CWO-Bank Statements

novel123

Hi, my washing machine and fridge both broke down at same time. I was in a panic, so my brother paid for them online on his laser card. Now I have receipt from Powercity(had to ring them for a copy), and all the online invoice, delivery dates etc that they send as hard copies from my email account.

The problem is the CWO wants to see a copy of my brothers bank statement,(showing payment to powercity)(he has never been on sw, 64 year old man,lucky him), there is no way he will send either original or a copy to sw even with the bank details etc blanked out. He cannot believe they wld ask for such a thing, he's in for a rude awakening when he goes for his pension in 2 years time lol.

So as i said, have all the documentation showing wm and fridge been delivered to my house. Surely that should be enough for cwo. I am not used to dealing with sw and not sure where i stand on this one. I will be paying him back, just thought a few bob from sw wld help speed the process along, turned into spanish inquisition. lol

Thanks in advance for any advice

fussyonion

Surely he was emailed a receipt/confirmation from Power City?
Can you not just get that and print it out and give it to the CWO?

novel123

hi fussy, thats what i have on hard copy, we went thru my email account and just used his laser to pay. I have about 4 pages confiriming payment, invoice, a thing showing payment online,(no laser details obviously), just transaction number and dates,. As well as receipt posted out to me by powercity. Showing both items being delivered to my address. So d'ont know what she expects.

novel123

I have hard copies of ALL emails from Powercity

LegacyUser

I think the CWO is just trying to get you to prove that it was your brother who paid for the equipment, and not you paying for it out of an account that they don't know about. Does any of the documentation you have confirm that it's your brother who paid, or just a different account than your own?

To be fair, if the CWO isn't satisfied that it was your brother helping you out of a spot, then they have the power to deny you any payment. If the documents just show that they were delivered to your house and not who paid for them, the CWO probably suspects that you have an account that you're not telling them about. They're suspicious ould folks, but I'm sure that's because they've all been conned at one stage or another!

fussyonion

I don't understand the reason behind the CWO wanting to see your brother's bank statement then.
Would have thought the receipt would have been proof enough.
Odd.

novel123

I suppose maybe they might think i am some sort of computer genius who can forge emails. Anyway maybe the receipt in the post will do, as the emails are not proof enough. Would not mind, but the fridgefreezer was 15 years old, and the washing machine 8 years about, so its not like I am up every week looking for handouts. (d'ont make 'em like that anymore!!!lol)

I was just curious if this had happened to anyone else. I think you are supposed to go to them first, and get quotes etc.(but i was panicking and last thought in my mind was about sw or cwo) But since i luckily never had to go about this before, i did not realise, only learning now looking up about it online. Hope I am on the right forum thing here.

Thanks your replies, it is odd, thought email receipt would be enough.

novel123

StateBenefitsHelp wrote: »

I think the CWO is just trying to get you to prove that it was your brother who paid for the equipment, and not you paying for it out of an account that they don't know about. Does any of the documentation you have confirm that it's your brother who paid, or just a different account than your own?

To be fair, if the CWO isn't satisfied that it was your brother helping you out of a spot, then they have the power to deny you any payment. If the documents just show that they were delivered to your house and not who paid for them, the CWO probably suspects that you have an account that you're not telling them about. They're suspicious ould folks, but I'm sure that's because they've all been conned at one stage or another!

thats true I was thinking that too. But I d'ont I can assure you. Well lesson learned if anything happens again. Its just I did not have the money, and did not know what it woud cost etc, if he had given me cash, it would probably be the same story. And i bet they have been conned a lot in the past, Mr brother has worked for the last 46 years(never claimed anything) and does not realise all the hoops and stuff you have to jump through.

But I suppose they have to be careful.

Also I forgot to mention I am on invalidity pension, d'ont know it that makes any difference.
And no even receipt i got in the post does not show name, I suppose they cannot for security reasons
Thanks

Cushie Butterfield

novel123 wrote:

Also I forgot to mention I am on invalidity pension, d'ont know it that makes any difference.
And no even receipt i got in the post does not show name, I suppose they cannot for security reasons
Thanks

That probably doesn't help matters. As Invalidity Pension isn't a means tested payment, the CWO has no idea what other income (e.g. occupational pension or rental income) or savings you may have. Also, for all he knows you could be a) claiming financial help for items that you could actually afford to buy, b) claiming financial help for items that are being used in your brother's household & he simply used your address for delivery, c) claiming financial help for goods which were purchased & returned the following day to Power City & a full refund then processed to the cardholder's bank account, or (d) you gave cash to your brother which he lodged into his bank account to pay for items that he could not normally afford to pay for using his Laser Card. The list of potential cons go on.

