trying to find it.

 

W

[natwesttookmymoney]

Hi, Midge

 

Got it!!

 

It was on add-enuff's thread, which is here (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/34765-charges-made-me-o-4.html), and was posted by JohnWilsonStorey (credit where credit is due dept).

 

It reads:

 

Social Security Administration Act 1992

Miscellaneous

Certain benefit to be inalienable **

 

187- Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on-

(a)benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;

(b)any income-related benefit; or

©child benefit,

and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the bankruptcy of the beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors

 

 

Hope that helps a bit. I also created a letter for someone to give to their bank, incorporating that stuff but covering other things, too. I'll have a look and see if it helps or has a bearing.

 

Westy

[Calculator]

Calculator

 

Can you give us a more direct link? the one you have takes me to the front page.

 

Westy

 

Sorry, I thought there would be a means of retrieving the article on the Yorkshire Post website, but there does not seem to be.

[mrsfoot]

Just like to say thanks to Calculator and Midge for your comments on info. I will get as much info as to what the Gvmnt will be doing about misappropriation.

To all others.....thanks for the hijacking lol

[midge61]

Hi

How did it go?

[mrsfoot]

HI here is the update from Fri.

 

Meeting went very well. My MP is willing to take on the case and seemed very impressed with the info we took to him, including case law and genuine cases that have already been won.

 

I have another meeting 9th March to go through the next stage of the fight. He has taken all the info with him and wanted to read it thouroughly before making any decision on the exact course he is going to take with us.

However he did mention a number of tracks that he seemed to feel was beneficial to us.

1. He will make a press statement to local / national press with regards to bank charges and the process to take.

2. Open links with local CAB and offer servicces to people accessing them with regards to debt etc and inform them of the proces / web site etc.

3. He is having a meeting with the Treasury ministers (once he feels ok with the law behind it) and get some feedback for us with regards to what they are going to do / how they feel?

4. He is going to talk with a number of solicitors who he thinks may be interested in taking a class action. If he is successful in findong someone he is going to contact me and let me have the details.

5. He has taken the web address and is going to browse the site and then inform anyone who comes to his surgeries of us and what we do.

 

I was unable to talk in great detail with regards to the Social Security Act and the fact vulnerable people are having benefits taken from them to pay for charges, however he has taken my notes on this matter and we will be discussing this is full detail at the next meeting.

 

He said he could tell I had researched the subject well and have an obviously good knowledge of the system, which I told him came from here and he went on to say he would have no objections when recommending this site.

 

Roll on march 9th. I have a number of ideas including him possibly holding a function for us at house of commons in order for us meet MPs etc. This is possible as I have already attended a number of these functions for work reasons at HoC.

 

Dont forget any things you feel needs to be brought up please let me know

[midge61]

Hi Mrsfoot

This is wonderful and you have done well for us all. Which MP is it by the way?

It all sounds very positive and hopefully things will move forward for us the consumers.

Well done

[bitingback]

Fantastic Mrs Foot,

 

I await the next installment with bated breath.

[noomill060]

Just as a side issue, I wrote to Mathew Taylor MP after reading his speech to the HoC.

 

I have made him aware that the Student Loans Company (government owned) is also making £20 penalty charges for letters posted to customers in arrears, and asked him to query the legality of this with the SLC.

 

No reply as yet.

[Spiceskull]

Just as a side issue, I wrote to Mathew Taylor MP after reading his speech to the HoC.

Just realised - Matthew Taylor is my new member for Parliament since moving "home"

 

A friend of mine is a very good friend of his (she actually looks after his house and gardens when he is in London) - I might try to get a meeting arranged with him - an MP with a cause is always a good MP, and if that cause is something such as bank charges then all the better...

 

Crush - want to have a Spiceskull/Crusher meeting with our MP?

[mrsfoot]

Hi and an update from todays meeting

From the last meeting we picked a few points to lead from and the main was how to get recognition and more importantly how to get things changed.

1. It was important for me that we didnt push the banks into charging a standard fee for accounts and this wil only hit the lower end of the spectrum in the financial world, and only people with less than a certain figure (£1500 was mentioned) would pay the fee, and therefore only the lower end of thepayscale and benefits would be paying the fee (rich getting richer comes to mind) so MP told me the PO card account will not be closing, rather it will be changing format and will still be available for benefit receiver to get money via a PO.

2. He has asked for some form of analysis to be done and Im asking Bankfoddder how this can be completed and for the results to be snt to me as we need to get behind this one. If we have actual numbers of who is affected and where it will stand more of a chance to get recognised.

3. He as asked for ALL member to write a personlised letter to YOUR MP. This must be what you have gone through, your personal experience at the hands of the bank and what you have done to get your money back. I wont be setting a standard letter as i really believe the more personal it is the more it will be looked at!!

4. I am gathering info from my area, and taking it to my MP at the next meeting. We are then going to write a letter to OFT asking for an investigation. Now MP told me that OFT are part of Trade and Industry but are independant in many ways and cannot be told by and MP what to do, however the can be encouraged! so lets get the MP to encourage them to investigate.

5. We need to set some objectives as to what we want to happen. this cant be just "the banks to stop charging"

6. MP has been in talks with IFS on the inclusion of financial management in schools.

7. He suggested I work with CAB and credit agencies in the local area. Setting up a meeting when i call them on monday. I think some of us could do something like this. We are great at firefighting the problem. however would it not be better to also help people not to get into the vicious circle with financial management sessions. I am a qualified teacher and would be quite happy to put together some presentations if anyone wants to go along this approach. If your interested in approaching your local CAB or credit agency, then let me know.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any comments are most welcome

[Guest ian cognito]

Mrs, thanks for all the info. you're doing a great job - keep it up!

 

The CAB idea is really good, we know they are recommending the website in a lot of offices but they are always desperate for volunteers so to have some with experience of reclaiming would be good for them.

 

I did write to my MP just before the HoC debate and have (just) received a reply saying he has referred the matter to Alistair Darling - great

 

Keep us informed please and thanks again.

[Spiceskull]

I am meeting Matthew Taylor tomorrow, on an informal basis, and will raise the issue of penalty charges with him...

[noomill060]

phoenix- Please thank him for his reply to my letter and dont forget to mention the unlawful £20 arrears letter charges of the govt owned Student Loans company.

 

He wasnt able to help me, as im not his constituent, but he said he would pass my letter on, for information, to a person advising him in these matters.