I had been with Natwest for 22 years and had a black account with the Gold Advantage Charge card. I was advised to become a company as I would be delivering a service through several agencies. Unfortunately, due to exceptional circumstances and include a bad personal relationship left me in debt and I am about £8 -9k in mortgage arrears on a house I rent out and a personal overdraft that was £12k. In 6 months that OD was cleared and both business and personal accounts were in the black. The difficulty in meeting the mortgage department for an arrangement to be put in place was mainly because this period was over the summer, they would meet with me after 5pm and if I called at 4.45 they would not deal with me. I sent in 2 income/expenditure spreadsheets but they clearly didnt see them but I managed to set up a DD for the mortgage online and I met the deadline. That evening all three of my accounts were closed. I called the callcentre and they said they didnt have me on record. I tried to log a complaint and they were too busy on the Friday but promised they would be in touch the next day. They never did. As a prelude they stopped my access to online banking even though there was no way of spending money or transferring out into other accounts so it made knowing where I was financially and who had paid me and hadnt. The worst thing is that I couldnt operate, I need supplies, sundries and I was without any money to buy food or even some milk. I told Natwest this but they told me all my funds were transferred into the mortgage. It took a further 3 months to work out what had happened and the cause was not offered to me by the bank whose level of investigation was looking at the screen in front of them whilst on the phone. They hadnt cancelled the previous direct debit so every month the original arrangement would draw funds then the older previously arranged dd would be rejected. This was recorded as a default. I tried to make it clear to them there was an arrangement in place, it utilised a payment system set up and approved by the bank and it was their job to find out where the money was disappearing to every month for three months instead they left it to me. I complained about being oushed further into hardship by continued charges I had no way of keeping track of as the online facility had been taken away four months before they closed me down, failed to log 6 out of 8 attempts to complain and didnt care that I had not a penny for two weeks. They tried to issue a repossesion order and I wrote in to the lawyer to say that was illegal as the account was under dispute. In the meantime, I asked for SAR to get all the account information and after three months all I have is mortgage account copies. The lawyers are now calling me and I am sure its about instructing me to pay the arrears within the week or they would issue a repossession order on the house. They cancelled the direct debit that existed so I was conscious to keep puttting funds in every month but trying to function without a bank account lost me more money and irretrievably lost more clients. I am expecting a lump sum of money that will clear the arrears but the knock on effect meant that I was late paying my suppliers and one has taken a county court judgement out against me and bankruptcy is where I am at if I dont have some means of a reprieve. Yes, they said that if i didnt have an arrangement in place my account woud be closed and they talked about recovery. Sounded to me it was going to get better! The arrears werent as much as my overdraft which i cleared in less than 6 months and they had said the the charge card was a different legal entity and when I called the credit card company customer services before they closed my accounts they said that there wasnt any money owed and that it would be fully operational once the mortgage arrangement was in place. That wasn't true and I also lost my 36,000 reward points as I had no online access and frankly more serious things to worry about. i cant really afford a litigation lawyer at the moment and have little faith in the FSA from what I am reading. The banks replies to my complaints are to issues that weren't raised and they have not taken notice of my plea to allow me access to funds I had to eat and drink. I was not notified clearly that every account would be closed down and as far as I am concerned there was an arrangement in place that obviously isnt integrated into the RBS network as they couldn't see that the money had been taken from the holding account and HSBC provided a fast pay reference number. You cannot open another bank account if you have mortgage arrears is what every other bank told me but once I called the Business Debtline they advised me to walk into a bank and ask to open an account. Why didnt the other banks suggest this to me? A week after submitting an application form for a Cashminder account with the coop was i able to restart rebuiding what Natwest pulled down.

