Please advice for letter explaining mental health

Cheesephetamine

I am about to send a letter to all my creditors explaining my situation and I wonder if you can give me advice on it and see if its correct or if there is anything you would add or change. I have ask my mental health team to fill in the DMHEF form but while I get that sorted (you know the NHS can be slow) I wanted to send this already. Please do let me know what you think

"Dear Sir/Madam,

 

As you are aware, I am currently on a Debt Management Plan since 2019 working on paying the debt I have with your organisation and others. I am very grateful of the understanding and support you have demonstrated towards me and my situation, as well as grateful for the breathing space and freezing of interests and fees.

 

I am contacting you to provide more information regarding myself and my mental health in the hope that we could work out a solution that means I can recover, start a new life, gain confidence in myself, improve my mental and physical health and at the same time be as fair as I can towards the contract that binds me to you and pay off as much debt as I possibly can.

 

During the last 3 years I have been suffering with increasingly worsening mental health and I have been diagnosed with the following conditions:

 

- C-PTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder)

- Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism)

- Combined type ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder)

- Bulimia Nervosa (a type of eating disorder)

- Dermatillomania (a type of self-harm consisting of picking on one’s skin causing wounds)

- Oniomania (compulsive spending)

- GAD and depression (generalised anxiety disorder)

 

All these conditions share some common problems and symptoms, one of them, and the most important and damaging in my case, is the lack of impulse control. I have a very hard time managing my impulses because of trauma in my brain and the lack of some type of neurotransmitter called dopamine, which causes the person to seek pleasure in things like compulsive spending and eating, amongst others.

 

When I applied for credit with your organisation, I was not in treatment, did not have a full picture or my mental health and I lacked the capacity to make an informed and rational decision as to whether taking this credit was appropriate at that moment or if I had the capacity to be able to manage the debt and my finances then or in the future.

 

I am now in treatment, taking medications that manage anxiety, depression, dopamine insufficiency and impulsivity. The medications I take are: elvanse, fluoxetine and gabapentin. I am also currently receiving psychological treatment in the form of CBT (cognitive behavioural treatment), mindfulness for mental health, trauma focused treatment and I have input from my GP, a consultant psychologist, a consultant psychiatrist, and a mental health nurse.

 

The realisation of the amount of debt that I have accrued during these past 4 years has had a massive impact in my life and in my health. I feel suicidal, I am off sick from work, and I have been on and off sick for the past two years for nearly a year in total, which impacts in my ability to increase my income (for example, doing overtime). I feel like I will not be able to fully heal until this is sorted. If I had the insight I have now when I applied for the credit I would have not applied to begin with.

 

I am currently receiving disability benefits as I am not able to care for myself or manage my money on my own, I am using 50% of my income to pay off my debts and the other 50% is managed by my husband so we can pay our rent, bills, and groceries, however he is on low income and we are struggling to make ends meet. I do not have any money left to be able to feel like an adult in control or to save for an emergency.

 

I feel like my mental health, my money management and other debts I already had  were not taken into consideration when offering me the credit I have with your organisation, so, my proposal is as follows:

 

-       Please consider writing off my debt if you can or reducing it as much as possible.

-       Please in the future do not offer me any more credit unless I can prove that I am debt free and fully recovered.

-       Please do communicate with me via email or post only, do not call me, as this causes me increased stress.

-       Please do keep my interests and fees frozen.

 

I can provide you with medical evidence of my treatments, diagnosis, and medications if this is something you need. I have asked my team to fill in the DMHEF form but as they are quite overwhelmed and can take a bit of time I wanted to write this as soon as possible so you can have a realistic full picture of my situation.

 

I really hope we can come to an agreement that benefits both of us.

 

Thank you for taking my letter into consideration. Hoping you are well.

 

Kind regards,"

hamilton20

Did you provide any evidence to the companies that your mental health might be compromised before you applied for credit? As you say in your letter "When I applied for credit with your organisation, I was not in treatment, did not have a full picture or my mental health", which of course is in now way your fault. Although I don't know how relevant it would be in each company's process of making decisions as whether to reduce your debt. 
Keeping my fingers crossed for you and wish you the best of luck as the most important thing for you is to be able to concentrate on your health and not to have the added burden of the debt. 

