Elderly relative and Uclaim4me. Help!

sarahb84

I was hoping someone could give me some advice.

I have an elderly relative (76) who has never been great with financial matters. And I believe that she has been railroaded by Uclaim4me. It has finally come out today as she was very upset by them but hasn't wanted to tell anyone.

I have found out today that U claim for Me had been calling/writing/harassing her since 2014. She filled out the forms last summer to get rid of them (I didn't know). She didn't even know what PPI was till I told her today never mind knowing that she had once had it. They have been constantly calling her and want her birth certificate, a bill and all her bank detail (I have always told her to give out no details at all). In the last week she has received at least 2 calls a day and wont answer the phone to them as she is scared/nervous of them and doesn't understand.

She cant understand why they have got in contact with Barclays as she only put on an old account that she has with Halifax to get them off her back.

She received a letter from Barclays 03/01/17 saying that they had upheld the decision on a credit card for £696.79.

She received another letter from Barclays saying that they had received a letter from Uclaim4me requesting more information on about the complaint above on the 19/01/17.

On the 30/01/17 She also received anther letter from Barclays on the 30/01/17 saying that
"We have received a letter from Uclaim4me about the sale of your payment protection Insurance (PPI) Policy.
We have not received a valid signed letter of authority from Uclaim4me so we have been unable to confirm that they are authorised to act on your behalf. We have advised Uclaim4me that we will contact you directly about your complaint. If you want Uclaim4me to act on your behalf please contact them and ask them to send us a letter of authority."
It then gives the breakdown of £696.79 that went into her account on the 06/01/17

She received yet another letter from Barclays 03/02/17 saying that 2 loans that she had (was actually taken out by another family member in her name - Dont get me started on this one) had PPI and that the decision was upheld and they wanted to put her back in position she would have been in had she not taken the PPI. They have calculated that after tax she will receive £4665.97 and they will pay it straight into her bank account.

Loan 1 - £774.71
Loan 2 - £3891.26

Total - £4665.97

She then received an OFFER LETTER/INVOICE 07/02/17 saying that the offer value is £5240.26 and they want 33% + 20% vat £2075.14 and admin fee of £20. So total of £2095.14

I feel she has been taken advantage of for being an old lady on her own. If I had know I would have stopped this and even claimed for her.


Is there anything I can do?

Nasqueron

You can complain to the Legal Ombudsman about the behaviour of the firm

As you can see as soon as a CMC has their foot in the door they abuse it, they will send complaint letters to everyone and hope to get lucky.

Sadly as it's too late now you will need to pay them the cut of the refund though quite why they want an admin fee on top is crazy, I'd complain to them about that as well.

A CMC will demand their cut on the original refund, ignoring any loss due to tax (though your relative should be able to get the tax back from HMRC if she is not working and her income is under the tax threshold).

Remember you need to complain to the firm in writing first and they have 8 weeks to respond

http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/cmc/

[Deleted User]

sarahb84 wrote: »

Is there anything I can do?

Not if your relative has filled in the claim company forms and signed a letter of authority. Her age is irrelevant and she'll have to pay the fee she agreed to.

You can make a separate complaint ( to the Legal Ombudsman) about alleged "harassment", but you'll need to provide solid evidence of this if you hope to get anywhere.

Nasqueron

Ah OP has edited the post now, the admin fee was over £2000 in the first iteration, now it's £20 which, while annoying, is at least palatable (it would have been over £4500 in fees for a refund of about £4600!)

I'd still complain about them but also get onto HMRC about getting the taxed bit back