Hi This morning I had to attend an interview with the Compliance Officer at the local Job Centre. I am the appointee and official carer for my daughter who is receipt of ESA (Support Group) and we went to a family wedding in Turkey for 7 days in June 2014. Apparently I am meant to inform them when my daughter goes on holiday for a week, firstly I would like to know if this is true as I thought it was longer than this. The second thing I would like to clarify is that since this holiday someone has informed the DWP that my daughter is living abroad in Turkey with a Turk which is totally untrue. After this holiday my daughter broke off her long term relationship with a boyfriend who she was not living with, they both had seperate properties and since then has moved back into my home with me due to harassment and other problems, my daughter has mental health problems. We attended a Compliance Interview this morning in which she showed her passport, I had to show some I.D. and I provided written confirmation that my daughter is living with me. The Compliance Officer used bullying tactics which were way over the top, it is a good job that I know the Benefits system quite well as I used to work at the Citizens Advice Bureau but that was a few years ago now. This officer was like a rabid dog with a bone and treated us both terribly. She has stated that my daughter is not even allowed to stay overnight anywhere with her new boyfriend nor he with her when she is in receipt of ESA, is this correct because if so then that would mean that nobody under the new system would be allowed to have a normal relationship. I did state I was very unhappy with the bullying tactics and that I was going to complain at a higher level. Can somebody on this site please enlighten me on the new rules in regard to ESA. I appreciate any help in this matter. My daughter is 26 years old.

I parked overnight at Asda Living in Maidstone from 22:49 to 06:30 on 14/15 August 2013 on my way to France and have received a parking notice for £90 dated 20/8/2013. During my absence in France I also received a reminder dated 23/09/2013 and a "Letter before county court claim" dated 8/10/2013. I have subsequently received a letter warning of court action. On my return to the UK on 14/10/2013 I responded to the correspondence on 16/10/2013 advising of my absence, pointing out that the business was closed (Opening hours 9am to 8pm) and asking for calculations of the charge, confirmation of their entitlement to raise the court action and the name of the landowner. PE has now replied (See attachments) and stated that the appeal period had elapsed, and included 7pages of legal cases and why they are entitled to pursue the claim. I have now replied and asked for a POPLA number and asked for confirmation that the court action has been suspended pending the POPLA appeal. Suggestions for future action would be appreciated

I wrote to my MP about whether or not my boyfriend could stay overnight, he stated that if I could prove he was living somewhere else then it would not be considered as living with me if he had letters addressed elsewhere, didn't eat with me, didn't buy things or make any financial offering to me. I checked with Social Services who said your benefit wasn't affected if it was 3 nights per week or less. BUT in 2008, just prior to my partner moving in, I had a letter from DWP saying they were going to visit me as they had had a report that my partner was living with me. I was told, that my partner could not stay overnight 1 night, as this would be considered as living together. I was told if I went away on holiday with him, this would be considered as living together. Surely, 8 years on this can't still be the case???

Ive had a 'friend' staying with me for 5 months. I drafted a written tenancy agreement with him and stated I was happy to wait until he had sorted out housing benefit to pay rent to me or to the housing association that the house belongs to. Written permission from the association was sought and granted, and the application was put in. After 5 months of him piddling about I finally had enough as I hadn't received a penny. I told him rent in a week or your out. He subsequently did a bunk leaving the house in a disgusting state as I had been away for a couple of weeks looking after an ill relative. I have an address that he has post sent to but not the address where hes actually living. Ive spoken to housing benefit who inform me that he failed to return documents they had asked for so his claim had been rejected. I am unable to appeal to recover rent Ive paid as he has to be the one to register an appeal. The housing association have said theres very little they can do but recommend legal action. Ive started a claim on moneyclaim.gov but havent finalised it yet as £70 is a lot of money to start the claim when Im unsure of my legal stance. Advice anyone?????

Good Friday Ladies and gentlemen, A couple of wee ago I was aked to go to see a machine on another site (the site in question is the company who are manufacturing the machine for my employers, not otherwise connected to my employers) As this was a good distance away, my employers booked a hotel room for one night for myself and three colleagues (they are salaried, whereas I am paid by the hour, weekly) We left at 5pm on a Sunday and didn't return until 10pm on the Monday. At the moment my hours are 8-4:30 Monday to Friday. I questioned whether I should receive pay for the time away from home, but all my employers have said is that I could have an afternoon off in lieu. Personally, I do not feel this is fair but as the employee, I would feel that way. I don't expect to be paid for 24 hours, but do think the five hours from 5-10pm both days should be paid as I was off site, away from home (during school holidays!) and on company business. Could anyone offer advice as to how this stands legally, ideally with detail of what I should quote? If they are absolutely, legally, right then that is as it is and I wouldn't expect them to do any more.