Really need some advice please

CLAPTON

If your mother dies then the debts would need to be settled from her estate. I am assuming the debts are in her name and not jointly with your father.

What is her general situation, does she own property (with your father ?)
Does she have any life insurance policies?

If there is insufficient money in her estate then the debts die with her.

As far as the present is concerned, how much are the minimum monthly repayments and how much is her income.

vultura

bridget81 wrote: »

i know this is not going to help with the loans or store cards but its just a thought.
does your mum get any other benefits or does she just get her pension?
with her having a stroke she may be entitiled to other benefits, age concern in certain areas do benefit checks along with local welfare rights offices.
i know it doesnt resolve the debts but she could be entitled to more than just her pension which she can use to pay towards the debt.

just a suggestion.
Hope all of you are as well as can be given the circumstances and i agree with previous poster to have a relaxing bath and take some time out for yourself as you dot want to burn yourself out.

Sorry, should have mentioned that she does indeed get benefits already, as she suffers with osteoporosis and has difficulty walking. Not sure of exact list, but does include Disability Living Allowance (with Mobility) and allegedly carers allowance. Not sure if I can get information from anywhere that will confirm exactly what she is receiving.

vultura

CLAPTON wrote: »

If your mother dies then the debts would need to be settled from her estate. I am assuming the debts are in her name and not jointly with your father.

What is her general situation, does she own property (with your father ?)
Does she have any life insurance policies?

If there is insufficient money in her estate then the debts die with her.

As far as the present is concerned, how much are the minimum monthly repayments and how much is her income.

AFAIK the cards are in her name only.

She owns no property, the house (which is ex-council) is in my fathers name and mine.

I think she may have life policies, though I doubt I could locate the paperwork easily.

Will post up the other information later, if I can find it all.

vultura

Ok managed to find some more of her paperwork.

Income:
Basic Pension - £209.20
DLA Care Component - £258.00
DLA Mobility Component - £180.00
(All based on weekly amount x 4)
NHS Pension - £290.00

Total - £937.20


Outgoing:
Phoenix Life - £8.00
AXA Sun Life - £42.00
Powergen - £61.00
Mobile Phone - £15.00 (average)
HSA - £27.96
Barclaycard Loan - £125.78
St Michael Fin Services - £45.00
Council Tax - £67.49

Lloyds TSB Classic Reserve c/c - £112.00 (1.632% Monthly Interest)
M&S Budgetcard - £30.00 (1.80% Monthly Interest)
M&S Personl Reserve - £130.00 (1.87% Monthly Interest)
Bank of Scotland Mastercard - £250.00 (15.94% APR)
Barclaycard Visa - £314.00 (24.90% APR)
Lloyds TSB Trustcard - £11.00 (1.873% Monthly Interest)

Total - £1239.23

calleyw

fletch3163 wrote: »

Get your Mum to sign a letter giving you permission to talk to each company on her behalf. It's not as strong as a POA but most probably will help. This way you'll be able to write to each company and at least get a handle on the size of the problem.

Sorry to say that in most cases a letter will not work. My husband had a stroke at the age of 44 this time last year.

I had to deal with his bank and they told me on the phone firstly I needed a POA, then a signed letter would be ok. Wrong neither I had to be added to his bank account in the end.

If you mother is going to be in hospital for longer than 4 weeks she will lose her DLA and her Attendance Allowance not carers allowances as you don't get that once you are over 65.

I do wish her speedy recovery. I am sorry to say your father does need to know about this. As it is him that they will try and heavy arm in to paying off a debt that does not belong to him. Also her estate will cover any joint savings etc they have.

Yours

Calley

vultura

Update: Have now informed my Father of the debts, which as I thought is now worrying him.

Have spoken to DWP, told them of hospitalisation and so its effect on DLA benefit.

Intend to visit local CAB tomorrow, speak with advisor and hopefully be referred to debt advisor for further help.

vultura

Yes, this is an old old thread now and I apologise now if the post rambles on a little.

Its taken a long time to get this far and it seems I am not anyway near the end of this mess.

The local CAB are now on-board, working away on my behalf. They have sent out stop letters to the companies concerned, but in most cases I have yet to see any changes in monies taken by them.

Have lasting POA, so do at least have legal standing to deal with issues. Getting that took a year from start to finish and the new system was supposed to be quick and easy.

The overall total now stands at approx £27k.

Just to make things worse it seems that the nursing home mum now resides in and has done since May 2008 has not been paid any user contributions and are asking for approx £8k in back payments. TBH I don't recall anything being mentioned at the time and assumed (perhaps naively) that Social Services and NHS were taking care of everything. So somewhere I need to find the £ to pay them too.

The CAB are suggesting 3 methods of dealing with the remaining debts.
1) Full and final payment, offering each company a figure from whatever funds remain in accounts. Difficult as the figure in current account keeps dropping each month.
2) Piecemeal payments each month for the rest of mums life and after that no further issues (we hope).
3) Bankruptcy, which brings in the issue of beneficial interest in the property owned jointly by myself and father. As I understand it that would be a % of the equity to be decided by the insolvency team/person, which I then have 12 months to raise funds to buy it back into my ownership or the creditors will "own" it and then it will become payable if/when I sell it in future. I need to speak to the Insolvency Service helpline to get a better idea of what the % figure might be to allow me to see things more clearly.

So, any thoughts/ideas you wonderful people?

