Please can someone help i am in dispair

Jane_toms

May I say thank you to most of you who have been very helpful and I very much appreciate it. Those of you who are saying scam and I should have been prepared. I really don't think anyone in life thinks that they are going to end up with spinal injuries followed by a stroke where they go from being healthy to hardly able to move. It was the last thing on my mind when I took out a visa account, I must say I didn't stand there and say to my self do I have insurance in case I end up unable to feed myself!!

Please will you tell me where you have moved this to

Thank you

Jane

SnowMan

Jane

Don't worry about posting it on the wromg board. One of the board guides kindly moved it to the debt free wananbee board and you should get a more friendly response here. It is where people in debt or who have been in debt (which is most of us) provide support to each other.

While I rarely post on this board I know you will get a more reasonable and sympathetic hearing here than the gambling introductory offer board

Take care

SnowMan

Jane_toms

Snowman thank you very much indeed .... I will take your advice and call those you have suggested. Thank you again

Jane

louisebt

I cant advise but wanted to give you a gentle hug :A
I used to work with horses and know how they can in some cases cause some poor people injuries.... I dont work due to health issues and i know how drustrating and hard that is too!.
My dad is currently wheelchair reliant following the sad return of his cancer, he's been in hospital for 3 months so far and we know his mobility will be very limited if he ever walks unaided again.
I think your a very brave lady, i hope you manage to sort things xxx

Ames

There's something called first right of appropriation, which basically means that certain benefits are there for a particular purpose and can't be used for debts. You need to send a letter (someone else will give you a template) to Barclays saying that the money was given from social services for a particular purpose, and is therefore safeguarded and cannot be used for debts. They should refund it, but might try and argue. Also get in touch with your social worker or whoever deals with the money side and get them to write to Barclays to put pressure on from that side too.

You need to send a letter every month/week/however often you get your benefits saying the same thing - that it's benefit money for basic living costs. Do this for as long as it takes to open new accounts with a bank not associated with anyone you owe money to.

You're going to struggle to find a suitable account for your direct payments, because if your ss is like mine you have to have a chequebook with the account, and if you have a poor credit rating you might not be able to get one. You'll need to talk to your contact at assist, or the CIL, or whoever it is that's helping you organise it, to find a way around it. If you're oop north you could try Yorkshire Bank, they're pretty good with me.

You also need to complain about your branch, if I'm reading right that they told you Barclays and Barclaycard were separate so not to worry. But the priority right now is getting it all sorted so you get your money back.

This is the debt free wannabe board, which is best for this because we see the offsetting thing a lot and can help.

Longer term, have you contacted Barclaycard about making a payment plan, which would only be £1 a month since that's all you can afford? (Before anyone says anything, I know how harsh the direct payments financial assessment is, and there wont be anything left after priority payments). Do you have any other debts?

thechippy

Jane,

Take no notice of some of the less than useless comments you received and thanks to those that tried to post something useful...;)

As stated, banks will use the right to offset, so you need to do the following..

1. Open an account which is not related to barclays to pay your carer.
2. Offer barclays a token payment of £1 per month - even if they refuse, just send them that amount anyway.

You may not get a cheque book with a basic account, but you should be able to pay your carer by bank transfer online.

As stated, there is a chance that they should refund the money as it was for a specific purpose.

Any more probs, get back to us.......:D

Ames

thechippy, if it's like in Leeds she can't pay the carer by bank transfer, for some reason it has to be by cheque.

thechippy

Sorry mate, didn't know that.

I would assume that if the new account has internet banking (which basic accounts do) then she could pay by transfer.

Otherwise, it's a trip to the cashpoint, which would obviously be difficult if Jane is disabled.

If her credit rating is still reasonable (we have no info on this) she may still be able to get a normal current account.

I#m sure she'll be back to let us know.....

copperjar

Jane - first of all, just to put your mind at rest, don't worry about what the LA might or might not do about your bank taking the money. It sounds like you are receiving Direct Payments, there will be several ways you can get help to sort this out. Often people receiving DPs are in credit at the end of a year, or misuse the money. They don't end up prosecuted or reported to the police! These things take time to investigate and sort - I personally would be honest and up front about what has happened because you do need to pay your carer. I think (hope) the LA will be sympathetic and will be able to help you out with a plan to pay back the money. At the end of the day, you did as the LA advised and didn't know what would happen. You can suggest you needed more support with this.

The best thing would be to open a new bank account as suggested so all future money is safe. Also its worth talking to Barclays and explaining that the money is a Direct Payment from the local authority and should not have been taken. I'm sure someone from the LA will help by writing a letter explaining to them the situation.

gemini12

Jane do you have a support worker or a good social worker. If so, explain to them what has happened as they should be able to advocate for you and get this sorted as soon as possible.

I was sorry that you received some very unhelpful advice to start with but as has been said there are very sympathetic and knowledgeable people here.