Is debt collector allowed to demand access to my medical records & prescriptions?

FFS2020

I posted previously about the aggression of a debt collector who are collecting on an unsecured debt (it’s a non-priority debt).  They refuse to accept that I’m battling mental illness and am a “vulnerable” person; they demanded a letter from my psychiatrist confirming my precise diagnoses and what medications I am on and they also requested a detailed Care Plan that should show all the contact info for all the mental health professionals who have treated me,  what dates I’ve experienced psychosis on and they also asked for some kind of summary print out of my records at the GP surgery.

I sent them a letter from my Psychiatrist confirming my diagnosis.  The debt collector replied:  “We shall be contacting this Psychiatrist to confirm what your diagnosis is, how often you receive treatment and what medications you are on.”

Surely this is RIDICULOUSLY intrusive?

They claim they need all of this information in order for their client to “consider” whether they will “allow” me to continue my £20-a-month payment arrangement.  I’ve been paying the £20 a month for about 15 months and have never missed a payment.  Nothing in terms of my financial circumstances has improved to suggest I can afford any more of this; in fact my income has decreased slightly and keeping up the payments to this creditor has meant I’m having to use food banks more and more often.

I made contact with the CAB on the advice of some people here in this forum.  The woman at the CAB was extremely helpful and she’s offered to take on the case and contact the debt collector on my behalf.  I advised them that the CAB will be in touch with them as soon as I have printed off, signed and posted the Letter of Authority allowing the CAB to discuss my case with them.  The debt collector’s now harassing me again, claiming that the CAB’s letter has not yet arrived in the post and that therefore they will be taking instruction from their client with a view to litigating against me.  

On one occasion in 2020 my £20 payment due date fell on a weekend and thus the Standing Order did not go out until the Monday.  That Monday morning I had an extremely aggressive email from a “litigation assistant” at the debt collectors, saying I was clearly not serious about keeping up my payments and that will be taking further instruction .   At the time of receiving this aggressive email my payment had actually already been sent — it just seems to take this debt collectors firm 24 hours to be able to see an incoming payment to their bank account as cleared funds.

These debt collectors are actually a firm of solicitors specialising in “debt recovery” and they appear to employ several solicitors as well as a few “litigation assistants.”

Thoughts?  Is it even legal for them to demand a person’s detailed medical records and list of prescriptions?  The CAB advisor is keen to write them a formal letter of complaint.  But would that make things even worse?

sourcrates

Hi,

I think I told you this last time around, anyone is free to ask anything, and you are just as free to decline, no one, not an individual, nor a company, has any more rights or authority than you or I do.

Go with the CAB advice, they are just debt collectors, with a fancy name, the worst they could do is instruct their client to get a judgement against you, in which case you can make an application to the court to pay what is affordable, because a court won`t make an order you cannot afford, there threat of litigation is hollow, and would not benefit them at all, but it may benefit you, as they cannot argue against what a court decides. 

This DCA obviously believes threats of court action will beat you into submission, they seem to be oblivious to the notion you may have common sense.

fatbelly

That might have been me. I wrote

Former tenancy arrears are a non-priority debt and I'm thinking there is a strong case for a write-off here. Have you talked to anyone else other than stepchange? Does your community mental health team have any links to Citizens Advice? They often do, and so have a quick route into their services. It just strikes me that you need another person to put your case forward here.

I'm pleased that you have CAB on your side - follow their advice. Let us know how you get on.

FFS2020

sourcrates said:

Hi,

I think I told you this last time around, anyone is free to ask anything, and you are just as free to decline, no one, not an individual, nor a company, has any more rights or authority than you or I do.

Go with the CAB advice, they are just debt collectors, with a fancy name, the worst they could do is instruct their client to get a judgement against you, in which case you can make an application to the court to pay what is affordable, because a court won`t make an order you cannot afford, there threat of litigation is hollow, and would not benefit them at all, but it may benefit you, as they cannot argue against what a court decides. 

This DCA obviously believes threats of court action will beat you into submission, they seem to be oblivious to the notion you may have common sense.

So would you say that they are just making this increasingly intrusive demands basically to try to intimidate me?  After all, what difference does it make to them what prescription meds I am on or what's in my GP notes?

fatbelly

Yes - it's all about pressure. They believe if they apply enough, you'll cave in and pay them. 

Experience tells them it works in most cases. 

Let CAB fire some shots at them and see if their tune changes.

Suseka97

Simply put, yes - what they are doing is both intrusive and unreasonable.  Please follow the advice of both sourcrates and fatbelly and let the CAB handle this for you.  Stop engaging with them and just repeat that the CAB will be in touch in due course and stick with that.  Block their number if it comes to it.  Let the CAB complain on your behalf and no, it won't make thing worse and will probably make them back off.  

