stella41b
Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007 From: SW London (UK) Status: offline
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This is a big issue here in the UK. A High Court judge ruled some time back that people on means-tested benefits do not have to pay bank charges because they are living on the minimum amount of money the Government considers that anyone can live on. I got caught up in this last year when I had my Incapacity Benefit stopped unfairly leading to 2-3 months without any income where all my utility bills were paid by direct debit via my bank. During this time I had no income whatsoever and it took almost three months and the intervention of two local MPs to put things right. This is why I spent much of last year unable to do anything and in a position where I could have ended up street homeless within weeks. I had negotiated extra time with all the utility companies, electricity, gas (who installed a pre-payment meter), water and phone.But when everything was sorted out and I started to receive payments and with arrears, the bank took everything in bank charges for the returned direct debits for the three month period and it reached the stage where I was about to have my electricity and gas cut off and be taken to court over water when I managed to get my local MP to intervene again to get the bank to refund the bank charges it took so that I could pay my bills and the arrears. The bank refunded only half the bank charges and sent me a snotty letter saying that it might 'consider' refunding the other half if I managed my account better. A month later however the bank started to take back the bank charges it has refunded and even started to implement bank charges when the direct debit wasn't taken on the day it should have been. In challenging the bank over this the bank blamed the utility companies for not managing their direct debits effectively and causing me to incur bank charges. Therefore again I was left without any income.. However I was lucky not only because the utility companies were again patient and understanding but also because near where I live there is a company which makes sandwiches which it sells in offices, and I was able to take some of the sandwiches left over out of the dustbin late in the evening to feed myself. But sometimes there weren't any sandwiches so I had to go elsewhere looking behind other shops which sold food for whatever they threw out in their dustbins. I took the bank on over this citing the law, but the bank keep citing 'terms and conditions' like parrots and clearly have no intention of following or respecting the law. The same bank held me in check right through to Christmas and kept me on welfare benefits because had I have gone self-employed I would have become immediately insolvent through not having any income. This is what has set back the development and plans for my theatre and charity by at least nine months and in the end I had to change the bank. They might think they've won but let me tell you folks it isn't over. It wasn't even a proper bank, but a building society pretending to be a bank, and in its advertising it even claims to be better than a bank. But you know if I had a choice of letting them or the Russian mafia handle my finances I'd take the gangsters from Moscow any day because they would be more trustworthy. I'm waiting till I get myself straight, but I've kept all the papers and the statements and I intend to get all that money they stole from me under the guise of bank charges back. Let's see them bang on about 'terms and conditions' in a county court and let's see what a judge thinks about their 'terms and conditions' in a country which like the United States operates on case law and where High Court judges make a ruling for a reason. If that fails I'll write a play about them.. complete with song parodies. I'm sorry but I can feel emotions stirring here.. memories are fresh about only being able to find food you need to cook and having nothing in the gas meter, or having to dig down deep into a dustbin and feel your way through black rubbish sacks looking for food, or washing cigarette butts and ash out of rotting chicken which you've got to cover in curry powder because you ain't eaten anything for three days. It's not that I'm able to buy food which gets me the most, but that I have to learn not to be afraid to buy food. I still dream about a revolution where all the banks, financial advisors, and the rest of the parasites, chancers, freeloaders and jivers who do nothing more than sponge off our economy are rounded up to do some good honest work in the fields. Not only will the country get a decent day's work out of these people, but it also might bring it home to them the misery, stress and hardship they've caused not only to those not working, but millions of honest, decent, hardworking people Sponsored by Nabwest Bank. Looking for a student loan? Yes? Fuck off!
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