Managed to stay up later last night (Until 10!)to watch the Panorama Programme re: Losing your home. My heart went out to all in the programme, especially Patricia, who was battling breast cancer and still obviously receiving treatement, She had owned her home for 15 years and had been able to pay the mortgage whilst working… And then , bam, diagnosed with breast cancer, lost job and then lost her home. Shame on you Barclays! I think the arrears amounted to approx £9,000 which is not a lot in the scheme of things (I am sure the blooming CEO of Barclays earns more than that per minute!) and she had offered to pay the £37 weekly arrears from her benefits. But no, not good enough, so they took her house.
I am sure there is probably more to it than the programme makers showed, but it highlights the difficulties we all face when we are given a life-threatening, life-changing diagnosis of cancer. All of us have to go through treatment of some kind, whether it is invasisve surgery, debilitating chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, as well as the other hormone and targeted therapies. Trying to keep “normal” when you are constantly up and down to the hospital is hard work in itself! I have foud getting any benefits pretty difficult and extremely stressful and its depressing having to go down that route anyway. Have worked all my life, even when pregnant and had children, payed taxes and NI but it seems I don’t really qualify for benefits per se - I don’t seem to fit the criteria i.e “unemployed, unemployable, lazy, rough, layabout, multitude of children from different fathers, drug and/or alcohol dependent, Fradulent/ con artists, claiming benefits not entitled to but still receieving them and generally non-member of society” - decent hardworking citizens or people in genuine need should not apply.
Shame on you Barclays Bank. And shame on David Cameron and the government too! I would hope if anyone in your family was ever so unfortunate to be in a similar position you would show some common decency. Shame, shame, shame.
Hi Spookymoo,
Agree with all you say, it is utterly shameful that these banks are allowed to get away with such immoral behaviour. I will look out for this programme on Iplayer. Unfortunately, my situation is not dissimilar to that women.
Like you I am battling with the benefits situation. It is at times unfathamoble with endless form filling, getting money on the one hand from them and having it taken off on the other. Like you I have worked and was working right up to the point of dx - It’s so unfair.
Throw in an errant ex…to boot.
WS
I echo everything you have said spookymoo. There is something very very wrong with a system that rewards laziness yet punishes decent hard-working people who through no fault of their own get this horrrible disease (and other serious illness too). And typical of any bank to apply ‘rules’ not logic or compassion - grrrrrr!
Don’t talk to me about Barclays. I’ve banked with them for donkeys years since the took over the old Woolwich BS. Husband since he was a student in the late 70s. A year after I finished treatment we asked them for a mortgage as we’d bought a rental property just before my diagnosis. The money we had for the renovation had to be spent when I was ill as I couldn’t get benefits. We owned the flat and our house outright at that point. They turned us down on the basis they wanted umpteen years worth of accounts for our business which they knew we couldn’t provide as it had only been trading 3 years.
I also had a do with building insurance I took out with them at my last house, which unfortunately was wrecked by a burst pipe. Their loss adjusters instructed the builder to cut corners and we had to go through a second drying out and refurb because of it.
Barclays have caused me untold stress in the past so I’m not surprised they would take that lady’s house away.