Helping an elderly lady in debt

claret140

Hi,

I am an IFA by trade and although I have a good knowledge of many financial aspects, loans are not something I recommend or deal with.

I am meeting a new referral client, tomorrow who has asked me if I can help an elderly friend of hers. The information I have is limited but what I have deduced is that this lady is in her 80’s has a loan which she repays each month and it doesn’t seem to go down. My first suggestion was one of the debt charities, but I get the impression she is nervous and perhaps embarrassed about her situation and wants to deal with someone who she can “trust”.

I appreciate I’m giving less than half a tale and no one can help until I’ve met her and filled in the gaps but in terms of preparation I thought maybe a subject access request letter and an authority letter to get information from the loan company would help. I expect her to have some documentation when we meet.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

 

tacpot12

A SAR and Letter of Authority would be good start, but you can also help her obtain her Credit Reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. If the loan is shown on one of these reports, it will be a legitimate lender with a Consumer Credit Licence, which is probably a good thing. 

If there is strong evidence of irresponsible lending, it might be worth finding out if the lady has home insurance with Legal Expenses cover. The Home Insurance should help if the evidence is strong. Your role here is probably just to assess the situation and the evidence available before handing the case over to someone who is more experienced with the problem you find. 

Brie

When I've seen cases like these it has turned out to be that a deceased husband had in the distant past taken out an interest only loan/mortgage that has now been passed to the widow to pay.  So first thing is to get a copy of the credit agreement and then look at who has taken out the credit and when.  It's possible that the loan should have died with the husband (assuming my scenario is correct) depending on what happened with his estate.  

An alternative scenario is that it's a payday loan and therefore tacpot's idea of looking for evidence of irresponsible lending may be helpful.  

And without trying to be overly ageist there may be a good debt charity that can assist her while making her feel more comfortable about her situation.  Community Money Advice (CMA) does face to face meetings which might be better for someone who doesn't like dealing with a call centre approach (which I think is what StepChange and NationalDebtline have).  Another alternative is Christians Against Poverty (CAP).  Again the very name might reassure her somewhat.  (depending on her back ground of course)

I think your biggest danger is that this may be just what's the major worry for her right now and when you get chatting you'll discover a raft of other money issues.  A debt advice case can take anywhere from 5 minutes to more than a decade to resolve so be careful what you let yourself in for.  

claret140

Thank you both very much for your initial guidance and advice. I'm pleased that I came on this board.

I'll update the post when I have more information but as she lives 1 hour + from me I wanted to at least make progress when we meet. 

Grumpelstiltskin

Be careful what you get yourself into, it is possible she will have left all finance to her husband and after his death she may be in a big mess,

Presumably she is not Internet savvy.

The Debt Free Wannabe board and the Death, Funeral and Probate board have both had examples of these sort of problems and there can be so many different situations but it is likely she will need advice from someone who is experienced in debt problems so don't say anything you are not sure of, insist she gets proper help.

BTW I'm 80 and I'm internet savvy but I do realize some other people of my age aren't

Brie

And just to put things into perspective too - like an IFA a proper debt adviser is working in a regulated industry.  There's lot's to know!

claret140

Brie said:

And just to put things into perspective too - like an IFA a proper debt adviser is working in a regulated industry.  There's lot's to know!

Thanks - I know what i'm good at and what i'm not. Debt, loans etc are definitely not my area of expertise at all.

The thought of an 80 year old being taken advantage boils my blood but as pointed out by everyone I could end up either chasing my tail or even worse making things worse.

I'll collect what I can find out the back story and work out where to go and most importantly who to go to.

Grumpelstiltskin

Yes  you need to try and find out what her financial position is, does she claim any benefits she may be entitled to, exactly what the loan is, does she own her own home, is the loan secured on her home?
All that is just for starters.

There are so many possibilities.

sourcrates

To obtain a copy of the credit agreement, assuming its CCA regulated, you make a request under sec 77/79 CCA.

The link to a letter is here: National Debtline | Sample letters - Information about your agreement under the Consumer Credit Act | National Debtline

There is a £1 statutory payment (postal order is best for this) you must enclose with the letter.

RAS

Christians Against Poverty do home visits and you don't need to be Christian nor will they raise the issue with clients.

claret140

Hi,

 

I went to see the lady today at my referral client’s office. My referred client is her therapist for context.

As a background – around 20 years ago her and her husband opened up a fish and chip van on the South coast. The business failed and they lost their house.

Her husband effectively gave up and worked job to job but was too proud to claim benefits. As her part time job didn’t’ cover everything she took on debt in her own name to keep things afloat; end of rent payments, new deposits etc.

This started with TSB and Barclaycard, but with periods of unaffordable repayments and ignoring / avoiding the situation it escalated and been sold on multiple times. At present she owes £20,600 in a debt management plan and is paying £47pm. There are 10 different creditors split over 6 different companies.

She is 80 and her husband is 93. They are currently in “the best position ever” as he is claiming PIP, AA etc and they both have State and Private pensions. Her position should her husband pre-decease her is unknown but her income will be cut by > 50%.

It’s not a distressed financial situation as such, more “why after paying for 20 years have my debts not gone down” situation, dismay and perplexation.

With my IFA hat on I would absolutely deem her vulnerable owing to PTSD, carer role, health and age. I am unsure what criteria DMP’s have to adhere to.

I was completely clear that loans and debts were a specialist area and at some stage we would need to bring in an expert to deal. I even referenced this thread as to where I had obtained the information. She signed an authority and SAR and is also going to check with her home insurance who is LV to see if they offer legal cover. Pride perhaps prevents her from declaring bankruptcy.

In terms of next steps and considerations:

1.      The company, who I’ll keep nameless are FCA registered – on this basis do I need to obtain credit agency checks?

2.      Based on the brief information is this something that can be possibly referred to LV legal for irresponsible lending.

3.      Is it worth contacted debt helplines now or waiting until we explore home insurance legals.