New here - please help :-(

Frith

I certainly told MCS when I was off sick and also that I had lost my job. I probably didn't tell them exactly what was wrong with me. I told them I did not want phoning at 8pm when I was putting my sons to bed (they phoned several times) and I think I remember getting my mum to speak to them at one point... although that could have been Lloyds....

Frith

I did tell them several times when I was in a refuge. At that time, I had no money AT ALL, until I got paid! As far as I recall (can check later) they didn't let me off one payment.

Frith

P.P.S (Sorry about all the posts!)

I was reminded this afternoon as to why exactly I still have a car..... a tyre blew after I picked sons up from school so we walked back. The main road is a deathtrap (in the country so no footpath and barely a scrubby verge) so we went along the footpaths. It took and hour and a half and I had to carry smaller son 99% of the time!

Liz

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I was reminded this afternoon as to why exactly I still have a car..... a tyre blew after I picked sons up from school so we walked back. The main road is a deathtrap (in the country so no footpath and barely a scrubby verge) so we went along the footpaths. It took and hour and a half and I had to carry smaller son 99% of the time!

Liz

Hi pig of an afternoon for you too, by the sounds of it.

How will you get the tyre changed?

PPPPS, you can hit th edit button and add bits to the previous post - losts of the ones you read have had 5 or six alterations before I have finished.

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I certainly told MCS when I was off sick and also that I had lost my job. I probably didn't tell them exactly what was wrong with me. I told them I did not want phoning at 8pm when I was putting my sons to bed (they phoned several times)

I did tell them several times when I was in a refuge. At that time, I had no money AT ALL, until I got paid! As far as I recall (can check later) they didn't let me off one payment.

Who was paying you?

Ok, this alone breaks the following guidelines

OFT Guidelines 2.2.f and 2.2.g, 2.6.a and 2.8.g

I would also add that knowing that you were in a refuge and later were off sick for a long period meant that they should have treated you as a vunerable person.

Frith

I was still working at that point (Jan 2005). I carried on working until May 2006 then was off sick until I was sacked in August 2006. Thinking about it, they knew very well the family circumstances because they kept asking me to "get Mr X to pay some" and each time I said I have no contact with him because of his violence/breakdown of the marriage.

Dad and brother just changed the wheel for me! The other one had a nail in it. :-( Sons are so tired from a week at school followed by a 4 mile + hike that they are alternating between fighting and crying - bath and bed I think!

Liz

P.S Just to clarify, I didn't even get child benefits, tax credits or ANYTHING to live on when in the refuge, because the ex had skillfully put all the benefits into his name.... We were given £30 in cash and were in there a month. £30 had to feed us, clothe us (only had set of clothes we were wearing!) and buy soap, washing powder etc..... which was interesting.

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I was still working at that point (Jan 2005). I carried on working until May 2006 then was off sick until I was sacked in August 2006. Thinking about it, they knew very well the family circumstances because they kept asking me to "get Mr X to pay some" and each time I said I have no contact with him because of his violence/breakdown of the marriage.

ACEY, sorry to put you through this but what I am trying to do is build up a picture of how badly they have treated you, partly to get them to reduce the debt because of their haressment and partly to see if they will reduce it on "compassionate" grounds.

At the risk of speaking out of line, I think you had such a S%%t time with OH for so long that you do not really appreciate how badly some other people have treated you, as it is better than the way OH behaved.

really, really, you should have reduced payments to a nominal sum (£1) in January 2005 and then only paid a very reduced sum thereafter, as you were dealing with priority debts that had been left by OH. MCS's pressure to maintain unreasonable payments is in part responsible for your ill-health.

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I didn't even get child benefits, tax credits or ANYTHING to live on when in the refuge, because the ex had skillfully put all the benefits into his name.... We were given £30 in cash and were in there a month. £30 had to feed us, clothe us (only had set of clothes we were wearing!) and buy soap, washing powder etc..... which was interesting.

Our situation did not get quite that bad, but nearly. First the farm was repossessed, so we moved into temporary accomodation, which was repossessed at New Year whilst we were staying elsewhere. Dad wanted us to move there, but the landlord had already started eviction proceedings, with the court date in the following fortnight.

Financially, mum thought Dad was getting employment benefit. She did seasonal work to pay the storage costs. Dad was keeping half or more of the employment benefit so he could set up a company, despite being undischarged from bankruptcy. Huge rows about him working when on employment benefit and setting up a company when BK. And arguements with me and mum because she was not eating properly.

What actually happened is he stopped signing on, and initially recycled the money mum gave him to pay the storage company, to give her as housekeeping. It was only when we cleared her house that we found legal papers and letters that indicated the "we lived of our savings". what saving does someone BK have? The accounts containing his childrens birthday and christmas money, which mum thought were safe.

He got the people with whom he was setting up the company to do the initial paperwork in their names. Once the company was set up, he signed the forms to become a director, but somehow they never got posted. So when things went belly-up the poor sods who set it up got hammered, despite the fact that he had cards with MD all over them. I gather they had him in court for three days though and he was banned for a long time.

Frith

Just checking the MCS stuff.

Apparently, on 17th Jan 2005 I phoned them up to leave them a new address (my mother's) and to ask them to issue me a new payment card (we had been paying at the Post Office). This note mentions NOTHING of my circumstances!

1st Feb. they received a letter from CAB who were working for me at that time. Unfortunately, CAB were so slow and disorganised (sorry, DebtDoctor) that my bank charges were piling up and I was faster sorting things out myself. So the letter from CAB surely must have outlined my circumstances once again.

10th Feb I wrote and said I had moved back home.

On 26th April, guess what - they called wanting to INCREASE my payments! I was paying £100 per month.

23rd June 2005 I asked payments to be reduced from £100 to £75.

29th May 2006 they asked for payments to be increased again. (They phoned)

1st August - they sent letter asking for increase.

21st August 2006 (I was mad at this point) - phone call from me to say can't manage £75 per month as no job.

4th Sep 2006 - they phoned and hassled.

27th Sep - they sent letter asking for full repayment (how helpful! to someone who was unable to leave the sofa)

30th October - payments down to £20 per month

3rd Jan 2007- letter re increase

15th Jan - phone call re increase

5th March - letter re increase

18th March - phone call re increase

I've paid nothing from April - September and have just sent the £1 per month details and have had no reply.......

Liz

Frith

The standing order paperwork came from MCS today, they have accepted my offer of £1 per month.

Liz