Student mental health disability and rent? Need legal advice

insaneinthebrain

I'm currently a 23 year old 3rd year student. In the past I have several mental health diagnosis'. In 2006 I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. In 2009 a further diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder Type 2 was made by a psychologist treating me. I have been on a variety of medications for the last 7 years and had various patches of psychosis and suicidal thoughts. From October 2011 to August 2012 I was extremely ill (Severe depression and anxiety, psychosis, hallucinations, etc). Whilst I was very ill last year, I saw a psychiatrist, mental health worker and the GP locally for treatment, as well as seeing a mental health adviser at the university. I have full medical documentation of all of this. This was all handed to my department at university, as well as to the university registry and housing office.

Since this inability to work arose from my illness - I was unable to cover my insufficient student support for this year by working - nor was I able to work over the summer. Due to illness I ended up being advised by the university to suspend my studies in march. I received no student support during this period and lived entirely out of my overdraft. The conclusion was that I owed just under 2 terms rent at the end of this period (£1900) because I had to stay locally to receive treatment. (And so severely ill I couldn't leave the house for several months!)

I sent full medical documentation and support letters to university housing office who managed the house I was living in and I paid rent directly to. I specifically outlined the severity of my illness and inability to work during this period. Full medical documentation was sent to them several times during this period. Along with support letters from the mental health adviser at the university, and evidence of my financial situation. This evidence included: Medical diagnosis letters, letter from a psychiatrist detailing that I was undergoing treatment, letter from the local complex care team detailing that I was receiving support from a mental health worker, and doctors certification that I was unable to work for a period of months and unable to support myself.

Despite all this, they added over £200 in late payment charges to my debt. A couple of months later, a CCI claim for sent to my parents house for £2500. 1900 + 200 + 400 excess to cover the unknown costs of hiring the CCI company to collect the debt. I had to take a loan to pay this money within several days. This is still money that I owe. I was told that that CCI company charged £200, but in the last 4 months I have received none of the difference between the £2500 paid and the deducted amount.

I was far too ill to deal with this objectively and think about my rights at the time. But now looking back I am feeling as though this might be extremely unfair treatment. The severity of my illness, nor the evidence I provided stating my inability to work were never taken into account. My disability was directly causal in my financial situation, lack of student support and necessity of staying in the local area, as well as the university being directly causal in their suggestion that I suspended studies. None of this was ever taken into account in regards to fees or the CCI claim.

I am familiar with the spirit of the law but unfamiliar with specifics. After a small amount of browsing I found:

"Section 15 of the EqA prohibits the unfavourable treatment of a disabled person where the reason for the unfavourable treatment is not the disability itself, but something that arises in consequence of the disability."

Since my financial situation was directly out of my control insofar as arising as a consequence of disability - the way in which university housing seems unfair. They both ignored my illness and inability to financially support myself through the addition of fines and this CCI claim in £600 in excess of the base amount. They also directly threatened my degree and access to education if I had not been able to get help financially. As well as being hugely stressful in my very mentally/physically unstable state of mind.



If you have kindly taken the time to read this, I wonder if you could advise me on my legal standing here. My priority is to address the complete dismissal of my illness and to recover the excess fees that I had to pay.

Does this class as discrimination in some form? What exactly am I entitled to?

Or what might be the best line of argument and legal reference to deal with this situation?

welshmoneylover

insaneinthebrain wrote: »

I'm currently a 23 year old 3rd year student. In the past I have several mental health diagnosis'. In 2006 I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. In 2009 a further diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder Type 2 was made by a psychologist treating me. I have been on a variety of medications for the last 7 years and had various patches of psychosis and suicidal thoughts. From October 2011 to August 2012 I was extremely ill (Severe depression and anxiety, psychosis, hallucinations, etc). Whilst I was very ill last year, I saw a psychiatrist, mental health worker and the GP locally for treatment, as well as seeing a mental health adviser at the university. I have full medical documentation of all of this. This was all handed to my department at university, as well as to the university registry and housing office.