In the normal course of events it would be usual for you to show your own bank statements to prove that you cannot afford to pay for the items, & it also wouldn't be unusual for the CWO to actually visit your home to physically see the old broken items. The CWO is also subject to internal system control checks himself, & considering that you did not follow the usual procedure of applying for financial help in advance of purchase & providing prices of the items, proof that you could not afford them & perhaps proof that you had broken ones to begin with it's not really surprising that you are being asked to jump through hoops. You are actually lucky that he is prepared to entertain the matter at all really, as I'm sure you'll admit that it's a bit of a coincidence that both items broke down at the same time.

The only thing I can suggest you do is get your brother to write a short letter to the CWO with his name & address at the top stating something like the following:

To who it concerns,
This is to confirm that on xth September 2013 I paid €XXX.99 for the purchase of a washing machine [model number] & fridge [model number] on the Power City website using my Laser Card number 6304 XXXX XXXX XXXX 6903 (just show the digits that appear on the receipt) on behalf of my sister novel123, who was badly in need of the items as her current ones had broken & could not afford to pay for them to be replaced herself. My sister informs me that you require copies of my bank statements. I do not feel comfortable doing so as I consider this as an invasion of my privacy, but am fully prepared to discuss the matter further with you in person or by phone. I can be contacted at 01-xxx xxxx or 086- xxx xxxx. Yours faithfully....

It might also help if you got confirmation from Power City that they took away a broken fridge & washing machine from your address or that you returned the broken items to them for recycling.

Realistically I can't see the CWO helping you unless you fully comply with his request, especially considering that you didn't follow the correct procedure to begin with. At the risk of sounding harsh I suppose one way of looking at it is if you are in genuine need of financial assistance you will co-operate as best you can with whatever red tape that needs to be complied with. People on decent enough wages would be hard strapped to pay outright for these items, & may themselves have to borrow from family members or a credit union. Maybe if you point out points (a) to (d) from my first paragraph to your brother he might change his mind & supply a copy of his bank statement.

As you say yourself, lesson learned if anything happens again.

novel123

Hi Cushie, thanks for playing devils advocate, none of those ideas crossed my mind, but the way you put it, sure thats what they might be thiniking, I am not a con artist so my mind does not work in that manner. And they must come accorss allsorts of scams in their line of duty.

Firstly, I live in a housing association home. I went over to them to get handyman to come and fix socket and drill a hole in the press to fit in plug for new fridge. I just happened to mention that i got the 2 items(reason i needed handyman, to plumb in washing machine also) I do not spend my days looking to see what my "entitlements" are, being on IP. As last time I got anything from sw the cheque was in was £'s not €'s so that was back in 2001 thereabouts.And I have over 18 years worth of stamps paid that is how I get IP anyway. I digress...lol

Anyway they said ohhh sw might help you out with that, so they sent off a letter with documentation, showing purchase etc, I was all prepared to live even more frugally than usual for the next few months. Like most of us i expect to scrimp and save or borrow if I want to replace anything, and not to dash up to sw doing the poor mouth. I feel lucky that i get a basic weekly payment,
and feel that I should be able to manage on that. Two weeks later THEY got a call back from sw asking to see brothers bank statement. I had no contact with sw at all.

They are also my proof that the stuff was delivered and installed in my house and old stuff taken away as their employee was here when it was. Mind you that was a good idea about proof for the stuff being taken away. So I went up, my first face to face with them, with all my documentation in hand. Overdue bills,(the norm for most of us these days), MY bank statment showing balance on that date(very sad little balance,lol)thus proving no millions in my account. Also credit union statetment showing loan being paid back weekly from years ago, which was incidentally a loan i took out myself to do up house and never asked sw for anything. As i think only local authority houses get so called kit-out loans. My proof of a loan from one of those "high-cost" loan companies that I took out 1 month before this happened, to pay for other unexpected expences that I could not cover at the time. I also had documentation for those unexpected expenses as well. And why on earth would I get one of those "high cost" loans if I had money squirreled away somewhere.

I realised, thanks to you, i had to bring credit union statement along,as bank statement shows it going out every week and I could have had thousands in the cu and be living off the interest. You made me think the way they might think. Ordinarily I am a private person and not used to having to show others how much I really do struggle financially, I hate moaning about my situation as i know others who have to work extremely hard to just about keep a roof over their heads and basic food on the table are a lot worse off than me in this countrys current climate. I was only going to go up with the powercity documentation, till i read your reply, and realised that I had to PROVE my case, not just hope that the cwo would think I was telling the truth.

Anyway after that long winded rant,lol, The cwo was very nice and understanding, eventho i always for some reason, feel like a criminal when dealing with them, hence i have steered clear for 12 years. They just told me to fill out forms and leave it at the reception, so we'll see what happens, i still d'ont expect anything, but it would but a nice surprise and a reliefe to my finances, however I will not count chickens before they are hatched.