JoannaA_2

I think that for the moment you need to stop worrying about the other debts and concentrate on the Nursing Home Fees.There are quite a lot of issues here:
Was your mother assessed by NHS for continuing care- if her needs are primarily for nursing care rather than for social care then she may qualify, which would mean there should be no care fees to pay the home in any case. it will depend on her needs. May be worth taking advice from a solicitor who is expert in this field - gven your financial situation contact your Age Concern and see if they have advice sessions with a lawyer- I am a solicitor and do an advice session at my local age concern once a week, so you may be lucky. This is probably too specialised an area for CAB. There is a group of solicitors called Solicitors for the Elderly (I am a member) and they have a website which you may find helpful. Age concern's website is also very good.
If your mother does not qualify for continuing care she should still have been financially assessed by Social Services to see what if anything she should be contributing. Given her circumstances I cannot beleive that she should be contributing more than her income (less personal allowance of £21 per week) but Social Services have a top limit that they pay for Nursing Home fees, and if your Mum's home is more than that then they may require the family to pay the difference (This is known as a top up fee) You need to be clear as to how this debt has been calculated and what it represents. Social Services and Age Concern may be of help here more than the CAB.
The assessment by Social SErvices will not take into account the debts due under the credit cards, so they may have to whistle for their money.
do not let your Dad become involved in paying anything to the credit cards or other debtors- he is not liable unless they are joint accounts.
I doubt if they would make your Mum bankrupt in the circumstances- publicity and all that. If they did, they still would have no luck in getting your Dad out of the property.
YOUR DAD SHOULD MAKE A NEW WILL, SO THAT IF HE DIES HIS SHARE OF THE HOUSE DOES NOT PASS TO YOUR MUM ABSOLUTELY-GET IT DONE PROFESSIONALLY- HE MAY EVEN QUALIFY FOR LEGAL AID IF HE IS OVER 75.
BEST OF LUCK

vultura

JoannaA wrote: »

I think that for the moment you need to stop worrying about the other debts and concentrate on the Nursing Home Fees.There are quite a lot of issues here:
Was your mother assessed by NHS for continuing care- if her needs are primarily for nursing care rather than for social care then she may qualify, which would mean there should be no care fees to pay the home in any case. it will depend on her needs. May be worth taking advice from a solicitor who is expert in this field - gven your financial situation contact your Age Concern and see if they have advice sessions with a lawyer- I am a solicitor and do an advice session at my local age concern once a week, so you may be lucky. This is probably too specialised an area for CAB. There is a group of solicitors called Solicitors for the Elderly (I am a member) and they have a website which you may find helpful. Age concern's website is also very good.
If your mother does not qualify for continuing care she should still have been financially assessed by Social Services to see what if anything she should be contributing. Given her circumstances I cannot beleive that she should be contributing more than her income (less personal allowance of £21 per week) but Social Services have a top limit that they pay for Nursing Home fees, and if your Mum's home is more than that then they may require the family to pay the difference (This is known as a top up fee) You need to be clear as to how this debt has been calculated and what it represents. Social Services and Age Concern may be of help here more than the CAB.
The assessment by Social SErvices will not take into account the debts due under the credit cards, so they may have to whistle for their money.
do not let your Dad become involved in paying anything to the credit cards or other debtors- he is not liable unless they are joint accounts.
I doubt if they would make your Mum bankrupt in the circumstances- publicity and all that. If they did, they still would have no luck in getting your Dad out of the property.
YOUR DAD SHOULD MAKE A NEW WILL, SO THAT IF HE DIES HIS SHARE OF THE HOUSE DOES NOT PASS TO YOUR MUM ABSOLUTELY-GET IT DONE PROFESSIONALLY- HE MAY EVEN QUALIFY FOR LEGAL AID IF HE IS OVER 75.
BEST OF LUCK

The NHS assessment is due shortly, as I understand it. When assessed in May 2008 the joint care package was stated as Level 2. The nursing component set at up to £178 per week for 12 months, to be reviewed again after 12 months. Her needs have not changed in that time.

As it stands father does not have a will, which I know he should have, but its not an easy subject to raise with anyone.

gettingbetter

hi vultura

this may be totally wrong advice
but could you request SAR on all debts

Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request

Dear Sir/Madam

Account number: xxxxxxxx

Please send me the information which I am entitled to under section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to detailed occurrences relating to the account Numbers xxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxx-x

The following is by no means an exhaustive list but in the main this is what I require.

Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to ALL accounting history with your organisation.

Additionally, all records you hold on me relevant to the above accounts, including but not limited to:

1. A transcript of all transactions, including charges, fees, interest, repayments and payments and both the original amount of the loan and any repayments made to the account.

2. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company

3. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account. If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response

4. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notices that you may have sent to me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

5. Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted.

6. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

7. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of these accounts and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

8. A genuine copy of any deed of assignment, or proof that you have a legal right to this money.

9. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

10. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

11. A copy of all account statements for the duration of the agreement.

12. Please would you also advise me of the logic involved in any automated decisions taken by you about me pursuant to section 7(1) (d) of the Data Protection Act 1998.

13. A True copy of the consumer credit agreement section 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act of 1974.

Any other information relating to the account.

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, I shall be reclaiming them, and reclaiming the enclosed £10 Data Protection Act subject access request fee.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have found to be acceptable

it will at least let you know what your dealing with
and will be able to see if any charges can be reclaimed

kas xx