User_101122

Former tenancy arrears are a non-priority debt and I'm thinking there is a strong case for a write-off here. Have you talked to anyone else other than stepchange? Does your community mental health team have any links to Citizens Advice? They often do, and so have a quick route into their services. It just strikes me that you need another person to put your case forward 

That’s exactly what I was thinking!

Having worked with Stepchange and several finance houses.  From my experience this level of information would only be required if a consideration was being given to write off a debt on the grounds of ill health.
Somebody is making a lot of hard work for themselves (and you) requesting all this for a £20 per month arrangement.
Certainly follow CAB advice I’d also ask the creditor why they want this information before providing it.  It may be within both of your interests to supply them with it.

From the creditors perspective they are perfectly entitled to request evidence of a vulnerability.  You’re also entitled to refuse, but it could be the difference between the arrangement being accepted or rejected or them even writing the debt off.
I understand why you would be reluctant to provide this to them however I feel they are going to be less likely to take action against you if you have proved to them that you have a diagnosed mental health problem.
That said regardless of what they threaten they can’t take off you what you haven’t got, if you feel the tactic is just to bully you into paying more, raise a complaint.  Worst case scenario is you end up with a CCJ.  A district judge may take your health problems into account but they won’t order you to pay what you can’t afford.
 
Good luck let us know what happens 

FFS2020

tight4rse said:

Former tenancy arrears are a non-priority debt and I'm thinking there is a strong case for a write-off here. Have you talked to anyone else other than stepchange? Does your community mental health team have any links to Citizens Advice? They often do, and so have a quick route into their services. It just strikes me that you need another person to put your case forward 

That’s exactly what I was thinking!

Having worked with Stepchange and several finance houses.  From my experience this level of information would only be required if a consideration was being given to write off a debt on the grounds of ill health.
Somebody is making a lot of hard work for themselves (and you) requesting all this for a £20 per month arrangement.
Certainly follow CAB advice I’d also ask the creditor why they want this information before providing it.  It may be within both of your interests to supply them with it.

From the creditors perspective they are perfectly entitled to request evidence of a vulnerability.  You’re also entitled to refuse, but it could be the difference between the arrangement being accepted or rejected or them even writing the debt off.
I understand why you would be reluctant to provide this to them however I feel they are going to be less likely to take action against you if you have proved to them that you have a diagnosed mental health problem.
That said regardless of what they threaten they can’t take off you what you haven’t got, if you feel the tactic is just to bully you into paying more, raise a complaint.  Worst case scenario is you end up with a CCJ.  A district judge may take your health problems into account but they won’t order you to pay what you can’t afford.
 
Good luck let us know what happens 

I can't remember if I mentioned in my post that the Debt Collector claims they're calling my Psychiatrist to confirm my diagnoses and what medications I'm on.  But actually no NHS Psychiatrist is going to divulge that sort of information to some random Debt Collector are they?  It would probably actually be against the law to do so.  So it's sounding to me like the Debt Collector is simply trying to intimidate 

sourcrates

FFS2020 said:

tight4rse said:

Former tenancy arrears are a non-priority debt and I'm thinking there is a strong case for a write-off here. Have you talked to anyone else other than stepchange? Does your community mental health team have any links to Citizens Advice? They often do, and so have a quick route into their services. It just strikes me that you need another person to put your case forward 

That’s exactly what I was thinking!

Having worked with Stepchange and several finance houses.  From my experience this level of information would only be required if a consideration was being given to write off a debt on the grounds of ill health.
Somebody is making a lot of hard work for themselves (and you) requesting all this for a £20 per month arrangement.
Certainly follow CAB advice I’d also ask the creditor why they want this information before providing it.  It may be within both of your interests to supply them with it.

From the creditors perspective they are perfectly entitled to request evidence of a vulnerability.  You’re also entitled to refuse, but it could be the difference between the arrangement being accepted or rejected or them even writing the debt off.
I understand why you would be reluctant to provide this to them however I feel they are going to be less likely to take action against you if you have proved to them that you have a diagnosed mental health problem.
That said regardless of what they threaten they can’t take off you what you haven’t got, if you feel the tactic is just to bully you into paying more, raise a complaint.  Worst case scenario is you end up with a CCJ.  A district judge may take your health problems into account but they won’t order you to pay what you can’t afford.
 
Good luck let us know what happens 

I can't remember if I mentioned in my post that the Debt Collector claims they're calling my Psychiatrist to confirm my diagnoses and what medications I'm on.  But actually no NHS Psychiatrist is going to divulge that sort of information to some random Debt Collector are they?  It would probably actually be against the law to do so.  So it's sounding to me like the Debt Collector is simply trying to intimidate 

That what these old skool DCA`s do, they all used to be like that, until the FCA crackdown a few years ago, now just one or two operate this way, after more complaints are received about them, they will be forced  to change tack or risk removal of there FCA licence, when you deal with debt collectors on a regular basis you get to know the ways in which they operate their business, very "out of touch" some companies.