bipolar

bipolar_bev

do debt companies take into consideration if you have a mental halth problem? thanks

System

MSE made this guide

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/mental-health-guide?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=clicks&utm_campaign=resourcebar

Hope that might help (coming from someone with bipolar too-i think it has some good info in it)

snookey

Hi Bev Im bi polar too so welcome to the club,lol. Iv found that if your honest with companies most of them are helpfull. Id look at Martains guide for those with mental health issues.

ILW

Trouble is that as soon as someone gets treated better due to mental health issues, then every debtor will start claiming they also suffer.

Culex

ILW wrote: »

Trouble is that as soon as someone gets treated better due to mental health issues, then every debtor will start claiming they also suffer.

Will they also be able to submit a medical report or a statement from their doctor?

Hannah_10

Sadly, no. The DCA's are focussed on any route to a pay off they can get and they care about you as a human being. Not even at a basic-courtessy level. You are a bit more vulnerable when you're not well, so you need to be a little more protective of yourself. There are two things I think that would help.
1. Get someone to advocate for you. The CAB can be hit and miss, but if you do get a good debt advisor they can be awesome, so do give them a try. Christians Against Poverty also do face to face help in some places. Or Payplan and the CCCS can actually pretty much take over from you and manage your repayments for you in some cases. This article contains details of organisations who help with debt problems.
2. The other thing that would be a good idea is to really stick rigidly with the golden rule about not talking on the phone. DCA's really are pretty evil on the phone because they know you can't prove what they said. They don't put quite such big lies, demanding intrusive questions and nasty insults into thier letters. By letter it's easier to say "I have a diagnosis of Bi-Polar Disorder" than it is to say it to some sarky caller trying to wind you up on their 4th call to you in one morning. You might like to read this too: The Golden Rule and safe payments.

Hannah_10

Culex wrote: »

Will they also be able to submit a medical report or a statement from their doctor?

It's actually more intrusive for a person with a mental health diagnosis to have to do this than it would sound to someone that doesn't. Mental health conditions have a whole range of unfair stigmas.
For example it is the accepted public perception that people with less than ideal mental health are dangerous, when in fact (last time I looked) such people are 60% les likely to commit a crime and 300% more likely to be the victim of one.
Or for a different example, the public often attribute everything a person with a mental health problem does to thier illness, when in fact that person is far more likely to be reacting/dressing/talking in the same manner they always do when they are well than to have fundamentally changed personality.
Having to go into the Dr and say "can I have a note to say I have X" only proves you have X. No two people with a given diagnosis are alike enough to predict behaviour, ability or competance from that alone. And nor are people constant in thier levels of symptoms.

No, it's not fair to expect a debtor to have to prove they are ill. Nor to have to prove any illness for that matter. Think what the Daily Mail would say if we asked people to prove they had cancer. OMG the story would never die! It is already against OFT guidance for a DCA to demand such proof, because it is intrusive and unreasonable to expect.

It is also irrelevant, plenty of people with mental ill health function perfectly on a financial level. Or if they do fall can pick themselves up as well as anyone else.

What really should be happening, is the DCA's should just stop bringing psychological pressure to bear on ANYONE. People kill themselves every week over financial issues, most of them weren't mentally ill. The DCA's need to suck it up and play nicely, not place the onus on already vulnerable people to further drag down thier dignity in order to be treated with basic humanity.

Culex

Hannah_10 wrote: »

What really should be happening, is the DCA's should just stop bringing psychological pressure to bear on ANYONE. ... The DCA's need to suck it up and play nicely, not place the onus on already vulnerable people to further drag down thier dignity in order to be treated with basic humanity.

I agree with most - if not quite all - of your comments, but those two sentences are, by far, the most important.

It would be very simple to treat people fairly, but the culture or ethos of the debt collecting industry seems to be set against any amelioration.

Hannah_10

Indeed. Not only "set against" but actively exploitative of.