My thoughts too.. If you phone the Camera Partnership telephone number, they are in my experience VERY helpful, ask them what the problem is, and they will usually tell you... Come back for more advice..

In regard to the duty to inform, the onus always falls on the claimant. It is stipulated in the award letters that you must inform them of a change of circumstances, and this is also stipulated within the relevant legislation. Although the DWP stated they would inform the local authority that the JSA claim had ended, this not relieve a claimant of their responsibility to inform. My guess is that what happened is that the notification from DWP to the LA did not occur (this is an automatic notification which the computer is programmed to send - it doesn't always happen). My next guess that that although the council may well accept that your partner expected DWP would inform them and that he assumed this would end the claim, the benefit continued to be paid, and despite knowing this and knowing that he was no longer entitled to it due to your household income, he still failed to inform them that your circumstances had changed and your household income increased. From their point of view they will be considering how much longer he would have continued to claim the benefit before he would have advised of the change. From their point of view, he did continue to claim it up until he was invited to the IUC. From their point of view, he may well have continued claiming it had they not discovered that you were no longer entitled. You stopped being entitled in November but have continued to claim the benefit, and done nothing to attempt to stop the claim. That's 5 months (or 4 if you were claiming the run on). Therefore their view is that benefit fraud has been committed; he continued to claim a benefit to which he could reasonably be expected to know that he was not entitled to, more so because your partner is now working within a field where these benefits are processed and should be well aware that a JCP notification does not relieve the claimant of their responsibility to inform a change of circumstances. Any person would be reasonably expected to at the very least make enquiries as to why the benefit was still in payment after all that time, however a person who works with this type of benefit would be expected to more so than the average joe. I'm a bit confued because you say that you didn't inform them, you informed DWP. You say that you continued to receive the benefit and left it because you thought they would just send an overpayment letter. But then you say that you did inform them, that you informed them as soon as you started work, they should have known he had signed off, and you believe it was their mistake. Can you confirm whether you did inform the council, or just the DWP? If it was just the DWP that was informed, then the above all stands and it is not the council's mistake. Benefits and housing are two seperate departments. The Fraud Investigation Team cannot make the decision that a notice for repossession would be issued. It is the duty of the housing department (if it is the council whom you let from which I assume it is if they say the letter will come from the council) to assess the sum owed in rent and send a letter asking you to make up the payments. If you fail to do this and fail to make contact to enter into an agreement to repay the arrears, or you begin to pay the arrears but then default, they then they send you a final notice. Only after this, do they serve a notice seeking possession, which provides 28 days for the arrears to be cleared before they take the matter to court. He didn't respond most likely because your partner works in an area which processes this benefit, he should know better than the next person that continuing to receive benefit after 5 months is a clear indication that the benefit section are not aware of the change of circumstances. Again, confused. Why would the council be accepting the payment for rent and/or seeking possession if you rent from an association? do you rent from the council or from a housing association? Yes you can ask the CAB to sort out a repayment plan, they will need to go through a complete income and expenditure with you. But again, confused. Why set up a repayment plan when you have the money there to pay?

It will affect her credit score but as it ages it should lessen until it finally drops off after six years from the original default. Until then I'm afraid she's stuck with it.

Perhaps DD can confirm this

Hi Sea-sidelady, The employer will be correct in this instance - post 12 months but less than 2 years service is a standard 1 week notice - usually!! I dont see any reason why it would be less otherwise it would be considered illegal in employment law. If your friend did not turn up for the week of notice period that would risk being unpaid for the time as it would be a breach of contract. I can however say that if your friend has any holiday pay due then that cannot be stopped - holiday pay is a statutory right. Hope this helps Beau

Are there any charges on the account do you know e.g. no payment fees, collection fees, etc? While they can take you to court the letter that you have received is a standard one designed to frighten you into calling them. If they were to take you to court you would be informed of this by the court and have 3 options. The first would be to admit the debt and apply for a time to pay order based on your disposable income. The court would decide the amount you had to pay each week/month and not the DCA/creditor. You on no accounts should be pressurised into paying this debt in full even if you do agree that the sum quoted as outstanding is correct. A court would deem this as unreasonable and it is also against debt collection guideance from the OFT. The second option would be to dispute the amount owed (you would still have the opportunity to apply for a time order to pay back the monies in installments). The third option would be to fully defend the claim. Only if after decree was granted against you would they be able to apply for an arrestment of wages and only if you had then still refused to pay. Of course they would need to have your bank/employers details to do this. As far as bailiffs coming goes we don't have bailiffs in Scotland. We have sheriff officers. Unless they are acting on behalf of the court, they have no more powers than you or me. An alternative is to ask for a statement of account as part of the CCA request if you just want to know when the last payment was made and then add 5 years to get the date when it would become time barred. AIC are a Scottish DCA so they would use a Scottish solicitor. Ultimately it is up to you whether or not you want to try and wait it out until the debt becomes statute barred. If you are registered in any way at your parents address then it is highly likely that the DCA will know that you are already there through credit agency searches, etc. I would however point out that asking for a copy of the credit agreement and details of any charges on the account in no way acknowledges the debt and in no way resets the limitation clock.

