bank charges after being ill causing finacial hardship what should i do next please

judy_1

in January this year i had a cardio vascular accident ( posh name for a full stroke) i am currently 47 years old and have banked with lloyds tsb for some 15 years with out real problems, when i came out of hospital i notified my bank that i would not be able to work for some months due to my illness, they told me that they would give me a £3000,00 over draft to help out i explained that i did not see this as helpfull and did not feel it would work for me and told them i did not want an overdraft as this would only cause problems which by notifiying them immediately i was trying to avoid i have now been on statuatory sick pay of £79,00 per week since january and am finding things verydifficult i have also used up all my saving of around £25,000 my staturtory sick pay is paid in to Lloyds at the end of each month just like my wages were when i was working i get 358.00 per month to live on my husband has taken over paying most of my bills for me and i have about £200,00 per month of direct debits about 7 direct debits per monthgoing out of may account, i have not and do not use my debit card or cheque book and have not done so since i was taken ill, however every month lloydds are returning my direct drbits un paid and chargeing me 35.00 for each 1 they return. i believe now that when my sick pay gose in to the account it is being swallowed up with the over draft and bank charges and so there is not funds left to pay my bills i still have a job to go back to when i am able to do so but feel that lloyds are causing me unfair hardship and fraustration, today i recieved a letter from lloyds saying i must pay in £400.00 in to my account within two days as i had now exceeded the over draft that i told them i did not want in the first place the letter went on to say that if i did not paying the requested £400.00 then they would pass my account on to collections which would effect my credit rating in the future and then on to a debt collecting agency, i feel that they are being totally unfair and am now struggleing to cope with everything going on and infact somtimes feel like killing myself can some one please give me some advice on what i should do about this having read the posts here i think i am being badly treated before i became ill i was a very capable person in a very good job earning around £70,000 per annum so it has been a hard enough changing my life style to suit my now lowered income i am desperate to return to work as soon as possible but having problems getting someone to sign me off the sick and have just been told that i have a small tumor on my petuatory gland and that i need to be refered to a neuro sugeon to see what to do my gp has also told me that i am now anemic and i have to have injections monthly to raise the iron in my blood all of this is really getting me down and making me depressed please please help thanks:mad:

natweststaffmember

Get the details of the charges on the account and then reclaim them. If they send the account to debt collection then you can keep telling them where to go since the debt will be in formal dispute until the conclusion of the OFT test case issues.
Can I ask what the DD's were for?

judy_1

the direct debits are for my council tax credit card and my car are a couple of them i have now also been assesed a disabled and will start to get disability living allowance next month which wll add around another £70.00 per month to my income all of this is now getting me down i did not ask to become ill and ifact did not realise that i was ill until my husband called an ambulance and i was taken to hospital stroke was only menstioned to me when ihad had a ct scan in a and E to date i have not been told what caused the stroke only that i have narrowed arteries in my brain that i was probably born with, i have always tried to take good care of my health in the past and am a medical rep by proffession. sorry for the lack a punctuation in the post but after the stroke i was brain damaged and can not do what i did before or think the same way

natweststaffmember

judy_1 wrote: »

the direct debits are for my council tax credit card and my car are a couple of them i have now also been assesed a disabled and will start to get disability living allowance next month which wll add around another £70.00 per month to my income all of this is now getting me down i did not ask to become ill and ifact did not realise that i was ill until my husband called an ambulance and i was taken to hospital stroke was only menstioned to me when ihad had a ct scan in a and E to date i have not been told what caused the stroke only that i have narrowed arteries in my brain that i was probably born with, i have always tried to take good care of my health in the past and am a medical rep by proffession. sorry for the lack a punctuation in the post but after the stroke i was brain damaged and can not do what i did before or think the same way

It's fine, you are being clear and straight forward and the post is getting the situation across. Ok, do you now have priority debt arrears(mortgage or rent, council tax, utilities, HP on the car)?
Furthermore, do you have non priority debt arrears ie credit cards store cards?
Are you aware that the charges on the credit card can be reclaimed?

McKneff

are you sure you are going to get DLA next month,
Usually when you apply for it and are awarded it, it is paid straight away.
or even backdated.

Or have you just applied for it and presume you are going to get it.

judy_1

yes i am goign to get dla the letter says they will back date it to may when i applied and it will be paid into my bank by the end of november i believe this will be a bout £1400 and will certainly make things easier for a while i am trying really hard to get back to work as soon as possible but will have to notify dla that i am returning to work when i can and the dla will stop i believe this will take me years to get back on my feet again we are not in debt with our mortage as my husband has paid it since i went off sick and our interest rate is very low on .29 percent above base rate until nov next year

judy_1

if i am reading the post correctly on this site then i need to write to lloyds again a point out that they are causing me finacial hardship which will have an effect on how quickly i am abel to return to work i sthat correct if so are there any template letter to use for this if so could some one post and put in a link to the templates please sorry to be a pain but i am not very good at this kind of stuff now

natweststaffmember

judy_1 wrote: »

if i am reading the post correctly on this site then i need to write to lloyds again a point out that they are causing me finacial hardship which will have an effect on how quickly i am abel to return to work i sthat correct if so are there any template letter to use for this if so could some one post and put in a link to the templates please sorry to be a pain but i am not very good at this kind of stuff now

Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage or rent, council tax, utilities)?

judy_1

no we have managed to keep up with mortgage and council tax also all utilities are paid by direct debit from my husbands account this is very demeaning for me i have always been the main earner in the family, i dropped out mortage down to interest only until nov next year so we are now not paying any capital off the mortage which we had always done before

bored_at_home

in your situation the first thing i would do was cancel your direct debits for now. thatl stop them charging you for returning them in the first place. you can always reset them up when your back on your feet. if the bank return something chances are youl get charged by whoever you owed as well so lose twice.

when assessing if you are in hardship the bank will count in your dla money as income. i demanded mine was removed from their figures as its for care needs that would otherwise not be met. its worth bearing in mind as it can make a differance as to whether in their eyes you qualify as being in hardship or not.

natweststaffmember

bored_at_home wrote: »

in your situation the first thing i would do was cancel your direct debits for now. thatl stop them charging you for returning them in the first place. you can always reset them up when your back on your feet. if the bank return something chances are youl get charged by whoever you owed as well so lose twice.

when assessing if you are in hardship the bank will count in your dla money as income. i demanded mine was removed from their figures as its for care needs that would otherwise not be met. its worth bearing in mind as it can make a differance as to whether in their eyes you qualify as being in hardship or not.

Financial hardship is about household income and expenditure rather than individual hardship so the money would have to be counted.