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You and Yours - Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 07.01.10 - Mental Health PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON Some people with bipolar disorder are prone to go on spending sprees - buying things they wouldn't usually want and can't afford, even sometimes giving away large sums. Last month we reported on the case of Emma - her mother has the condition and is behind with payments on her mortgage, with loans and credit cards. Five years ago - at the age of 61 - she was given an interest only mortgage, despite having a history of problems with debt and a patchy work record. Emma, who has power of attorney, over her mother's finances has had to step in and here's what she said in December. EMMA I'm a fairly articulate confident reasonably well educated person and they actually reduced me not only to tears but I was left shaking at the end of my phone call with them. I was being asked why I couldn't take on her mortgage, which I felt really a third party - it isn't fair of them to question whether or not I can pay her mortgage because this is actually an interest only mortgage for the rest of her life so assuming she beats the depression we could be talking 20 to 30 more years, I'm in my 40s I could be retired and still have a mortgage then. And secondly, I was being questioned as to if I knew about her problems why I hadn't done more to help her sooner and I think anybody who has a parent with mental health problems will understand - the relationships are extremely difficult and strained. And if there was anything I could do, as a daughter, to prevent these problems or help her illness I would have done it. ROBINSON The mortgage lender in Emma's mother's case is the Halifax and we contacted them in December and they told us that they would get in touch with Emma and they would try to help. So we decided to get in touch with her again and see what's happened since. Emma, did the Halifax contact you? EMMA Unfortunately no, I'm still waiting to hear from them. ROBINSON And what is your mother's situation now? When we spoke to you last time she was in danger of losing her home - is that still the case? EMMA The situation hasn't really changed. I am exploring the possibility of her getting mortgage assistance relief but that's by no means certain and wouldn't necessarily actually be enough to allow her to stay in her property. ROBINSON She has other creditors doesn't she? EMMA She does yes. There are also unsecured debts, although they're not of such a worry to me as the fact that the mortgage on the secured debt that the Halifax have given her could leave her without the security of the house to live in. ROBINSON So the Halifax lent your mother both a mortgage when she was 61 and other unsecured loans - is that right? EMMA Yes subsequently to giving her a mortgage they've given her what they call consolidation loans - which to my mind just allow her then to obviously get into more debt. One of those loans is a secured loan so it's effectively an additional mortgage and the other loan is an unsecured loan - so they've lent her an additional £20,000 on top of the original mortgage. ROBINSON They are now - what - pursuing her with a view to taking the house back? EMMA Well at the moment I've got a breathing space where they're not charging her any interest until the middle of this month - to give me time to work out what to do. But I really don't know what I can do in order to resolve the situation because if she sells the house she's left with not really enough money to buy another house. ROBINSON Does your mother grasp the seriousness of the situation she's in? EMMA I think so but I think she thinks that I can just sort it out for her. ROBINSON Are you able to support her financially though? EMMA This mortgage will run if she stays there for the rest of her life. If there were a couple of years to go on it then that would be very different. But the term of the mortgage is another 35 years. ROBINSON The last time you came on to the programme we heard from the charity MIND and they said that companies are not allowed to ask people, like your mother, if they have any history of mental illness but even so you feel the Halifax must have known she was a very poor credit risk? EMMA They definitely knew that because of previous debts and the year after she took out the mortgage, when she first started getting into difficulty, I contacted them and informed them of that. So they're definitely aware of that but they still continue to lend her more money. ROBINSON They haven't contacted you since you came on the programme, despite telling us that they were going to do that - that they were going to contact you and try to help you. Have you made anymore efforts to contact them? EMMA I wrote to them and asked them for various pieces of information and I sent that by recorded delivery before Christmas and they have sent me an account for the last year of her mortgage payments - or lack of - and that's the only contact I've had from them. ROBINSON Are you dealing with a specialist at the Halifax or are you going again and again through the call centre? EMMA I haven't actually rung them again because when they said on Radio 4 they would ring me I expected that they would do so and having had such an unpleasant experience with speaking to somebody in a call centre I really feel that I need to speak to somebody who has the seniority to actually answer my questions about why this money was lent in such an irresponsible fashion. ROBINSON Well Emma thank you. As you'd expect we contacted the Halifax again and they told us in a statement: "We want to do all we can to help any customer who's struggling to pay the mortgage. We advise customers or their power of attorney to get in touch with us as soon as they believe they cannot make a payment. We treat all matters of this nature with extreme urgency and we'll be contacting the power of attorney with immediate effect." They made no mention though of why they'd broken that promise to contact Emma initially and obviously we'll continue to chase this case up. 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