Legal Position

Debtbuster1_2

My husband recently got a letter telling him due to a mis calc on the part of the CSA he was now in arrears dating back over 5 years to the tune of £3k.

When challenged we were told, pay up, use a credit card, take a loan whatever but pay or take the chance of imprisonment, licence removal, passport removal you know the kind of thing.

We in the end made an arragnement to installement pay at £130.00, all this happened around Christmas last year and we have made the payments ever since.

Last week my hubby was told he had been made redundant, I think it was his companys way of cost cutting because they were then reinvited to apply for new jobs, which were the old jobs but take a substantion pay cut, in tis case £4k a year, this means we are now struggling to repay the £130.00 I have written advising them we need to reduce this amount, and wait hearing back, but wondered if anyone had any advise etc just about at my wits end? Hope someone can help. Thanks

speedster

firstly, you need to write to them requesting to be reassessed immediately.

secondly, you will need to try and renegotiate the arrears repayments, bearing in mind the max they can take is 40% of net income.

thirdly, if they "advise" you to take out a loan/credit card to pay, inform them that they are in breach of the FSA regulations and are in fact breaking the law by giving financial advice when not qualified to do so. advise them that you are recording the call and you require their name and department ref. so that you can report the matter to the FSA.

normally does the trick.:rolleyes:

kelloggs36

They are not advising anybody to take out loans etc, but giving them the option of doing so if they wish.

However, you must get an up to date assessment done as soon as the change occurs.

speedster

kelloggs36 wrote: »

They are not advising anybody to take out loans etc, but giving them the option of doing so if they wish.

However, you must get an up to date assessment done as soon as the change occurs.

i take it you haven't read barry porters rantings in the national press then?

he is openly admitting it. hold on, i'll dig out the link.

speedster

here you go.

quote
Barry Porter says the agency has been criticised in the past for making fathers take out loans so that they can pay what they owe. “But we make no apologies for it.
“The way I see it, these people have borrowed their children’s money and if they have to seek another lender with high interest rates to pay the money back, then so be it.”



http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/money/2009/08/12/crackdown-on-dodging-dads-as-the-csa-finally-gets-tough-115875-21590278/


it's also worth noting that this is the man who left the police before he was sacked and investigated for corruption, so it's no use a lying toerag like that jumping on a band wagon like that.


people in glass houses and all that.

kelloggs36

I know who he is - I have met him!! He was the one who offered me a job in the investigation department with an agreed start date (returning to work after my maternity leave) and then withdrew it because I would not attend a residential training course whilst I was on maternity leave even though there were trainnig courses could have attended after my maternity leave ended!!!!!!

kelloggs36

However, as he isn't one who negotiates the repayments he shouldn't be saying things like that anyway. They aren't advising people which loans etc, just saying that if they have the option to do it, then they may want to consider it rather than face a DEO of 40%.

Blob

Sorry that is not what it states on the papers I have infront of me!!

They are infact 'Debt Councilling' as they want you to move one debt to another place, thus clearing that debt to prevent action being taken. To do that they have to have a CCL that states that they can do this. When I worked in the finance industry I had to have on to talk about people borring money and moveing debt from one place to another. This is why Lord Turner has been ask to look in the matter by the Shadow Sec of State!

It is a criminal offence under the FSA to do this, and again to say in your defence that teh Law is incompatable is no defence.

Law 1 Policy 0

kelloggs36

They don't say they want you to, but tell you that you can - that is not the same thing.

Dancing_Shoes

I agree with Blob, you(not you kelloggs) aren't allowed to actually even mention getting a loan, that is only allowed by people who are part of the finance industry

blimey40

Ultimately its just a clever choice of words, which they are very good at.