Please help! Lowell (Eon/TalkTalk) // HB overpayment // Suicidal

caynick

Good Afternoon everybody, apologies upfront for the essay but I am really in the !!!! and would love some help/advice.

I am in a pickle and fighting suicidal thoughts (I have BPD so this is normal but this latest chapter is sending me over the top). I am a single dad on minimum wage and really in despair.

Since being awarded a council property and my name going on the electoral roll I have received the following:

1) Letters, texts and calls from Lowell Financial, for a disputed Electric bill with Eon in 2014: £388.32 - I was certain I had paid my monthly bills and believed it was a !!!! up on their side re: meter readings on entry and exit of the property. At the time I had to ask 8 times for a breakdown of my bills and payment in their original form, all they sent me was a cut and pasted email. No bills. heard nothing til very recently via Lowell. I have blocked numbers and ignored letters.

2) Letters, texts and calls from Lowell Financial for a disputed bill from Talk Talk in Nov 2015. At the time my contract had expired and I gave 1 month notice on the recorded call and moved out. Talk Talk continued to send bills, I complained and they only called me when I was at work, when i had asked them to call at specific times. They then said the case was closed and passed on as they couldn't contact me. Lowell have begun contact. I have ignored all so far and blocked numbers. I have today left a message for the original Talk Talk complaint handler as I do not wish to engage with Lowell.

3) Overpaid Housing Benefit: £1248.42. As I did some freelance work for a few weeks in several months of not working they are chasing me for the full amount including when I was not working. They want to do an attachment of earnings.

4) My credit score has just plummeted - apparently I have a CCJ from my old address via Parking Eye for parking at Nandos leicester, £197. I spoke to the court they are sending me a form to dispute, plus a court date.

5) I have never had an overdraft in my 27 years of working and in 4 months I have racked up a £1300 one, and now gone over it = already 2 x £8 charges for unpaid DD's.

6) Thanks to kind friends bailing me out I am now £2000 in debt to them.

I cannot carry on in my job, I love it (Support Worker) but have to do 60-70 hours just to survive, as you can see above I am not coping.

Please can you advise me on how to handle them? I am considering talking to Stepchange but wanted to try you guys first.

Thank you and have a lovely day!

Willing2Learn

Just wanted to say that if the pressure is too much, and the suicidal ideation is severe, then you should call for an ambulance so that your mental health can be assessed by a duty social worker or psychiatric nurse/doctor. If you are currently on a CPA and under the care of a Community Psychiatric Team, then you could contact them on the phone to let them know how you are feeling about things.

Please contact Stepchange on the phone. They can mediate for you with Lowell and any other creditors. It can really take the pressure off you, having a professional and free debt counselling service on your side.

sourcrates

Hi,

Everything is solvable, try not to worry.

I will provide a step by step, more comprehensive reply tonight for you.

sourcrates

Hi,

You are correct, talking to stepchange is an excellent idea, it will depend on your circumstances what options they recommend for you, as the debts are not massive, I would probably say a debt management plan would be the way forward.

Ignoring Lowell is not a good idea, if the debt is disputed, you should query it with them, same goes for the talk talk debt, ignoring it will result in another CCJ, possibility two if you ignore both.

Send the provit letter to them, they must supply evidence of liability when asked to do so, if you do not agree you owe the money, tell them so.

As for the CCJ you already have, it’s too late now to dispute it, all you can do is apply to set aside the judgement, but to do this you must have a defence with a real prospect of success, and the application costs £255.00, although remission is available for low earners.

The form they will be sending you will be an N244 setaside form, not a form to dispute the ticket, now they have a judgement in their favour, that time has passed.

LOVEHB

Hello!!

Firstly, Stepchange helped me massively to sort my finances out it honestly felt like a weight off my shoulders once i knew it was all in hand so i would recommend calling them they are excellent and non judgemental too!

Secondly, i commend you for being so brave and talking about your mental health and suicidal thoughts, thats a good starting point for you to move forward - please book in a GP appointment and go over everything thats been happening recently.

I do hope that getting this all off your chest and coming up with a plan will make you feel a little less stressed, trust me you will feel 100 times better soon enough!! Keep us updated x

TalkTalk

Hi Caynick

I'm so sorry that you're having these issues. We can certainly try and help to arrange for somebody from TalkTalk to contact you.

If you have access to twitter could you please drop us a tweet @TalkTalk we can take some details. Alternatively if you can Private message us on here we'll be able to take some info from you and arrange for one of the team to contact you.

Vicky - TalkTalk Social Team.

caynick

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Just wanted to say that if the pressure is too much, and the suicidal ideation is severe, then you should call for an ambulance so that your mental health can be assessed by a duty social worker or psychiatric nurse/doctor. If you are currently on a CPA and under the care of a Community Psychiatric Team, then you could contact them on the phone to let them know how you are feeling about things.

Please contact Stepchange on the phone. They can mediate for you with Lowell and any other creditors. It can really take the pressure off you, having a professional and free debt counselling service on your side.

Sorry for the delay in response but thank you for you kindness and advice, getting it all sorted.

caynick

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

You are correct, talking to stepchange is an excellent idea, it will depend on your circumstances what options they recommend for you, as the debts are not massive, I would probably say a debt management plan would be the way forward.

Ignoring Lowell is not a good idea, if the debt is disputed, you should query it with them, same goes for the talk talk debt, ignoring it will result in another CCJ, possibility two if you ignore both.

Send the provit letter to them, they must supply evidence of liability when asked to do so, if you do not agree you owe the money, tell them so.

As for the CCJ you already have, it’s too late now to dispute it, all you can do is apply to set aside the judgement, but to do this you must have a defence with a real prospect of success, and the application costs £255.00, although remission is available for low earners.

The form they will be sending you will be an N244 setaside form, not a form to dispute the ticket, now they have a judgement in their favour, that time has passed.

Thank you so much, sorry for the delay in replying, I will sort the Provit form asap and sort the court form. Really appreciate you.

caynick

LOVEHB wrote: »

Hello!!

Firstly, Stepchange helped me massively to sort my finances out it honestly felt like a weight off my shoulders once i knew it was all in hand so i would recommend calling them they are excellent and non judgemental too!

Secondly, i commend you for being so brave and talking about your mental health and suicidal thoughts, thats a good starting point for you to move forward - please book in a GP appointment and go over everything thats been happening recently.

I do hope that getting this all off your chest and coming up with a plan will make you feel a little less stressed, trust me you will feel 100 times better soon enough!! Keep us updated x

Thank you so much! I am currently sorting with the Provit letters, as you can see Talk Talk have reached out below, and I will be talking to Stepchange later. Thank you xx

caynick

TalkTalk wrote: »

Hi Caynick

I'm so sorry that you're having these issues. We can certainly try and help to arrange for somebody from TalkTalk to contact you.

If you have access to twitter could you please drop us a tweet @TalkTalk we can take some details. Alternatively if you can Private message us on here we'll be able to take some info from you and arrange for one of the team to contact you.

Vicky - TalkTalk Social Team.

Hi Vicky, I will PM you now.

Willing2Learn

caynick wrote: »

Thank you so much! I am currently sorting with the Provit letters, as you can see Talk Talk have reached out below, and I will be talking to Stepchange later. Thank you xx

You know, this is an excellent forum. It can be a good place for working through what may seem like irreconcilable difficulties. Why not start a DFW diary on the diaries sub-board so we can all keep track of your progress.