Uncle in credit card debt and scared

Merlinexcalibur

What they said.

You could also write to any companies involved, with him giving his written permission for other named individuals to correspond on his behalf. Make it clear that all crrespondence will be in writing.

There are also debt advisors available through your local council who can do all that for you as well. Just another suggestion. As well as CCCS of course, but for the other things like letter writing you'd have to do. Plenty of template letters available online including Consumerwiki for specific instances.

earplugs

Hi Alison

In relation to the credit cards and overdraft, if your uncles income is lower than his expenditure then he needs to be only paying token payments to the credit card companies and banks - £1 per month - he should send them an income and expenditure sheet showing that he has more expenditure than income - he or you can get an income and expenditure sheet from national debt line website. The only thing the credit card and bank can do is go for a CCJ which would affect his credit rating, but if he's missed any payments already then his credit rating has been affected anyway.

If he does decide to make £1 token payments he needs to obtain a new basic bank account where he can have his wages paid into - google FSA money facts made clear basic bank accounts and you'll find a factsheet from the FSA on which banks do basic bank accounts. he should open a bank account with someone who has no financial connection with at the moment.

Reason for making token offer repayments is that its more important for your uncle to be paying mortgage, council tax etc than credit cards or o/d.

In relation to the hire purchase, it may be worth him asking for a copy of his agreement to see how much it would cost him if he was to hand the motor home back, this again might free up some extra cash for payment of mortgage.

Does your uncle claim Disability Living Allowance- if he has mental health issues then you or he should ring the benefits enquiry line and get them to send him a DLA Application pack. Go to direct.gov.uk for the benefits enquiry line number and also you can find out about what disability living allowance is. It'll just give him some extra income if he's eligible for it. If you need help with filling out the DLA form then CAB do it.

view

Hi there

Well done for trying to sort him out, it must be really worrying at this time.

Have you been able to see any of his statements? You would soon be able to find out where the money is being spent. Is he partial to a bet in the bookies / does he have internet at home. Perhaps he is using online bingo or the sorts? I don't know the exact terminology but there is a system you can download on computer to stop access to betting sites.

Not saying he does this of course, however sounds like if he's managed to amass such high debts in a short time this could be the problem. All sorts of support groups as well if this is the case.

Best of luck and well done again for helping out someone in need.

Merlinexcalibur

Not saying he does this of course, however sounds like if he's managed to amass such high debts in a short time this could be the problem.

OMG good God, yes. I knew someone who did that, and although it came to light with the family concerned (it was the wife of someone I knew but now wish I never did or ever met them) you would be surprised at the debts she was running up. So, it's really very easy because some people are just good at hiding it or, as in the case I describe, keep borrowing money to live a certain 'lifestyle'. Not saying that is what is going on here but just saying how easy it spirals.

alison18671

Thanks for all the replies, wow, such a lot!

We are going to get in touch with national debtline and see if they can give us some help, hopefully someone will maybe be able to write and get the credit cards to organise a small token repayment, at least whilst my uncle gets on top of sorting out other bills and statements.

Such a bad time for so many people at the moment.

I am sure that we will come up with a solution one way or another, and in the mean time he's cut up the credit cards!

Thanks again
Alison

alison18671

Merlinexcalibur wrote: »

Yes, I know what you mean. Please don't take this the wrong way, because I mean it with the best intentions but doesn't strictly mean he's of 'lower capacity mentally?' And that there may be other things going on which DO need to get addressed. But that has to be with his own volition to seek that help. However, unless there have been definite instances of mental health problems in the past, eg with a GP/assessment team it may not be what is going on. And here you need to be very careful because it could negatively, severely impact on his health right now on top of these problems. In other words trigger something. Hope that made sense. As to panicking, mostly everyone does when seeing these letters. I do, even now, after learning a few things or two about how they are worded but it's the suddeness of opening the letter, reading the red letters, the highlighted print. 'It's all psychological' to quote a Pet Shop Boys song.

When said and done, it's all about perceived things. Whilst others who do not know him may not see those things, if you get me? But unless you are certain, without question about his health in this direction, I would be immensely careful about opening that doorway. Again, hope that made sense. Because if he's never been diagnosed with anything then it goes back to the perceptions thing I mentioned. Please don't think I am disbelieving you but I am just putting those things to you because any person working in mental health would ask you those things.