Since this inability to work arose from my illness - I was unable to cover my insufficient student support for this year by working - nor was I able to work over the summer. Due to illness I ended up being advised by the university to suspend my studies in march. I received no student support during this period and lived entirely out of my overdraft. The conclusion was that I owed just under 2 terms rent at the end of this period (£1900) because I had to stay locally to receive treatment. (And so severely ill I couldn't leave the house for several months!)

I sent full medical documentation and support letters to university housing office who managed the house I was living in and I paid rent directly to. I specifically outlined the severity of my illness and inability to work during this period. Full medical documentation was sent to them several times during this period. Along with support letters from the mental health adviser at the university, and evidence of my financial situation. This evidence included: Medical diagnosis letters, letter from a psychiatrist detailing that I was undergoing treatment, letter from the local complex care team detailing that I was receiving support from a mental health worker, and doctors certification that I was unable to work for a period of months and unable to support myself.

Despite all this, they added over £200 in late payment charges to my debt. A couple of months later, a CCI claim for sent to my parents house for £2500. 1900 + 200 + 400 excess to cover the unknown costs of hiring the CCI company to collect the debt. I had to take a loan to pay this money within several days. This is still money that I owe. I was told that that CCI company charged £200, but in the last 4 months I have received none of the difference between the £2500 paid and the deducted amount.

I was far too ill to deal with this objectively and think about my rights at the time. But now looking back I am feeling as though this might be extremely unfair treatment. The severity of my illness, nor the evidence I provided stating my inability to work were never taken into account. My disability was directly causal in my financial situation, lack of student support and necessity of staying in the local area, as well as the university being directly causal in their suggestion that I suspended studies. None of this was ever taken into account in regards to fees or the CCI claim.

I am familiar with the spirit of the law but unfamiliar with specifics. After a small amount of browsing I found:

"Section 15 of the EqA prohibits the unfavourable treatment of a disabled person where the reason for the unfavourable treatment is not the disability itself, but something that arises in consequence of the disability."

Since my financial situation was directly out of my control insofar as arising as a consequence of disability - the way in which university housing seems unfair. They both ignored my illness and inability to financially support myself through the addition of fines and this CCI claim in £600 in excess of the base amount. They also directly threatened my degree and access to education if I had not been able to get help financially. As well as being hugely stressful in my very mentally/physically unstable state of mind.



If you have kindly taken the time to read this, I wonder if you could advise me on my legal standing here. My priority is to address the complete dismissal of my illness and to recover the excess fees that I had to pay.

Does this class as discrimination in some form? What exactly am I entitled to?

Or what might be the best line of argument and legal reference to deal with this situation?

Despite the fact you were ill, you are still liable to pay rent.

Dogger69

welshmoneylover is correct, your liability to pay rent is not affected by your illness. Did you not ask anyone for help to claim benefits?

The legislation you refer to does not cover your situation. Discrimination would only occur (in this situation) if you were treated less favourably than a non disabled comparator. I would assume a non disabled tenant would have been treated in the same way.

insaneinthebrain

welshmoneylover wrote: »

Despite the fact you were I'll, you are still liable to pay rent.

I am not disputing that I should pay the rent. I agree that I should be treated like any other person. I am disputing 1) Late payment fines I accumulated were directly as a result to my illness. 2) The £200 excess that has never been recovered. 3) The universities handling of the situation which did not take medical evidence into account - they could have easily chosen to suspend the rent payment as they have in other cases. 4) University rules state that they should act in the interests of disabled students.

The rent is fair. I am like any other person. The excess amount and the handling of the situation seems distinctly unfair?

Dogger69

Do you have evidence that other people had payments suspended, and in what circumstances? I would be very surprised if they suspended the payments for such a long time.

xsunnysuex

My daughter had similar health problems as you. She had really good help from DSA (Disabled students allowance). They really helped her.
I doubt they can help with rent etc. But they could help with student costs that might free up money that can be paid for rent.
https://www.gov.uk/disabled-students-allowances-dsas/overview