Cheesephetamine

No, as said I lacked insight and capacity to make that decision. It’s part of the problem. I have added a NOC to my credit reports now… it’s very unlikely that they will accept my letter but I thought if I had a 1% chance it wouldn’t hurt me to try

fatbelly

I would say to send that letter together with your DMHEF form and to make sure that what you are saying in your letter is consistent with what is on the form.

You should also be looking for write-offs

Your requests could say

-       Please freeze all interest and fees

-       Please in the future do not offer me any more credit unless I can prove that I am debt free and fully recovered.

-       Please do communicate with me via email or post only, do not call me, as this causes me increased stress.

-       Please consider writing off my debt

and make that the end of your letter as people tend to read the start and ends of things so you are leaving the most important thing to the end

sourcrates

Are all your accounts still with original creditors ?

I only ask as the likelihood of write offs increases dramatically if a debt has been sold on once or twice, debt purchasers buy them up in bulk for very little money, so are more easily swayed to write a debt off.

Your letter is OK, but just remember its a business decision they will be making, so stick to facts, some do`s and don`ts, don`t have a list of wants, you are looking for write off`s, nothing less.

You can choose how to be contacted, that`s fine.

Do make sure you emphasise what little income you have, and that your situation is unlikely to improve much in the future.

Do include copies of evidence, as they will surely need them to come to any decision here.

Don`t expect a quick decision, the most likely outcome of your initial letter will be to put a hold on your account for 30 maybe 60 days, that is standard practice, after which they will write again asking for an update, again, standard practice.

It`s then rinse and re-peat, and this may go on a while until they make a final decision.

Remember, your health issues do matter, but so does affordability, only being able to pay £10 a month, may get a payment arrangement, over a longer term, wear as payment of £1 a month would get you a write off, bear that in mind when you write to them.

Cheesephetamine

Thank you for the very good advice. Most of my debts have been sold to other agencies. I will wait to have the paperwork from my mental health team. All is consistent or should be as I haven’t said anything that is not true I am not expecting a quick answer! I do know for example that DWP is supposed to listen to you and offer you ESA if you are unemployed AND say that you are suicidal. In those cases they have to support you as they’ve had many cases where they didn’t and people killed themselves. I know In practice many times they still don’t but I wonder if debt agencies and creditors also have safety nets in place for people that voice suicidal intent (I considered it…)

sourcrates

Well hopefully those sort of thoughts will subside, your account should be passed to a specialist care team, each company will have there own version of this, so you will have to deal with each of them, just stick to the facts, and note what I have said regarding income.

If you can`t afford the debts, and your work/health situation isn`t going to improve, then write off`s are a distinct possibility.

Cheesephetamine

My mental diagnosis are mostly chronic. Only bulimia and depression have a chance to be cured. The others specially autism and adhd are chronic neurological developmental disorders without cure. I have made NOC in my three credit reports requesting no credit to be made available for me unless I get clearing from my medical team hopefully that will help to not get more debt in the future. Thank a lot. I don’t think I will get write off but if they can lower my debts a bit or continue accepting my payments without interests I will count myself lucky

sourcrates

Cheesephetamine said:

My mental diagnosis are mostly chronic. Only bulimia and depression have a chance to be cured. The others specially autism and adhd are chronic neurological developmental disorders without cure. I have made NOC in my three credit reports requesting no credit to be made available for me unless I get clearing from my medical team hopefully that will help to not get more debt in the future. Thank a lot. I don’t think I will get write off but if they can lower my debts a bit or continue accepting my payments without interests I will count myself lucky

They won`t lower your debt level.

And holding interest is nothing special, they do that for anyone, if you want a positive result here, you push for write off`s from the start, it`s surprisingly easy to get debts written off if you know what to say, and what not to say.

My son is between a 4 and a 5 on the autistic spectrum, so I have some experience with these matters.

If you need any further help in the future with answering letters etc, please do PM me, and I will be only too glad to help you.

Cheesephetamine

I see! Thank you. I somehow feel icky asking for a write off. I have done complaints to a couple of payday loans as they should never have lent me to begin with hopefully I’ll get some of that interest back as my credit report was already in shambles and they kept giving me credit

Cheesephetamine

Thanks everyone for your advice. I have tweaked a couple of details in the letters and added more information re income vs expense and also about the chronic nature of some of my mental issues so unlikely to get better soon if ever and I have sent the letters so fingers crossed