If this was done whilst you were negotiating a payment plan this was an unfair practice. If after a plan was negotiated it is nuts and shows that BG have still not got their internal communications sorted. They can off course threaten disconnection if you are not paying but a warrant of entry for disconnection etc must be heard by a magistrate, If you turn up in court to defend the application wil be withdrawn. They are only interested in getting easy warrants by default - which means that no defence case has been offered. The idea that applications will always be granted by the court stems form the fact that very few customers actually turn up to court so default warrants are the routine (dealt with at the rate of 40-60 an hour!!!). Why the mega bill? - if you look into this you may well have grounds to dispute it. e.g. Estimated bills sent for more than 2 years. No bill sent for longer than one year. Poor or no monitoring of a direct debit plan. Have you checked the bill fully and compared it to your own meter reading and meter number

Hiya heating-eng and welcome to the HSBC forum Have a read of this thread too http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/256053-hsbc-managed-loan-account.html pete

Hiya Hasselhoof what do you mean the rest is waffle.. its all waffle!!! Write back and tell them they are wrong, you can even quote Lord Phillips who stated in the test case appeal judgment (somwhere around paragraph 80 - 90 I think) that he considered clause 5(1) could be used. pete

I can't see the difference personally between a disputed or closed account. In either event the original CCA is at an end or terminated. In both situations thus making all terms and conditions of such an agreement null and void. A similar situation: I personally was taken to court by a former employer over a clause in my (then terminated contract) stating that I could not work for another company in the same trade as theirs for 6 months after leaving their employment. I argued to the court that since my contract is no longer current after being terminated that I am no longer held by its conditions. The judge then ruled in my favour stating the only way my previous employer could stop me working for a rival company for 6 whole months, would be to keep me employed and have me in effect payed to stay at home for the duration of those 6 months.

not sure if you are also disputing the validity of the agreement so you would write and point out that due to their unlawful rescission , which you have accepted, would they kindly advise you of the amount of arrears that were outstanding at the time that the alleged agreement was unlawfully terminated, against which, and assuming that the agreement was a properly executed and/or legally enforceable agreement you may have a counterclaim for their unlawful rescission the beauty is that they will NOT supply you with the figure because they will not accept that they unlawfully terminated- thus you cannot be expected to pay the arrears until a/ you know what they are b/ that your possible counter claim does not exceed the arrears c/ that there is in any case a legally enforceable agreement to pay arrears to

Tilly best to keep to one thread. I cant help wondering why there is a need for a payment plan if you havnt spent the money. xx

First step is a CPR request. You want them to furnish a copy of the agreement and a copy of the DN, and anything else they intend to rely on in court. I'd like to get more feedback from Caggers on the legality of the DN and termination notice they issued - to recap, DN dated 15 January, account terminated 3 February. So... DN dated Friday 15 Jan. First day posted = Monday 18 Feb. Say, three days delivery = taken as served on Thursday 21 January. 14 clear days to remedy takes us to Thursday 4 February. Account terminated 3 February. Is this correct, Caggers? If so, the account was terminated early, it's only the arrears they can claim, and the contract would also have been terminated unlawfully. This could give rise to a counter claim for damages. Incidentally, did the default notice ask for arrears or the whole balance? This could be important. It would also help if you could let us see any copies of the DN, termination letter ad agreement you have. They are claiming relief under S87.1, so they have to abide by it - and they haven't, IMO. So - CPR request, and acknowledge online and state you will defend.

The final result, a letter from Lowell to say that this matter is closed. I wonder how much it hurt to write that!!!!:D:D

Firstly lets take this step by step: 1-Did you have an arrangement with them for reduced payments? 2-Need to see whether the Default Notice is in fact invalid. 3-Default Notice (time )in which breach of remedy or action to take was increased from 7 Days to 14 Days in late 2006 cannot remember exactly.It is important to take into account postal period for service of Notice. 4.Default Notices Regulated by; Consumer Credit (Enforcement ,Default and Termination Notices) Regulations 1983/1561 Before we take this further please read this excellent clarification on how a default notice is CALCULATED in terms of it's time which may render it invalid Here is the link:This is a thread started by Shakespeare 62 Banker_Rhymes_With simple explanation in POST 3 is great.Thread is only 3 pages long...I STRONGLYadvise you to read ALL OF IT it because you will find a couple of your questions answered in it...If the DN is invalid it will be serious for them so this is the best place to start from. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/179944-default-notice-period-7-a.html In response to your concerns about the nature and TIMING of their response...check out THE FIRST PAGE ON THIS THREAD by CAR...the reason I am directing you in this manner is because it saves time and duplicating everything when issues have already been addressed...Just need to know where the resources ARE... any further questions ...just post!!! m2ae

You are welcome and do try to relax a little now if you can think of it as a game of tennis and for a while at least the ball is in there court. If I have been of assistance you may wish to tip my scales. G