Hardship letter: what if I don't want to give financial details?

ciaobellaciao

Hi all,
I'd really appreciate any help you can give.
I'm helping my housemate out with his banking charges re-claim from Natwest. After they set debt collectors on him, I sent them and the collectors a legal letter telling them we had already filed a complaint about these charges and they were supposed to be on hold pending the outcome of the test case.
In response, Natwest have written back asking him to fill in a detailed financial hardship form, giving loads of income & expenditure detail.
Now, he already knows he wouldn't qualify for hardship (he is working, has minimal living expenses, etc etc) and quite rightly in my opinion feels that he shouldn't have to go to the trouble of providing all this info, copies of documents etc etc when he's not even trying to be classified as a hardship case.
But I don't want to do anything that would allow Natwest to kick out his claim.
Is he allowed to just write back saying words to the effect of: 'I'm not going to fill out that form because I'm not applying for hardship, just put me on file as one of your regular bank charge objectors and wait for the test case' ???

Thanks for any help anyone can give!!!

natweststaffmember

Why not something similar., "Thank you for your income and expenditure form. I do not class myself in financial hardship and any debt outstanding will be dealt with on the conclusion of the OFT test case issues."

ciaobellaciao

Thanks! So he's allowed to do that, then?

natweststaffmember

yes, cos it is being reasonable.