Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

Munro_Bagger

Good evening,

I really don't know if this is the right place to post this question - apologies if it's not. I'm asking on behalf of my OH and would really appreciate some advice.

My partner owes Nationwide around £3,000 on a loan. He has an agreement with CCS to pay this back, together with a couple of other debts from other institutions. He makes payments via CCS each month, but at the tail-end of last year, he received a telephone call from Nationwide, offering to settle the loan for 50% the original amount. Although my OH would have loved to pay it off, he turned the offer down as the cash simply wasn't available.

A short time after, he received a letter from Roxburghe Debt Collectors on behalf of Nationwide, offering a final settlement figure, on behalf of their client (Nationwide) of £15, to be paid by end of October. His first thoughts were "Oh, it's a typo - it should read £1,500, which is approximately half the debt..". However...after a conversation with the CAB, my OH paid the £15 into another bank (it too some doing) within the requested timescale. He has heard nothing from Roxburghe, or Nationwide in relation to this £15 settlement.

Nationwide still request money via the CCS, and my other half has continued to pay each month. However, do you think he should now write to Roxburghe / Nationwide suggesting that the debt has been paid (and hence, there is no need to continue paying via the CCS schedule), since the £15 has indeed settled the debt, or would Roxburghe / Nationwide have cause to chase him for the remaining full balance, minus the £15?

Many thanks

CCCS_Sarah

miss_bexy wrote: »

Another question sorry folks.
CCCS just contacted us regards our figures being a bit off in terms of my OH's wages. So they are being corrected ie we are reworking our budget.

My question is, I am heavily pregnant literally about to pop any day now. Because we are keen to get the DMP running asap, we have put that we have one child on our budget as for all intents and purposes, this time 2moro we could! In terms of my income I have put down child benefit, as I know definitely this will be £20 a week. I haven't put down CTC as I don't know what I will get or how long it will take.
Is this ok? Or have I done something majorly wrong? I'm starting to get a bit confused and disheartened now after such a strong start.

Hello,

The budget needs to reflect how your situation is at the moment ie food, clothing etc for one child. Once the new baby has landed, we can build in the extra costs and also your extra benefit entitlement.

CCCS_Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

barge wrote: »

I have spoken to a CCCS councilor today to review my DMP which I have had for 3 months. She said that I need to write to my bank asking that they stop the monthly account fee as I no longer require the benefits ans it is not helping my financial situation with this fee going on each month. I no longer use the account although it is the overdraft is part of the DMP. Lloyds TSB is the bank and they are continuing to apply the monthly account fee, overdraft excess fee, unauthorised overdraft excess fee and interest. I know I may sound a bit thick but I just can't seem to put a letter together. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The letter does not need to be long; you could try something like this


Account Number:

Dear Sir,

Please could you cancel the benefit I have on my bank account that a pay £X per month. I no longer wish to take advantage of this service. Once this has been cancelled from my account could you send me written confirmation?

Regards

Hope this helps

CCCS_Sarah

thedrum wrote: »

Could somebody tell me if it is ok to pay off some of my creditors whilst i am in a DMP or would it be deemed as 'Preferential Treatment' to those creditors? I have maybe 3 of my creditors that are fairly small amounts that maybe i could pay off, but i don't want to rock the boat with my other creditors and have them pull out of accepting the payments that they are getting.

Thanks in advance

Hello,

Who’s your dmp with? If you were to pay extra money towards those debts, technically it would be classed as preferential treatment. However if you did have any extra cash then I would still recommend that you speak to your provider as they would be able to split the money for you.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

ANNIEHAHA wrote: »

H we owe CSA £7700 for 1996-2000
we do not pay anything since 2000 as we are low income & 2 kids ourselves
we have been paying eversheds £50 a month (our income is £16,000 inc. ctc and child benefit
we have sent bank statements and a list of all our outgoings
they have wrote back asking what a couple of payments into the account are and want to know if my husband has any assets
We can ill afford the £50 a month now
they are bullying us and will not accept a lower payment or let thhe CSA deal with it (they are Csa solicitors)
please help next step is baliffs / ccj

Hello,

I would recommend that you call for an appointment asap. The CCCS can help you put together a financial statement and offer advice based on that. CSA is a priority debt, therefore would take priority in a budget over credit debts such as credit cards, personal loans etc.

If you would like an appointment please call 0800 138 1111.

Regards
CCCS

CCCS_Sarah

Munro_Bagger wrote: »

Good evening,

I really don't know if this is the right place to post this question - apologies if it's not. I'm asking on behalf of my OH and would really appreciate some advice.

My partner owes Nationwide around £3,000 on a loan. He has an agreement with CCS to pay this back, together with a couple of other debts from other institutions. He makes payments via CCS each month, but at the tail-end of last year, he received a telephone call from Nationwide, offering to settle the loan for 50% the original amount. Although my OH would have loved to pay it off, he turned the offer down as the cash simply wasn't available.

