Hi Margaret, thanks for the reply. I've asked for the move into the support group as my health is slowly deteriorating, and my doctor thinks I should have been in the support group from the start, but I was really too ill after the stress of my appeal to try and immediately appeal again, so I just left it as it was. When my 365 days were up I rang ESA and asked what my options were and was told to try for support group as I really have no hope of returning to work. Will just wait and see what they say. On a brighter note, tax credits have made a payment today, and regular payments are scheduled to begin this week, so I can breathe a bit easier today, and I also managed to get a doctors appointment so I can sort out meds and stuff too. Thanks once again for all who have helped.

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply. I have been managing by debts and as of now am still just about keeping my head above water, having not missed any payments so nobody is chasing me - yet! I have already spoken to council about my rent arrears and that is under control, and I paid of council tax arrears to keep away from court - but if i don't pay next weeks payment then I get automatically issued a court summons (plus £42 costs) and according to the council they can do absolutely nothing to help! When i went in before i was in arrears they said they couldn't help until i was behind in my payments - then when i was they said i had had one reminder this year so basically tough - no repayment plan, no time - just pay up or go to court! Flumps I'm not sure how that works exactly because although i have an entitlement as a single claimant, the overpayment was during a joint claim. Do they ask my husband for the other half? I would prefer to sort it on my own as he is currently paying a joint loan (and half the overpayment is less than my half of the loan lol). I think I'm just going to have to ring and see but i get so flustered on the phone, just hope they're patient with me. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to reply, and I'm not so stressed after having a read around the forums. I can see I will get there in the end! Thanks

Apologies first off for giving the wrong impression - we have not separated solely to claim benefits, we have separated because at the moment we cannot live together without arguing and fighting and while most of that has been about money there are other issues that need sorting. Yes, we are hoping that it is not a permanent split, but who knows what will happen while we are apart. Having re-read my post though, I can see how that conclusion has been reached. Secondly, my husband is pursuing the matter, but I know he hadn't given much thought to the missing payslips or the possibility of unpaid tax/NI because he was more focused on the actual money being owed. I will look at the two websites mentioned and have a read through, so thanks both for your replies.

Hi Flumps. I have already filled in and sent back the ESA3 form, it arrived on Thursday and was filled in and sent back the same day. I am going to ring tax credits tomorrow and see what can be done. I know how the overpayment happened but due to circumstances in the run up to the separation it may be possible for them to reduce the amount of overpayment - fingers crossed anyway. Do I only get the 12 months stated to repay though - because I worked out it would be £216 a month if that was the case and I can't see me be ing able to afford that much off benefits! Thanks to all who have helped so far.

Hi all, I could do with a little advice please. In October 2011 my (now estranged) husband started a job, and his contract stated that he would get paid on the last working day of each month, and expenses payments would be made on the 10th of each month. Since the start of this year payments were getting later and later, causing our direct debits to bounce resulting in bank charges. We claimed these charges back on the expenses as the employer fully accepted that this was his fault. However we have not received expenses payments since mid July, and the last salary received was on the 24th August - which was actually July's salary. The employer kept coming up with excuses and promising the wages would be paid (always promising next week!) - meanwhile my husband was doing everything in his power to continue working and meeting his commitments. At the end of September he resigned from this job in order to take up a new position but his ex-employer is still ignoring all communications (calls, e-mails, formal grievances etc). In addition he has not had a payslip since may or June and we have no idea if tax or NI have been paid. The result of all of this is that my husband and i have separated as we had absolutely no money coming into the house and i had to protect the kids and keep a roof over their heads. What I need to do is figure out how to trace whether the tax and NI have been paid (this may also help with a tax credit overpayment that i need to sort), and what (if anything ) my husband can do if the ex-employer hasn't paid these things. Any advice would be immensely helpful right now because sorting all this would enable my husband and I to hopefully put our family back together! thanks

I didn't know that so will look into it tomorrow as i am now desperately needing my meds. Thanks for that.