I think the most important thing right now is to get the debt house in order. Either using CCCS as someone suggested, THEN worry about the other things. Because taking away the worry of these debts is vital right now, as it clearly impacts on his health, stability. It does for everyone, and is perfectly natural. Unless we are all made of solid rock. So, if you can get assistance via CCCS, you can call them today for free to let them know what has been happening. But, the other issue is your uncle would need to give his consent or he'd have to contact them.

But, right now, that is I think the first priority. Worry about the rest afterwards. Because this stress, this burden needs to be alleviated with assistance from a third party. A year ago, I contacted CCCS, and I suffer with certain things shall we say that impact everyday so can speak from experience of many many years, but once I knew they were there for me, it did make one hell of a difference knowing someone else knew about these debts, and it lifted a lot of worry away from me. Not all, but some.

My uncle I guess has been capable of passing a driving test, driving for many years, had a few scrapes along the way, but has nether the less passed a practical test. Though these days he may have been possibly classed as autistic, as his actions and capacity are so similar.
His mental capacity is very, very similar to autism, in that he gets very deeply engrossed, almost obsessed by certain things and interests, but can't comprehend other things that maybe don't light his fire etc. Very hard to explain in typing, but very easy to spot in person.
He's good natured etc, but not, how you put it - emotional! So when this mess with money all comes to light, he panics and gets defensive etc, but sort of 'runs' to my dad for help....Hard to explain.
I know what you mean above about the mental capacity etc, it's all very complicated.
My dad in particular's main concern right now is just sorting his mess out and hoping that he doesn't do it again - because as daft as it sounds, he could easily do the exact thing again!

Alison

alison18671

churchrat wrote: »

hi
thanks for all that.
I don't know what a finder is, but I am assuming he has to be able to read/write etc quite well?

It is possible to sort this problem out, but there a few things you should do.

If you are convinced that he has a learning difficulty, as opposed to a mental health problem you can have him assessed by the local adult socail services.
This will do the following--open up other support areas ie mencap, local support
give you a "barganing" tool when dealing with creditors
give him access to certain benefits, such as DLA.
Unfortunatly, it does NOT mean that you/he will get any practicle help from anybody.

It can take a while to arrange this, you could try going to his GP (you should go with him) to hurry things along. Soc services are usually over stretched but you are entitled to this assessment. It can be hard to get any sort of help with a formal assessment of learning disabilty. Its all about the label.

You could also gather "evidence" to use when talking to the credit companies. Find all the paper work and ask your uncle how he came to have the loans etc. You could also write to any companies involved, with him giving his written permission for other named individuals to correspond on his behalf. Make it clear that all crrespondence will be in writing.

How long has he lived alone? Is he worse since his mother moved away? Is he coping with this?

I know that this is a lot to deal with, and getting him to accept soc serv might be difficult. I managed to get T (my cousin) to go along for assessment by explaining that he might get some more money. He is 52 and operates on about the 13yr old level. In some ways he is very "grown up" and loooks after himself and the house quite well. He is always clean, does his washing etc. This means that he is a "hidden" problem and it took a lot of kicking and screaming on my part before soc serv decided to add him to thier books. We still don't get any help, but everybody else is now much easier to deal with.

I don't know anything about your part of the world, but it always looks lovly when we visit!!

churchrat

Hello

Believe it or not a finder - finds lost money! Thats about it! Hes paid to search out lost monies from the main bank.

Alison

churchrat

hi

if you can get him assessed you will have a greater amount of control over his creditors. Paying token amounts, dealing with the cccs etc are all great things to do, but ultimatly the creditor companies will come after him. If you have read the posts on here you will see that they can be intimidating and bullying. I know that many people with a condition such as your uncles would find that impossible to cope with.

With an assessment you can just tell them to stop--and they really have no choice but to do as you ask. He will still have to deal with them, but can do it on his own terms. My cousin had been threatened with court, and the baliffs had been to his house. After assessment, I called the baliffs off and unless he does someting "criminal" he is unlikley to end up in court again about debt and all letters have a copy sent to me.

I know I'm banging on about it, but just having a "label" opens so many doors, eg, claiming the dla is not a problem.

Have you looked on the variuos autism sites? It is very difficult for adults to cope with a new diagnosis when they have lived with thier own solutions to thier problems for so many years, but the help is there if you can find it. Cousin T was used to being called stupid and odd and thick as !!!!!! for his entire life, so for him it was a relief to finaly be told what was wrong with him.

Your uncle is a lucky man to have his family looking out for him, good luck to you all.

alison18671

Thankyou to everyone for your messages:j

Alison