clarification of genuine hardship cases

novelli

If we believe that we are a case that may be a genuine hardship case, what should we do??

How is genuine hardship[ to be defined??

I would say mine is (and im sure many of you would to) Im a single parent, recently seperated from my husband, loads of debts and a full time carer for a disabled child. Al of the charges they took from my account were benefit payments(WFTC) at the time my husban was working self employed but a;ll his wages went into his own business acct with a different bank.
I now also only have benefits paid into the account, and am totally reliant on them.
So what should those of us do who feel we fit this criteria??
Im 2 weeks away from the 8 week deadline for receiving an offer from HSBC. They have been good at replying to all email messages thru the online banking system, albeit with the standard replys that they will respond with an offer within 8 weeks. So should we email them stating that we are aware of the test case, but as ours is a case of genuine hardship, we expect them to continue with our claim to avoid further distress in an already stressful situation blah blah blah!!
Has anyone any idea how we might word this???? and is anyone going to try this??
thanks:money:

sleener

I am in a similar situation in reciept of benefits which were stolen from my account by the bank which has put my young family in crisis. Is there a different rule for Hardship cases. Also i cant see why we all cant just carry on with claims My claim has been aknowledged by Natwest the day before the OFT thing yesterday, surely we can carry on and sue them as they have paid out evry1 else why not the rest. Surely with Natwest as well they changed their terms and conditions to deal with the charges a while back and so surely that is an acceptance of guilt cant we play on that fact. If anything comes of this OFT like the 12 pounds charge surely we can carry on claiming full refund of illegally taken monies.
I plan to get my full refund with interest and I am willing to go as far as possible ECHR?

novelli

Im hoping that Martin will give us some guidence on this.

I would think the best thing to do would be to contact the bank and tell them our situation and that they are therefore duty bound to continue with our claim as soon as possible, but will hang on to see if martin can offer any other advice.

As for the ECHR, prob is that all has to start at the high courts. They have to give a decision on whether or not the case is a breach of human rights and if its viable for it to go to Strasburg. Beliewve me it is a mine field, i have been fighting the gov for the past 10 yrs on a human rights case to do with education and special needs kids. I have found that anything that goes to the high courts is full of pompas fools who have no thought for the ordinary man on the street!! As lay people we are not even allowed to talk in the court rooms!! They are not interested in how these things affect us, simply whether or not a ;law has been broken, and even then its not that simple. Geting to the ECHR is a lengthy, costly, stressful process, like i say we are ten yrs into our case and have still not got to Strasburg. The HR act is not worth the paper its written on!!!

anneevon

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<HR style="COLOR: #660000" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Hi,Could anyone give me any advice?
I have got as far as giving the halifax 14 days notice before going to court,and their time is now up(I was asking for £1690 but offering to take 1300 for quick settlement),and now not sure what to do.Have just seen a reply enquiring about hardship cases and also read Daily mail articles about only paying out when customers are dying.
Don't want to sound gloomy and miserable,as I'm not, but I have terminal cancer,and don't know that I will be around to see any test case,and as my illness has caused financial hardship to me ,my husband and children and this money would make a difference,would they possibly be sympathetic? I have mentioned this in my letters to them, but so far have only received the standard refusal.
Any suggestions folks?
Thanks
Anne:rolleyes:
I have posted this under a different thread-hope its ok to start a new one,but I would like to ring the Halifax tomorrow and could do with some advice;)

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novelli

I emailed my bank to let them know that as i am totally reliant on benefits, recently seperated and care full time for my disabled child that mine was a case of genuine hardship and so was therefore exempt from the ruling to put the case on hold.
heres the response i got!!!!

Thank you for your e-message dated 30 July 2007.

Please be advised that your claim will not be reviewed until we know the outcome of the test case. The Bank will write to you to confirm that your claim has been registered and the development on the progress of the case will be posted on our website.

Should you have any further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us via this e-messaging system or you may call Alternatively, you may wish to call into any local branch for our branch service.

I trust this clarifies matters.

Yours sincerely

pauljjones

If you contact the Financial ombudsmun service they will take forward your claim for bank charge repayment in cases of financial hardship. even tho the fsa have alowed banks off the hook until the test case is over.

kahluagirl

but there are claims stillgoing ahead.i would say its not the banks call to put claims on hold its the courts!!!but i would contact the fos to make sure they are aware of your circumstances(just in case).p.s in similar situation to yours and been told my court date is still on for 31st aug!!!!!!!!!!

hughie278

Hi.
On 22nd July i sent my letter off asking for my £544 back from Lloyds TSB. I thought it had all gone pear shaped with the test case, and gave up hope.

Now ive just read through the article on bank charge reclaiming, and i see this...
Q: I am currently having financial difficulties, is there any way to reclaim?
A: The waiver that allows banks to suspend claims does not apply to people who are having financial difficulties, also known as a hardship case. Banks will have to conduct a filtering process to ensure that cases of genuine hardship are still dealt with during the waiver period.
Although there is no firm definition of what genuine hardship is, it generally applies if you are not able to deal with your debts, for example you have mortgage arrears and lots of credit card debt that you cannot afford to pay back.
If your bank is not able to help you can also send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman who will decide if your case can be dealt with before the test case is resolved. For details on contacting the Ombudsman see the main Bank Charges reclaiming article.


I have missed payments on my IVA because of some of these charges. Should i tell the bank im in serious debt?

mandyminx

Hi,
I posted on a diffrent thread on this, we are really having financial difficulties at the moment and was really hoping to get our money back, my husband lost his job unexpectly and we are looking at losing our house and then there is the long list of bills that follow, we was upto waiting for the bank to reply to the letter of threating court. I really don't know what to do now hopefully we can still claim.
Mandy

kahluagirl

the social security administration act 1992 says they shouldnt take money out of your benefits(cant take cred for it Martins emergency announcement about what to do had it in it)go to the home page and you should find it.it also has advice about the hardship rules.iv now got an extra act to put in my claim.excellent work Martin:A :A :A now i CAN taste my money again!!!!!!!!!!!

silou

Hi there, could one of the site gurus possibly tell me where the info as quoted in post 8 was taken from, I know it was from a piece that Martin wrote but is the view just Martins own or is it actually stated somewhere on the FOS site etc. My reason for asking is that the sentence about mortgage arrears and credit card debt is exactly where I am at the moment. The bank charges I was looking to reclaim would have paid off almost all of this debt. I was at the point of either going to court or FOS and, until last weeks news, had pretty much decided on the FOS route. It would seem now that if I can persaude them that its a hardship case this may well still be the best route to go down. Would welcome any advice or opinion on how to persaude them that it is a genuine hardship case as I suspect many will try this route.
Thanks.