Amethyst kindly invited me to join this forum and ask for advice about my hardship claim. I thought I would introduce myself by simply posting the letter I sent to Natwest in early February, alon with their form on expenditures and income.
Here it is; a few details have been changed from the original so as to avoid personal specifics, but it shows the problems.
Dear Sir or Madam,
A few days ago I sent in my formal application for refund of bank charges due to financial hardship. I would now like to explain how it came to this point.
In 2001 I moved to the UK from Germany so that I could be with my children in their private schools. At the time I was earning over £50000 before tax from my own business, which I operated form home. My husband, a German civil servant, stayed in our home in Germany and we visited each other during holidays. I bought a two bedroom flat in the UK.
In 2004 a new contract my business depended on did not materialize. Since then my Income has steadily decreased, down to less than £3000 per year at present.
In 2005, my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. In 2006 he had to stop working and retired. Since 2007 we have been living from his pension, form which he has to give EUR 800 towards his ex-wife’s pension, according to German law.
That was when the financial difficulties started, as we were now paying mortgages on two properties with a greatly decreased income. The mortgage on out house in Germany was EUR 1400 monthly. We put this house on the market but the German property market is notoriously slow and the property had actually decreased in value. It took us one year to sell it, at a loss, during which time we had to continue paying both mortgages.
The house finally sold in early 2008, but by that time the arrears had already added up, in particular through exorbitant bank charges and credit card interest, which seemed impossible to pay off. In addition to this, we had a series of bad luck in 2008: first the kitchen furniture began to collapse and we had to order a new kitchen, £5000; then the gas boiler broke down, and we had to buy a new one for £4000, finally the roof began to leak and the bill for this on the freeholder, over £4000, is still outstanding. I also fell behind on mortgage payments and council tax, and seem never to be able to catch up. In addition, my car broke down at the end of last year and had to be scrapped, and I am facing very expensive but vital dental treatment, and need to support my son at University and my daughter at college.
Due to all of the above I believe that mine is a genuine case of financial hardship.
Sincerely,
Here's a follow-up letter I wrote this week:
Further to my claim to refund of charges due to financial hardship, I would like to inform you that there was a mistake on the original application form in regards to my household income. I have just received our accounts for the year 2007 from our accountant in Germany, and as you can see our yearly taxable income for that year was EUR 18478.00. Income tax in Germany is assessed for the calendar year, ie January to February. In 2008 and 2009 our income is the same or less.
As a result it is obvious that ours is a case of genuine financial hardship, and the only way we can clear our arrears and try to budget is for you to refund the charges. The over £200 now outstanding on this account are composed entirely of charges. And now I have received letters from Natwest demanding immediate repayment!
And another follow up:
Further to my claim to refund of charges due to financial hardship, I would like to inform you that I forgot an important piece of information, namely, that because of my husband’s disability and illness (Parkinson’s and Gaucher’s Disease, Dementia) I am his full time carer and cannot seek a job myself.
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