Thanks for the reply. my overdraft is standing at £2000 and has been for a long time now. I have basically been paying the interest every month without being able to pay it down and have no hope now! I will have to try for a crisis loan this week i think, if nothing is sorted, but having looked the form i was just daunted by it. and of course that is just another thing to try and repay out of no money! i thought the change from ESA contribution to ESA income related would be straightforward - but i should have known better i suppose. just really depressed, exhausted and lost at the moment. i'm usually better than this, but everything is taking it's toll on my mental and physical health, and to top it all off i can't even afford my prescriptions until tax credits is sorted!

HI all, I am desperately in need of some help and advice. This could be quite long so please, bear with me! I have been claiming contribution based ESA for over a year now, in July my payments were stopped, leaving just my contributions being paid. As my husband was working full time this made it difficult, but not impossible, for us to manage despite my husbands employer paying him late, leaving us with bounced payments and therefore bank charges. Then July's wage was not paid until the 24th August, and since then he hasn't been paid at all! Because of this we have separated, due to stress and arguing about money. on Monday I rang tax credits, who cancelled the joint claim in order to set up a new claim, and I also rang ESA, who are also setting up a new claim. Because of this, I am currently living on £33 a week child benefit. I had to pay £100 on my credit card on Thursday to stop court proceedings for overdue council tax, because i can't afford the £84 they were going to add to take me to court. Just to make my week complete i received a letter from Tax Credits on Saturday saying that they had overpaid me £2600 which i need to pay back!!! I have an overdraft and my credit card, and now also this bill from tax credits, and literally no money to pay anything. I don't even know if the children's free school meals have been sorted for tomorrow, so i need to find some money to give them, just in case. My problem (obviously) is that i have all this debt and i really have no place to start. I cant even do a budget sheet because until everything gets sorted (and it could take another three weeks at least) i have no clue what my income is going to be! I have tried to speak to the bank about my overdraft and credit card and they were very unsympathetic to say the least. I don't want to ignore it - it's my debt and i need to pay it - but i just have nowhere to turn at the moment. As an aside - i was in the process of ESA reconsidering my claim to move me from WRAG to Support - anybody know if that process will be stopped due to the changes? Any help or advice at all would be gratefully received.

"AS it stands they already have a summary judegement and it is very easly for them to delvier a charge for payment where enforcement actions will be taken." How can they already have any kind of legal enforcement without the concerned parties being informed?? When we left the property (and this also is true for my mother) we left forwarding addresses, and in my husbands case he hasn't moved since, so we're not exactly hard to track down and inform. And if the debt was owing then surely the council should have written when they discovered there was an outstanding amount 10 years ago. I know my council writes if I am late with my monthly payments, and if this had been the case at the time then we would have arranged to pay it in instalements, so how can they, out of the blue and with a 10 year gap, sudddenly decide that there is an outstanding amount?? I will be querying this with the council but any ideas??

HI everyone and thanks for all the replies so far. My mum does not still have the receipt or final bill but she did ring Fife Council direct after the first letter, and was told by them that she had to prove she'd paid it! Now I don't know anybody who keeps receipts for 10 years, so I have no idea how she is supposed to prove she paid it. Interestingly, the first letter said they would arrest her bank account but the following letter said a doorstep collection would be arranged, guess one hand has no idea what the other is dong lol. I will ring Fife Council on Monday with regards to my husband's alleged debt and see what they say about that. Will update as things progress, and thanks again.

Hi everyone, just looking for a little advice on what to do. Last year my mum received a letter from BCW, stating she owed Fife Council over £100 in unpaid council tax - from the year 2000! This was the first she had heard about this, and in fact she owes them nothing because they forwarded her final months bill to her new address when she moved! I wrote to BCW and basically told them to bog off as this debt was not owing, and in any case it was statute barred. We heard nothing for months, then we got another letter, saying they were goiing to arrest her bank account. Again we wrote and told them where to go, and this week they wrote telling her it wasn't S.B because it was a governement debt and that they were organising doorstep collections. On the same day as my mum received this letter, my husband also received one from BCW, stating that he owes Fife Council over £100 in unpaid Council Tax, and stating that legal proceedings were beginning. Now I know this one is completely made up because the tenancy they are referring to was soley in my name, I gave Fife Council my forwarding address as I was moving from one council to another, and nowhere did this come up when I re-applied to join Fifes housing list a few years ago! Also I'm fairly sure my hub and I were on benefits at the time (10 yrs ago BTW) so C.T wouuld have been paid for us. What can I do now to get rid of these people, and how on earth did they get my husband's details given that it was never a joint tenancy (although he was legitmatly living there). Any help would be appreciated as i'm a bit stuck on what to do now

