Cutting off your nose to spite your face

CloudCuckooLand

Does the bankruptee not just add the costs of printing to their debt (last little gap on credit card/debit card/overdraft) and get it written off..?

= Bank loses, not the Govt/Taxpayer...good news?

The_White_Horse

lemonjelly wrote: »

I came across this ridiculous scenario yesterday:

As many of you know, I'm an advice worker. That will involve me, and/or colleagues advising on bankruptcy, amongst many other things.

Now, in order to apply to the court for bankruptcy, you have to apply on the prescribed forms. Produced by the Insolvency Service. They are 44 pages long.

You require 3 copies of these.

The guidance notes for completing the bankruptcy forms are approx 40 pages long.

Now, historically, & in line with the principles of access to justice, generally people have obtained these forms from the local County Court.

Over the past couple of weeks, colleagues & I have noticed a number of people contacting us for the forms. Many have said that they were told to by the County Court.

Someone I know rang the County Court to establish what is going on. They were advised that in order to save costs, the Insolvency Service has decided not to print bankruptcy forms any more. You want em, get em off their website & print em off.

This is, in my opinion, fu cking madness, and a real barrier to bankruptcy.

Where do you get these forms printed? Many people I see are not pc literate, & the vast majority do not have a pc at home.

So we're left with the library. Now, aside from the fact that libraries tend to charge 10p per sheet (so we are talking almost £20 for the forms & guidance alone), we will also be seeinf libraries closing due to funding cuts.

This is ridiculous! A barrier to bankruptcy (imo) & if I were exceedingly cynical I'd be arguing that it is a veiled attempt by the government to reduce the number of people applying for bankruptcy.

the court service are correct. why should my tax go towards printing off forms for irresponsible people? let them pay for it - or better still, if i do have to pay for something out of my tax, let it be debtor's prison

there should be two sets of people, those who incurred manageable debt - then lost their jobs through no fault of their own - who deserve some help - although there are measures they can take to help themselves and this should be taken into account when assessing the help they receive.

and idiots who racked up debts they knew they could never service at the time they took them out. they deserve NO HELP and should be imprisoned as the thieves they are.

Graham_Devon

lemonjelly wrote: »

I work in the education sector Graham. We're being told to cut costs.;)

Yes, we are too, but so are all departments.

I think this is the reason the end user is required to print off stuff. We print most forms now, rather than being sent them, even some patient leaflets were told to print.

It's become worse, as hospitals will be sending letters soon, which we also have to print. Cuts the hospitals costs, but puts ours up.

Think it's becoming standard. Even the inland revenue have gone down that route in some cases.

Think a lot of departments are doing it to cut their costs, but ultimately it then costs another department!!

The_White_Horse

they just do it all online and by email. if people don't have it, then tough.

FTBFun

The_White_Horse wrote: »

the court service are correct. why should my tax go towards printing off forms for irresponsible people? let them pay for it - or better still, if i do have to pay for something out of my tax, let it be debtor's prison

there should be two sets of people, those who incurred manageable debt - then lost their jobs through no fault of their own - who deserve some help - although there are measures they can take to help themselves and this should be taken into account when assessing the help they receive.

and idiots who racked up debts they knew they could never service at the time they took them out. they deserve NO HELP and should be imprisoned as the thieves they are.

You are aware that people can suffer bankruptcy through no fault of their own?

I suspect not.

nicko33

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Think a lot of departments are doing it to cut their costs, but ultimately it then costs another department!!

This sort of buck-passing is waste in itself

lostinrates

lemonjelly wrote: »

Where I work, we don't have a solicitor tomterm8.

This is not for a charitable sector then? Or something that has some small scale advertising? Notice boards/newspapers? If it is try getting some pro bono help from a local law firm for things like letters. If its not you might need to go for a bigger firm who don't benefit from local advertising.

Generali

abaxas wrote: »

Why not invest the money saved in stocks and rotten tomatoes.

I believe that rotten tomatoes being thrown at people in the stocks is something of a myth.

As the stocks were often for crimes against the community as a whole (eg a shop owner systematically ripping off customers or military desertion) the community weren't best pleased with the offender. A bucket of water or p!ss on a cold night would be more likely I think.

abaxas

FTBFun wrote: »

You are aware that people can suffer bankruptcy through no fault of their own?

I suspect not.

So it wasn't their fault for borrowing the money in the first place?

Unless they are now sectioned and have proven mental health problems at the inception of the loan. It's their fault.

Generali

abaxas wrote: »

So it wasn't their fault for borrowing the money in the first place?

Unless they are now sectioned and have proven mental health problems at the inception of the loan. It's their fault.

That's unfair. There are lots of business bankruptcies where business expansion runs ahead of cash flow or a creditor goes bust and takes suppliers down with it.