Debt collectors right to information about work

tankmc

Hi,

For over a year i have being paying my student loans over payment back per month, separate form the amount that comes out my salary. It is not on my credit report and is interest free. However every couple of moths i keep getting harassed by them to increase my payments. I keep saying no, but recently they have being putting on more and more pressure and have now insisted that i have to fill out a form they sent stating every bit of my finances from where i work, what i do/earn, how much i spend, how much my partner earns.... the list goes on.

What i want to know it how much right do they have to this information? I am not happy disclosing every detail of my personal life so do i have any legal position to deny the information they are requesting.

Thank you in advance for any of they help you can give.

DevCoder

As I understand it

You got overpaid
You are paying back X per month
The DCA wants Y per month
You say no

The DCA sends you an income/expenditure form to fill out so they can assess whether what they are asking is beyond what you can pay (as you are probably claiming).

Yes, you can refuse to fill that out, in my opinion you would be fool hardy to do so.

Afterall if you cannot afford the repayment increase they are asking then you shouldn't have any problems filling out such a form proving you can't.

If they take it to court then you'll have to fill out several of these, and they will be scrutinised much more then the usual DCA review.

ghostfinder

They have no right to this information.

you fill it in and they will argue over every single pound you spend that doesnt go to them

if you can pay more then do so - if not dont

tankmc

Thanks for your reply.

My worry is that they are asking for so much detail about my life i am not comfortable with it.

I don't want to put what my partner earns, its has nothing to do with him. Also don't want to put where I work as the last thing i want is them to contact me there.

I can understand they need to know my earnings but to ask for so much detail and be so bullish about it!

Once i fill out the form, say they disagree with me and ask for more, what happens then?

happy_bunny_2

as said already, they have no legal entitlement to it, but you may want to give them enough info to prove you are paying a fair amount.

Just fill out the bits that you are happy with. Leave of your partners info, nothing to do with them.

If they refuse your offer, they can take you to court, but if you have no assets, limited income, they they are wasting their time, especially if you already have offered what you can reasonably afford. A CCJ will trash your report for 6 years.

poppasmurf_bewdley

The debt collection company has no right to any information about you.

But on the other hand, you have no right to have the debt collection company give you any leeway when it comes to getting back what you owe.

ALIBOBSY

They have no rights to any of your partners info and I certainly wouldn't tell the where you work or personal stuff like that. When we had our issues a few years ago, when any companies asked me for this info i simply wrote back and said I had taken debt advice and worked out a tight budget to cover all creditors and split my spare income on a pro rata basis between the debtors I had and their offer was xx. Not one took me to court, but of course if you make an offer you have to keep paying.

Give what info you feel comfortable with and keep paying what you are, even if they went to court you could argue against the CCJ as you had made an agreement and stuck to it. You could ignore their form and fill in a simple budget of your own based on your net income and bills only.

Good luck
Ali x