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied. I will be writing to MIL tomorrow, using the letter 42man recommended. Hopefully this will be the end of it all. I will also put complaints in to the relevant people in the hope that these practices will be stopped! Thanks again guys.

Hi guys, I'm lookng to pick your brains regarding MIL Collections. I've had dealings with Mackenzie Hall before and, following all the advice I received on here, sent them the letter stating that the alleged debt was over 7 years old and therefore statute barred. After that it seemed it was job done, as I heard nothing further. Now, however, I have received two letters from MIL Collections, who are chasing the same debt. I am assuming MH sold this on to MIL. The first letter was the standard "pay up or we'll come to you" type, which i just ignored to be honest, and the second one, received today, is offering me a "Full and final settlement" figure, complete with payment options!! My question is basically can I go on ignoring these as I have already informed MH that I do not acknowledge this debt, and that it is statute barred, or do I have to repeat the whole process with MIL. And will they just keep selling it on forever? This debt is now well over ten years old and I don't want to have to keep repeating myself every year! Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi, I need a little help regarding my Halifax overdraft and credit card. i'm not in arrears YET, but i am struggling and not sure what the best thing to do would be. Basically i have a credit card on which i owe £1700, and an overdraft on which i owe £1960. i don't work (and didn't when i was approved for them) but hubby pays a fixed amount into my account every month to cover the bills and housekeeping. It is not a joint account. I have been paying on time every month but i am only really covering the interest and not repaying any of the actual debt. I'm starting to struggle now with other living costs mounting and hubby's job is looking a bit shaky. If his job goes then i will not be able to pay anything of these debts as obviously food and clothing for the family must be a priority. I did enquire some time ago as to a consolidation loan so that the amount i am paying monthly would actually be reducing the entire debt instead of just the interest, but they said i am not in a position to qualify for a loan, as i have no earnings! I'm just not sure whether it's worth trying to talk to them again, or just struggling through until i go into arrears. Any help/advice would be appreciated as i feel that if i try talking to them i would be as well talking to a wall - they have not been helpful before. Thank you to anyone who replies

Hi, just a quick update. I sent the statute barred letter on 17th march (recorded delivery) and also stated on the bottom that i would not discuss anything via the telephone and all communication must be in writing. Since then they have - of course - phoned me several times over the course of the week, all of which have been ignored by me, but they have not sent any written reply. Now, out of curiosity i obtained my credit report, to ensure i had no CCJ's recorded against me as i know this can affect the statute barring, but nothing is showing. On the off chance that MH staff finally learn to read and write, and actually abide by my wishes, should i just ignore future communications, or just keep sending copies of the statute barred letter?? Anything else i could do to get these muppets of my back?

hi, thanks for that. i wouldn't phone them anyway, but didn't know what i could do. didn't want them phoning me continually as i get very nervous and upset at these kind of calls. think i'll just start call screening so i dont answer any from them!

Hi everyone. i am new to the site and am glad to have found it! a few days ago i got a phone call from a tracing company, who put me through to MH. thay informed me that they are trying to collect a debt from clydesdale bank. when i asked they told me the debt was "pre 2001" , and wanted to know why i had stopped paying, to which i told them it was due to a lot of personal problems at the time. i received a letter from them today, with no mention of clydesdale bank on it, stating a reference number i have never heard of, from a pursuer i have never heard of. now bearing in mind that they told me over the phone it was pre 2001, even if this debt is the clydesdale bank, i have had no contact since at least July 2000. my question is what do i do about this. i have no ccj's on file, so is this now statute barred?? the debt (if it is mine) would have been incurred in scotland and i now live in england so i don't know which country's law applies. i'm making myself sick with worry about this and need some advice please !!