clarification of genuine hardship cases

loobyloop

i know what you mean, i have tried since the day the waiver was put in place to get my charges back through hardship and just keep hitting a brick wall.Lloyds have admitted i am a hardship case but refuse to give them back,they say i will have to wait to find out the result of the test case which going by what ive heard could run to over a year.I think we all agree the fos and fsa have pretty much stitched us up but what i would like to know has anyone got any ideas on what the next step could be for people claming hardship as i have ran out of ideas and energy and finding it hard to keep on with the fight.

techspec

They are not paying out, she is correct. We were mislead by the FSA/OFT, NOT MARTIN, into believing that claims would proceed as normal for hardship cases. I read the press releases at the time.

I beleive that we were mislead, to make us and the press beleive that nobody in need would be affected. My view, NOT MARTINS.

But the test case is now upon us, so we may aswell just all sit back for the ride, as we cannot realistically expect much to happen until after the initial case.

Bridgett_2

Hi
I am trying to reclaim from Lloyds TSB!
My hubby was put on Incapacity a few years ago after working all his life. We are trying to reclaim approx £700 from Lloyds, and I have followed the procedures suggested, stating we are having financial difficulties, are behind with our mortgage etc. and noted the thread about banks not supposed to take money off your benefits! Well Lloyds have been doing this, but when I wrote to them explaining this, they just wrote back stating we were on hold like everyone else until after the court case.
Can anyone advise us what to do now.
any help would be great.
Thanks
Bridgett

loobyloop

i would like to know what people with hardship cases are suppose to do nobody seems to mention this subject anymore.There doesnt seem to be any advise on this anywhere ive tried ombudsman for the second time and have heard nothing from them for 10 weeks.The banks and ombudsman seem to have pushed this to oneside and kept quiet about it hoping you go away until after the test case.

angiechesh

hi everyone.
I just thought I'd explain my situation reguarding the hardship case senario.
I wrote to claim against Lloyds back in march 07 and despite having a letter from my local branch to say they were in receipt of the claim, the main det that were dealing with the claims said they didn't have anything on file.

I contacted the FOS about this and explained that it was past the 8 week timescale that is allowed to satisfy claims.
They were going to pursue my case but then the OFT case came in with everything being frozen.

Whilst I was waiting to have my initial charge claim looked into the bank were still applying the charges to my account which resulted in me have £1400.00 of mortgage arreas and letters from the bailiffs about my council tax payments. Bailiffs are not easy to get hold of to talk to and the amount kept going up.

I wrote to the FOS and sent copies of the letters from my mortgage showing I was possibly going to have my house repossessed and the letters from the bailiffs.
They agreed I would count as a hardship case and would carry on with my case. I had a letter from them saying they were speaking with my bank and they would be looking for information from them to help with the case and if the bank contacted mw I was to help as much as possible.

I rang the FOS just before christmas because I hadn't heard from either them or the bank and I was told that I should have a decsion just after christmas.
As yet still not heard a thing.

In the meantime I have had to get a loan with high interest to pay off my arreas and the council tax just so I could keep my home.

sorry this has been a long entry but just wanted to explain the whole situation. I'm still hoping that I'll get the charges back but the test cases may have gone through by that time

Apathyawakened

Unfortunately it seems that the definition of hardship is homeless as no-one is listening when we say we wish to apply for the case to be heard under grounds of hardship. The reality is no-one wants to put their head above the parapet and be counted or be seen to be making a decision that might be overruled by the test case.
I explained to my judge that should he make the decision to make the bank pay, and they did, and that was later overturned, then the problem would be mine to find the funds to repay the bank at that time. However in the meantime the bank would not be benefitting from the interest on funds it has already taken illegally and this might be the right incentive for them to get the test case resolved quickly. If enough judges stood up and were counted there would be something that the banks would take notice of. And if he made this decision I was prepared to take the risk that I would have to face a repayment problem should the ruling be overturned.
His response was as expected - a little rant at the bank but do nothing, and only symathise with my problem but award me nothing. The fact I have not paid the mortgage for 6 months and repossession is imminent because the bank have taken over £7K of my money was of no concern to the judge. He almost said a decision based on hardship was not within his jurisdiction, an astounding position to take.
That said, what can you do now. Only harass the FOS daily with calls to get action and write a letter each week to record your dissatisfaction with their lack of response. It seems from all these forums the only thing that is working now is pressure by constant nagging at the authorities to act. It hasnt worked for me but it might for you.
Wish you luck and keep fighting.:beer:

Bridgett_2

Can anyone help with hardship cases. I have been told by bank that I am a ha\rdship case but still will have to wait, I thought they weren';t allowed to take money off benefits topay for chargesd etc.
thanks

VEE_2

Hi,

I am so confused and wonder if anyone could possibly help me. I have an ongoing case about bank charges. It has been with Financial Ombudsman for over a year but was stopped and then had to be reconsidered because of my financial hardship. I think I totally misunderstood the waiver that came in to say people with financial hardship should still have their cases dealt with and at least considered.

Essentially FOS have frozen it to all intents and purposes, despite me meeting criteria for hardship. They say that lots of people misunderstood waiver and it was open to interpretation and that it didn't mean that cases would necessarily be considered just checked to make sure the banks weren't contributing to any further hardship now and that essentially those in hardship will have to wait for the outcome of the test case etc. If that correct? It just doesn't seem in the spirit of what I thought the waiver was about?

hutchybabe

i had exactly rhe same hun x it seems the waiver aws only put in place 2 benefit the big guys x fingers crossed x but my personal opinion is 2 start preparin ourselves for the worst

VEE_2

I am scared you might be right. I think I might have been naive about what the waiver meant. It seems it doesn't actually mean anything, but surely that can't be right? What happened with yourself, did they just freeze everything?

Thanks very much.