Discriminated against as pregnant by HSBC - is this allowed?

jonesMUFCforever

andyfromotley wrote: »

That may be the case but that isn't what she said happened. Pretty rough if thats the case, id complain.

But we have only heard one side of the story haven't we?

Southend1

The reason would be the forthcoming drop in income, not the pregnancy. Complaining would be a waste of time IMO.

dealer_wins

Go back tomorrow and tell him its a false alarm!

matttye

It will be the maternity leave / drop in income they have a problem with, which is clearly linked to your pregnancy. It will not be the pregnancy itself they care about but your ability to make repayments.

They're not discriminating.

Hazzinho

An extra £2k with reduced payments on reduced salary with an extra dependant on the way is the reason for rejection. This is without knowing the debt to salary ratio.

andyfromotley

errr........... the op hasn't mentioned a salary drop?

Plenty of people get full pay during maternity leave, and the op said they never even got as far as affordability.

On the account given i think it kinda sucks actually.

forgotmyname

If you ignore the maternity bit and just think of a customer that wants to lower their monthly payment AND increase the amount of debt its not hard to see why they got rejected.

andyfromotley

forgotmyname wrote: »

If you ignore the maternity bit and just think of a customer that wants to lower their monthly payment AND increase the amount of debt its not hard to see why they got rejected.

No its not hard to see that at all, but on the OP's account that isn't what happened. According to her as soon as she mentioned she was pregnant, game over.

Now i wasn't privy to the conversation so i take her account on face value. Like i say, if thats how it went down then it sucks.

PeacefulWaters

straighttalker wrote: »

Compensation for what??? Some people on here really do live on another planet. The bank can refuse to loan to anyone as it's their money they're risking.

They cannot refuse you on grounds of gender. If they have refused to even take an application because somebody is pregnant I'd suggest that is indefensible.

What would be the OP's loss that they would need compensating for?

Compensation isn't restricted to financial loss. Indeed, it's something that a stroppy solicitor could turn into a more awkward situation for the bank if they wished too.

Idiot.

Thanks for that. I assure you, I'm not an idiot.

andyfromotley wrote: »

errr........... the op hasn't mentioned a salary drop?

Plenty of people get full pay during maternity leave

I would be very surprised if you could find anybody who gets more than a few weeks at full pay.

and the op said they never even got as far as affordability.

Which is where, taken at face value, the bank has left itself open for a bit of a pasting if there's a desire to make something of it.

~Brock~

The bank is in a no win situation here. The FCA now regulates consumer credit and has introduced rules that are significantly onerous on lenders. This includes, within the heading of 'responsible lending' the requirement to take into account the potential for future financial changes that might be 'reasonably foreseeable'.

If, on a statistical basis, borrowers find it more difficult to pay after going on maternity leave then this may be sufficient for them to apply a rule in these circumstances if it is proven to increase the overall credit risk beyond an acceptable level.

The opposite scenario could be - and I bet it happens all the time - that a borrower on maternity leave finds that they cannot afford the payments anymore and starts complaining that they shouldn't have been lent the money in the first place because they informed the lender of their circumstances when they applied. FOS then get involved and find against the lender as they are judged not to have acted within the FCA's rules when the loan was underwritten, leading to the loan being written off & all sorts of compo for the borrower.

The above is not intended to be aimed specifically at the OP, I am talking generally....and I guess that is also how the bank is acting.