A short time after, he received a letter from Roxburghe Debt Collectors on behalf of Nationwide, offering a final settlement figure, on behalf of their client (Nationwide) of £15, to be paid by end of October. His first thoughts were "Oh, it's a typo - it should read £1,500, which is approximately half the debt..". However...after a conversation with the CAB, my OH paid the £15 into another bank (it too some doing) within the requested timescale. He has heard nothing from Roxburghe, or Nationwide in relation to this £15 settlement.

Nationwide still request money via the CCS, and my other half has continued to pay each month. However, do you think he should now write to Roxburghe / Nationwide suggesting that the debt has been paid (and hence, there is no need to continue paying via the CCS schedule), since the £15 has indeed settled the debt, or would Roxburghe / Nationwide have cause to chase him for the remaining full balance, minus the £15?

Many thanks

Hello,

I would suggest you contact an organisation called Community Legal Advice; they would be able to discuss this from a legal point of view with you. I have attached a link to their website for you http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/

Do you still have a copy of the letter showing the offer of £15?

Sarah

CCCS_Sue

Beaver67 wrote: »

hi There, my hubby and I are registered with CCCS. A while ago my husband got a parking fine by westminster council £80.00. We wrote to them saying we couldn't pay all at once, can we pay by installments. They refused. - They increased the amount. again we explained what has been going on with us and we are getting help from CCCS - again they refused installment payments. They have passed the debt on to collection/recovery agents-Phillips. We have written to them saying that we cannot settle the bill and sent £1 postal order and explained we will have to do this each month until our circumstances change. They have refused - said that £1 just isn't good enough and they are sending a recovery agent round to our house. This will cost us an additional £200.00 for each visit. When they get fed up, I dare say that they will try to take us to court - and by that time I dare say that the bill will be in the thousands because of the additional charges. I despair - we are having to put our house on the market, I have a 9 month baby, I was made redundant 2 months after going back to work from maternity leave, and my husbands business has failed. I ensure that my daughter has proper food etc - but for my part, I'm surviving on a bit of toast for breakfast, a sandwich or perhaps "under £1" micromeal and nothing else per day (Except for tea/coffee etc) - what do these people want me to do - stop eating altogether!!!!!! I can't do it. I'm trying to find a job - as I'm on job seekers allowance.... I can't see that there is anything else we can do... Any suggestions please?
Many thanks.

Hi Beaver67 and thank you for your message

A parking fine is a priority debt and has to be paid.
If it is not paid, the relevant authority can obtain an order from the Traffic Enforcement Centre confirming liability. The local authority can enforce this by issuing a warrant to private certificated bailiffs.
Their instructions are usually to collect the whole debt and not to accept instalments.
Although the order is made by the county court it cannot intervene to suspend the warrant.
When there is no power to suspend a warrant through the courts and you are unable to make any payment at all, the only option may be to speak to the council and ask them to consider withdrawing the warrant due to your severe financial circumstances.
Are there any family members who could help you out?
In the meantime, try and pay what you can rather than nothing at all.
Regards
CCCS

MickW_3

I am currently experiencing difficulties since losing my job back in October last year and I was wondering what assistance the CCCS can offer me under my current circumstances. I've been dealing with Mercers directly along with Capital One and have prepared an income and expenditure report along with a standard form letter making a token offer of £1 per month. The reason for this is that I am currently working on a 3 month contract which is due to end this month, and I expect that I will be signing on once more until I can get a permanent job.

Now my understanding is that DMP's and IVA's are only of real use to people who have a steady income coming in and sufficient amount of residual income to fund such a plan. But what can you do (if anything) for people who are currently on temporary employment?

I've been reluctant to call you because I feel very uncomfortable in discussing these problems but I've been advised by Mercers to contact you as soon as possible.

CCCS_Matthew

Hi Mick, thanks for getting in touch.

In cases where no surplus money is available, and bankruptcy/DRO is not an option we would usually make a suggestion of making a token payment and provide a template letter. This would need to be done by the client directly, so in theory this would be no different to what you are doing now.

I suppose the reason why Mercers suggest to contact us, is because they want to confirm that token payments is the relevent solution based on your current income and expenditure, and to ensure there are no other solutions.

If you would like to assess your situation without having to dicuss your situation directly, you could use our Debt Remedy facility which will provide you with advice online. Click here to go directly to Debt Remedy.

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

WoodruffsDad

About a year ago my wife put her finances into the hands of CCCS to whom she pays a monthly sum.

Certain creditors are now 'phoning her up to 20 times per day from morning to evening, at weekends and on her home and work telephone numbers. They have also sent text messages to our landline!

We have told them over and over and over again that the matter is in the hands of CCCS but they simply say that they do not deal with credit agencies and that the calls will continue.

The worst offenders are Aqua and HSBC.

My wife has reported the matter to CCCS and Trading Standards but the silence has been deafening!

These calls are a nuisance and an embarrassment. What can we do to stop them?