Not grasping the nettle

I am somewhat disappointed  in the Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition's planned welfare changes. What they amount to is beating sick people with a stick and threatening to take away their benefits because ATOS is incapable of making a fair assessment of whether they can  work.  This is why so many people appeal and there is up to a 9-month wait for a tribunal hearing.

What I wanted to hear is that the ESA/ATOS system would be scrapped and the DWP would go back to relying on the opinions of the health professionals closest to the claimant who are best placed to know if that person is fit to work or not. ESA/ATOS treats people with mental health issue particularly unfairly, putting them under additional and unnecessary stress. - the coalition really has to ask the mental health charity Mind about this.

Ian Duncan Smith seems to have fallen into the Conservative trap of thinking that work is a cure-all for everything and worse still, that jobs for the unemployed can simply be conjured out of thin air in a recession. There is no incentive or requirement whatever for any UK company to inform the local JobCentre when it has vacancies. Some companies hardly ever advertise OR tell the JobCentre, they rely entirely on internal promotions and word of mouth if they need new people.

People who have a job simply have no idea what it is like living on benefit. A recent TV programme showing an MP living with people on benefit seemed to have little effect. Take my bank Halifax. They have just decided with no consultation or discussion to take away my overdraft. They didn't consider first what the effect would be or ask about it. Now they are expecting me to live AND pay back some of the overdraft and want to take nearly a third of my benefit income to do so. Their customer service is absolute poo. It has so far taken me over 2 hours total phone time to even get to a department who has a tiny bit of sympathy for this problem. They say blandly that yes, they realise what a disaster it is to lose the ability to pay direct debits and standing orders, or just to go and use my debit card to buy food, but I'm darn sure they don't.

In the end they agreed I could have some of my last lot of benefit to pay for essentials and I had to suffer the humiliation of standing in the middle of the bank with other customers around to tell my story to someone on the banking floor, and then being escorted to the cashier who was told in a loud voice how much she could give me and why this was being done. A little trust would have been nice, telling me I could withdraw up to a specific amount via my debit card in the ATM or over the counter without the loud accompaniment.

The overdraft level I am currently on was GIVEN to me by Halifax last year, it was just increased from its previous level. In the circumstances I was in then, I had no choice other than to use it. At that time, they were snatching outrageous amounts of money from me for every transaction if I went over my overdraft. Expecting that the courts would tell them that those charges were unfair, they switched me to a differently named current account but the charges are still very steep and I understand other customers who have been hit hard by them too, are considering another court action. Basically, Halifax charges BEFORE the change of account last December are responsible for me reaching the level of overdraft I am at now. So, when they call me back later in the day to have another discussion about it, I will remind them about that.

Banks need to take a very new and different attitude to customer financial difficulties. At present, this service is phone based. I can't go and talk to someone from the 'customer priority team' in my branch. I wouldn't even mind going to a larger branch a few miles away if they had one person in each big city or major town.

My stress levels have taken a major beating this week and it has taken every bit of determination that I would not give up and self-harm, but I can tell all of my readers that it has come very near it, to the extent of sitting on Hayling Island beach and considering suicide by drowning. Why should I let these heartless bastards win. They can't even run their own business - Halifax having been taken over by Lloyds TSB last year - what do they really know about running mine? Onwards and upwards.

BRITISH BANKS MAINTAIN UNFAIR CHARGES SCAM

UK banks are hanging on to the bitter end over the issue of unfair overdraft charges.

The basis of the consumer driven court action against them is that you cannot enforce a contractual agreement if the terms are unfair. The banks have an appeal in train and the judicial system has allegedly postponed a decision because the judge is engaged on another case – or perhaps the current economic situation was forseen long before it became public.

This afternoon I have had an extremely acrimonious argument with the manager of Halifax, West Street, Havant regarding such charges.

Bear in mind that HBOS may shortly be taken over by Lloyds TSB. I haven’t been and asked Lloyds whether their charging policy is any different, maybe I should.

The first excessive charge was made on a day when I wasn’t actually overdrawn at all, according to the statement I received. I should say, straight away that I manage my account online and the statement and the notifications that charges would be applied were automatically notified by email. No human intervention or action whatever - £35 per ITEM, not £35 for each day over the limit.

The not-particularly-pleasant manager, with whom I have had charges disputes before was adamant that I should have moved the money the day BEFORE the direct debit was due to come out. Surely what should matter is the balance at the END of the day!

I recall the day that happened too., My credit card statement said that my monthly payment would be taken on 1st November, so I went in on 31st to ensure that funds were available. At that time, the monthly direct debit was not showing on my customer screen. Yet, when the manager showed me the bank view, not only was the DD showing before the credit, there was another charge from later in the day that also showed up before the credit – eh???

Even if you take the bank view of the sequence of events, I would have been less than £3 over the limit for less than 12 hours. The manager was unable to explain why the statement I was waving angrily at her showed a completely different story and could only repeat, tight-lipped that the DD was processed first and so the bank were entitled to make the charge.

The second incident was not just one but FIVE separate charges for transactions made when my account was over the limit. Now I hold up my hands and say I forgot to cover a payment made over the phone to my energy company on a Friday evening. The banks can manage to generate charges and log transactions over a weekend, but still claim that these are not working days for the purposes of crediting one’s account.

Yes I DID go over my limit and ONE charge might have been justified, but not £175 worth of charges for going over my limit by a far lower amount. One of those £35 charges was for a transaction for just £5 - all this notified by email.

I should also mention that I have thousands of pounds in savings accounts with the Halifax – surely some kind of security. Other banks have a flexible account that would take such credit into consideration.

If the banks’ appeal succeeds it will make a mockery of the law that says you can’t enforce an unfair contract.

Meanwhile, from conversations with friends, it would appear that HBOS are one of the worst offenders when it comes to unfair overdraft charges. If you were considering moving your account there, or doing any other kind of business with them, I would suggest you think again.

Possibly it is their bad reputation in this respect that is responsible for their current precarious position. A bank that was not so greedy and unreasonable might be more successful at keeping their customers.