Going to be made redundant- hardship

JUNIOR

Hi MSE's

I am looking for a bit of advice regarding a hardship claim .
I have already succeeded in getting some money back from HSBC, back in 2007 thanks to this site and the very helpful people on it .
I have been told that i am about to lose my job should be around the end of april .
I have however due to paycuts and other issues (not a great 2009-2010) i have incured some more charges . I have now sorted the account and no longer use the overdraft facilty , so no more charges :T
Can i claim under the hardship ruling or am i clutching at straws , right now i need all the help i can get .

Thanks
J

natweststaffmember

JUNIOR wrote: »

Hi MSE's

I am looking for a bit of advice regarding a hardship claim .
I have already succeeded in getting some money back from HSBC, back in 2007 thanks to this site and the very helpful people on it .
I have been told that i am about to lose my job should be around the end of april .
I have however due to paycuts and other issues (not a great 2009-2010) i have incured some more charges . I have now sorted the account and no longer use the overdraft facilty , so no more charges :T
Can i claim under the hardship ruling or am i clutching at straws , right now i need all the help i can get .

Thanks
J

You are clutching at straws.
Can I ask what hardship ruling you are talking about, since I am not aware of any such ruling?

JUNIOR

I got the info from this website !

i didnt mean a ruling sorry ! . just wanted to know if there is a chance of claiming charges back as i will be pretty short on cash soon !

You're in financial hardship
Under both standard banking regulations and the Lending Code (an agreement that all major banks have signed up to) banks must treat you fairly and be considerate if you are in financial difficulty.

We have therefore used these criteria as well as guidance from the Ombudsman to try and give some ideas as to what would count as hardship:

• Can’t pay for necessities. You’re struggling to meet basic necessities eg mortgage, council tax, food, utility bills
• Can’t pay debts. You’re struggling to make loan and credit card repayments
• Income eaten by charges. Your income’s being eaten up by repaying charges (eg you’re being asked to pay £50 of charges from a £100 weekly benefit income)
• Payments regularly returned. Your payments regularly get returned unpaid as you’ve not enough money in your account
• :oSubstantial drop in income. For example, you’ve lost your job, started a lower paid job, needed to take parental or carers leave, your partner has died, you’ve separated from your partner, you’ve started full time education or you/your partner has been/gone to prison
• Disability or illness. You’ve needed to increase spending on something due to a disability or serious illness
• Going bankrupt or into debt management. You’re going bankrupt, getting an IVA or Debt Relief Order or are in a debt management plan
• Continually living off credit. You’re living off credit and regularly need to increase your credit limit
• Regular credit card cash withdrawals. You are using regular cash withdrawals from credit cards to make ends meet
• Frequently over overdraft limit. You frequently go over your overdraft limit. In earlier incarnations of hardship rules this was explained as having more than £500 of charges a year – so that seems a good benchmark
• Bank charges have hurt your situation. The charges have contributed to making your financial hardship situation materially worse

natweststaffmember

Have you read the lending code section 9? (BIG HINT: link is on my signature). You need to read all of it including assessment for financial hardship. If you have not got priority debt arrears then I would say Financial Hardship is a complete non starter.

EDIT: I have now amended my signature as a result of your post and others over the last few days cos no one is actually reading the lending code and understanding what is in the code.