Hardship claim refused by FOS, any advice?

[stressedoutmum]

I hace been persuing a hardship claim with nationwide to claim back £5500 in bank charges for the past 6 months. I eventually went to the FOS as nationwide would not accept that I was in hardship. Basically I gave up a well paid job to care for my terminally ill Mum who has since passed away. Whilst looking after her I struggled financially and got behind with credit card/loan etc I have now got another job but not on very good pay and am struggling to pay everything each month. I also have arrears on my gas and electric supply and have had to have a meter fitted to pay off the debt to them. I completed an income and expenditure form for the FOS and basically they have said that because my priority debts are being paid each month with an excess of £300 of income over expenditure each month then I should renegotiate with my creditors to reduce payments on my other debts. However, I have already done this and am paying the minimum and these debts total just over £300! The FOS state ' I do not think that it would be right for us to uphold your complaint about bank charges soley because you are having trouble paying debts owed to other parties'

I don't know what to do as I thought that if you could prove you were in financial hardship and have the following as I have, then this was classed as hardship.
1. have had a reduction in pay as time off to care for a relative
2. have items repeatedly unpaid to to lack of funds
3. failing to make repayments on loans and credit cards
4. have arrears on utility bills

I have until *th November if I want to appeal, can anyone give me any ideas?

[Celestine]

Re: Hardship claim refused by FOS, any advice?

Hi Stressed Out mum

Welcome to Legal Beagles.

We've had quite a few people patiently pursue hardship claims, it takes a while but has produced some really good results.

Without a lot more information, we can't properly assess whether you have a decent hardship claim and should appeal.

To get you started off, read this guide thread first:
Guide to Claiming Hardship - updated February 2009 - Legal Beagles

then this:
Income Expenditure / Budgeting Guidelines for hardship claims - Legal Beagles

which contains a link to the Legal Beagles income and expenditure sheet and hopefully from that we can advise whether you should fight on.

Read some of the other threads by Hardship claimants, you may find them really useful and will help you compare your situation with others.

Best of Luck

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Hardship claim refused by FOS, any advice?

I hace been persuing a hardship claim with nationwide to claim back £5500 in bank charges for the past 6 months. I eventually went to the FOS as nationwide would not accept that I was in hardship. Basically I gave up a well paid job to care for my terminally ill Mum who has since passed away. Whilst looking after her I struggled financially and got behind with credit card/loan etc I have now got another job but not on very good pay and am struggling to pay everything each month. I also have arrears on my gas and electric supply and have had to have a meter fitted to pay off the debt to them. I completed an income and expenditure form for the FOS and basically they have said that because my priority debts are being paid each month with an excess of £300 of income over expenditure each month then I should renegotiate with my creditors to reduce payments on my other debts. However, I have already done this and am paying the minimum and these debts total just over £300! The FOS state ' I do not think that it would be right for us to uphold your complaint about bank charges soley because you are having trouble paying debts owed to other parties'

I don't know what to do as I thought that if you could prove you were in financial hardship and have the following as I have, then this was classed as hardship.
1. have had a reduction in pay as time off to care for a relative
2. have items repeatedly unpaid to to lack of funds
3. failing to make repayments on loans and credit cards
4. have arrears on utility bills

I have until *th November if I want to appeal, can anyone give me any ideas?

A Warm welcome to legal beagles. I suspect that the issue is that there is a meter in place to pay off the arrears.
However, something else struck me in the list of things that you have mentioned which is number 3 which would indicate you have charges on the credit card which you might want to pursue.

I think the issue is when did you get really behind and was that when you contacted and dealt with Nationwide?
Are you still incurring charges today and are they preventing you paying your bills today ie rent or mortgage, council tax, utilities?