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LLOYDS BANKING GROUP'S APOLOGY AND THE DEBT ASSISTANCE SCHEME

 LLOYDS "SORRY"

The Lloyds Banking Group faces a huge compensation bill after a large number of its customers couldn’t access their money. A computer glitch affected 7000 of their cash points. The computer glitch being that Lloyds aren’t using the latest technology but have now promised to upgrades their system from a Commodore 64 to the very latest Windows 2000.

Furious customers vented their anger on social media. None were more angry than those who were unable to pay for their petrol and they are demanding that Lloyds include a big bottle of Listerine as part of the compensation. They hope this will take the taste of petrol out of their mouths after petrol station staff handed them a hose and a jerry can and told them “You can’t pay for your petrol so we want it back”.

The bank Chief Executive Paul Pester took to Twitter to apologise, and once someone had showed him how to open a Twitter account and how to post on Twitter, then ran through it with him a further six times he tweeted: it didn’t affect me because I’m with Santander.

He added: I’m working hard with my team now to try to fix the problem.

When he says team he means a book called Computing for Dummies.

THE DAS SCHEME.

Official statistics released this morning by The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), Scotland’s insolvency service, show that personal insolvencies have decreased by 2.2 per cent on the previous quarter and by 13.7 per cent on the same quarter of the previous year.
There was a total of 3,335 personal insolvencies in Scotland this quarter, with the level of reduction being low compared to other quarters this year, but still in line with the longer term trend which shows a general decline since 2008-09.
The use of the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), a Scottish Government debt management tool, continues to increase with 1,181 applications having been approved and a total of £7.7 million being repaid in this quarter.
Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing, said:
“The overall demand for statutory debt solutions in Scotland continues to decline. The number of bankruptcies awarded in Scotland has been decreasing since 2008-09 and we expect this to continue.

“However, we must also recognise that - within this overall, decreasing trend – the proportion of people entering bankruptcy, with little income and few assets, is rising. This quarter, 49.4 per cent of all applications were made via the ‘Low Income, Low Asset’ route. This is a 7.9 percentage point increase, compared to the equivalent figure from last year.
“Scotland’s bankruptcy legislation has to do more to provide a safety net for vulnerable, low-income debtors and their families. That is why we are introducing a new ‘Minimal Asset Process’ (MAP), which will provide quicker, cheaper and more effective debt relief to those who need it most; and that is why the Scottish Government will slash the application fee for entry to the MAP by at least 50 per cent. These measures will be part of the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Bill, which has its stage 2 consideration today.
 “While it is encouraging to see that personal insolvencies have gone down, it is important that we continue to work towards helping people stay out of debt and we will invest in supporting an educational programme to provide financial education to those most at risk.
“We are working towards a ‘Financial Health Service’ for Scotland, by introducing new legislation to provide a modern system of debt advice, debt relief and debt management. We will also continue to raise awareness across Scotland of the negative impact of high interest borrowing and promote Credit Unions as an ethical, sensible alternative. 
“It is good to see that the use of the Debt Arrangement Scheme remains high, with more people using the scheme to take control of their finances and pay back their debts in a dignified way”.
www.consumerkings.co.uk 

DISABL ED.

Ed Balls after making his 50 tax speech he caught getting into his car which his driver had parked in a disabled bay. His driver explained that he thought that being Ed Balls counted as a disability, but being Ed Balls technically isn’t a disability, not technically.  Having a head that is 95% face doesn’t entitle him to a blue badge.

He is however a liability.

Ball’s staff claimed he had no idea the car was parked illegally because the car had been booked by a TV company. What?, the signs saying Disabled Parking and the big wheelchair painted on the space didn’t give it away. Did Balls see the big wheelchair painted on the space and think “That Banksy has been at it again”?

When his staff claimed that Balls had no idea the car was parked illegally, they could have stopped that statement half way through, as in stopped after “Balls had no idea” that would sum the man up.

On his 50p tax announcement. Blah blah blah. He claimed that such a move would raise £900b whereas most normal people say it will raise a mere £100m. But Balls is insistent that it will raise a £900b because a man he met in the pub told him it would.

It’s all so predictable. If the Tories had said they were doing the 50p tax thing you just know that Balls would be blah blah blahing that this was an attack on business. Labour entire strategy is simply no more than saying the opposite of what the Tories say.

On The Andrew Marr Show Balls said “This isn’t an anti business, it’s an anti business as usual agenda”. I wonder how long it took him to come up with that terrible sound bite. I’m guessing months and months.

He told Andy that it was a fair measure to be used while Labour reduce the huge deficit it will inherit if it wins the election in 2015. That’s actually believable because if there is one thing Balls knows about it is huge deficits having personally helped create the hugest one ever as part of the last Labour administration.

Ex Labour Minister Lord Digby Jones criticised Ball’s cunning plan calling it “lousy economics” whereas Alistair Darling said “Digby?, his parents couldn’t have liked him very much”.

So what else would Balls do with the money raised if he ever became the Chancellor? Seems half would go on deficit reduction and the other half would go on a campaign to make people aware of disabled parking restrictions. The latter would be money well spent.

ESCAPE CLAUSE

Consumers no longer have to stick with telecoms providers who raise their prices unexpectedly.

Operators often promise a fixed price when selling a contract, but subsequently increase their charges.

Under new rules drawn up by telecoms regulator Ofcom for mobile phone, landline or broadband contracts, providers now have to give customers 30 days' notice of such changes.

If customers then decide to switch, they cannot be charged a penalty.

The plans were proposed by Ofcom last October, but take effect from 23 January.

Pay TV will be included where it is part of a package, but not where it is sold on its own.

"We have reached an important milestone in our work to ensure consumers and small businesses have better protection against unexpected price increases," said Claudio Pollack, Ofcom's consumer group director.

We are concerned that some customers may miss their opportunity to switch if they miss the notification”

Dominic Baliszewski Broadbandchoices

Ofcom found that 10 companies, including Vodafone, BT, Sky and Virgin Media, had put up prices, having originally promised a fixed-price deal when customers took out the contract.

It looked at more than 1,000 complaints about the practice.

Telecoms operators said that they have to put up prices when their own costs go up.

Vodafone, for example, said it had to pay more for services like directory enquiries.

But along with other firms, it has agreed to the changes.

'Sneaky tactics'

The new rules mean that providers are still free to raise prices, but they have to give a month's notice if they do so.

Customers who decide to switch provider as a result will not have to pay an exit fee.

The same applies if the provider reduces the number of minutes, or the amount of data provided, rather than actually increasing the charges.

"This should avoid any sneaky tactics being used," said Dominic Baliszewski of the comparison site Broadbandchoices.

But he warns that customers only have 30 days to switch, after they receive notice of the increase.

"We are concerned that some customers may miss their opportunity to switch if they miss the notification, for example, if they are away for a few weeks on holiday," he said.

Ofcom has also produced a checklist to advise customers what to look for when they are taking out a new telecoms contract.

Telecoms firms will, however, still be able to stipulate in their contracts that prices may rise, even though the contract is for a fixed period.