By the way the washing machine broke down about a week before the fridge not on the same day like, I was able to cope with that, handwashing stuff etc, took a few days deciding whether to get a new one or someone to fix it, was too old and cost as much , so had decided on new one. The only reason I would say my loyal old fridge broke down, was because I decided to defrost it and moved it out, as I was going to be pulling heavy goods outta that area and was ashamed of what was behind it, if workmen were in I wanted it to look semi respectable.(cause i knew work wld have to be done for sockets etc was dangerous the way it was with extenstion lead) Anyway plugged it back in, it was humming away, 1 day later only noticed cause milk was gone off, and after 15 years service it never came back on again I was proud that fridge had lasted so long, now i w'ont beat my brothers record of his tumble dryer still going after 30 something years, wedding present, loool. And i thought what the "heck" else can happen this week.

And thats the reason I got upset and hysterical, never thought of sw, he was already going to loan me for the washing machine, then I had to break worse news to him. Nither of us could believe both at the same time, but such is life, and I am very lucky that I can turn to some1 in a crisis like that. It was all bought in a blind panic, with the upset of me,lol, at the time(i can lol now)

It was the next day I went over to housing association office about maintenance, and thats when the whole sw thing came up. (In my mind all help with white goods was gone since the demise of bertie and his cronies and no notion about sw or cwo's was in my head) Items were already purchased. I probably should have given more background to my case, but I was just in shock that sw could ask to see someones bank statement that had never been on sw in their 46 years of work and had wondered if this was the norm and if they could do so. But as you pointed out I could have had the money and put it in his account. You really made me stop and think, so I had to prove my own financial situation.

Sorry about this long saga of a post, what you said i did take as harsh at first, then i started to look at it from their point of view. Just having an honest face on me was not going to be enough, ..tis a pity so few ruined it for so many.

Thanks again

novel123

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

That probably doesn't help matters. As Invalidity Pension isn't a means tested payment, the CWO has no idea what other income (e.g. occupational pension or rental income) or savings you may have. Also, for all he knows you could be a) claiming financial help for items that you could actually afford to buy, b) claiming financial help for items that are being used in your brother's household & he simply used your address for delivery, c) claiming financial help for goods which were purchased & returned the following day to Power City & a full refund then processed to the cardholder's bank account, or (d) you gave cash to your brother which he lodged into his bank account to pay for items that he could not normally afford to pay for using his Laser Card. The list of potential cons go on.

In the normal course of events it would be usual for you to show your own bank statements to prove that you cannot afford to pay for the items, & it also wouldn't be unusual for the CWO to actually visit your home to physically see the old broken items. The CWO is also subject to internal system control checks himself, & considering that you did not follow the usual procedure of applying for financial help in advance of purchase & providing prices of the items, proof that you could not afford them & perhaps proof that you had broken ones to begin with it's not really surprising that you are being asked to jump through hoops. You are actually lucky that he is prepared to entertain the matter at all really, as I'm sure you'll admit that it's a bit of a coincidence that both items broke down at the same time.

The only thing I can suggest you do is get your brother to write a short letter to the CWO with his name & address at the top stating something like the following:

To who it concerns,
This is to confirm that on xth September 2013 I paid €XXX.99 for the purchase of a washing machine [model number] & fridge [model number] on the Power City website using my Laser Card number 6304 XXXX XXXX XXXX 6903 (just show the digits that appear on the receipt) on behalf of my sister novel123, who was badly in need of the items as her current ones had broken & could not afford to pay for them to be replaced herself. My sister informs me that you require copies of my bank statements. I do not feel comfortable doing so as I consider this as an invasion of my privacy, but am fully prepared to discuss the matter further with you in person or by phone. I can be contacted at 01-xxx xxxx or 086- xxx xxxx. Yours faithfully....

It might also help if you got confirmation from Power City that they took away a broken fridge & washing machine from your address or that you returned the broken items to them for recycling.

Realistically I can't see the CWO helping you unless you fully comply with his request, especially considering that you didn't follow the correct procedure to begin with. At the risk of sounding harsh I suppose one way of looking at it is if you are in genuine need of financial assistance you will co-operate as best you can with whatever red tape that needs to be complied with. People on decent enough wages would be hard strapped to pay outright for these items, & may themselves have to borrow from family members or a credit union. Maybe if you point out points (a) to (d) from my first paragraph to your brother he might change his mind & supply a copy of his bank statement.

As you say yourself, lesson learned if anything happens again.

Thanks for your help cushie, cld not attach long winded explaination to your message. New to this