Church and State blog: This time the Financial Ombudsman Service tells Declan that it is investigating Network for Church Monitoring's complaint about The Royal Bank of Scotland, not his complaint about NatWest Bank. He tries a second time to correct its line of investigation

Wednesday, July 08, 2020

This time the Financial Ombudsman Service tells Declan that it is investigating Network for Church Monitoring's complaint about The Royal Bank of Scotland, not his complaint about NatWest Bank. He tries a second time to correct its line of investigation

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 at 21:19, Pritti Darbar wrote:
Our ref PNX-3576860-D6B8

Dear Mr Heavey

Network for Church Monitoring's complaint about The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc

We've now got all the information we need to start investigating Network for Church Monitoring's complaint. Once we've looked into things, we'll let you know what we think – and explain the next steps.

If we need anything else from you, we'll get in touch. Please contact me if you need to discuss anything in the meantime.

Kind regards

Pritti Darbar | Investigator | ************

Financial Ombudsman Service | Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR

Our Church and State website has no less than 59 Nobel Laureates on it despite the never-ending assault on our email; see paragraph 2 under "Church and State" on this blog's sidebar (updated today).

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Headquarters in Gogarburn. The RBS owns National Westminster Bank (NatWest).

Declan currently has NatWest Bank (owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland) before the Financial Ombudsman for the cancellation of a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent. And this after he received £100 compensation from the RBS in recognition of his time, travel costs and inconvenience in setting up this and another standing order on 12 February. He has been waiting since 25 February for NatWest to confirm who subsequently cancelled the standing order and why his salary wasn't paid. His salary continues to be paid online by quick transfer from the business account to his personal account. This morning he has tried for the second time to correct the Financial Ombudsman Service's line of investigation:

Your ref: PNX-3576860-D6B8

Dear Ms Darbar,

My complaint about National Westminster Bank Plc.

Thank you for your email. Firstly, as clarified in my previous email, my complaint is my own about National Westminster Bank (NatWest). It is not Network for Church Monitoring's complaint about The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). On 25 February, the deputy manager at NatWest Stratford Branch Broadway complained to NatWest Complaints on my behalf: "Customer's desired outcome for now is to find out who has cancelled the standing order and why it hasn't been paid. Customer is not willing to provide another signature on a new standing order until he knows who has cancelled it and why it has not been paid." Please note that this complaint was not submitted on behalf of Network for Church Monitoring, and nor was it submitted to RBS. I am still waiting for a reply from NatWest Complaints.

The complaint

As I previously clarified, my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman is two-fold: (1) I was not provided by NatWest with a full printout of a standing order to myself for salary purposes that was successfully actioned on 12 February, notwithstanding my repeated requests in person and in writing for same. (2) On 25 February I was informed that this standing order, which had been successfully actioned on 12 February, was subsequently cancelled without my knowledge or consent.

Your previous email stated that the standing order to myself "was not successfully actioned and was cancelled". This too was a mistake. As I previously stated, the RBS Executive Response team assured me in writing on 17 February that there were two new standing orders on the Network for Church Monitoring account payable to me and my wife. It is therefore evident that the standing order to myself had been successfully actioned on 12 February (albeit without a full printout) before it was subsequently cancelled.

I particularly want to know from NatWest Complaints who cancelled the standing order to myself and why - as I did not instruct for this to happen. The cancellation of this standing order has raised security concerns because I do not know who cancelled the standing order or why it was cancelled. This matter continues to take a toll on my time and money through no fault of my own.

For your convenient reference, I previously provided you with the following answers to the questions you asked:

How do you normally set up your standing orders for this account?
In person.

Do you use Online banking to complete any transactions?
Since the standing order to myself was cancelled, my salary has been paid online by quick transfer from the business account to my personal account every two weeks.

What kind of full printout are you asking NatWest to send you to show confirmation of the standing order?
None. I have not provided my signature for a new standing order since the last one to myself was cancelled.

You mentioned you have been provided a copy for your wife's standing order - are you able to send me a copy so I can see the format and relay to NatWest?
I can, but I don't see the relevance. Properly understood, my complaint does not call for a full printout because there is none to be had. The standing order to myself that was successfully actioned on 12 February was subsequently cancelled without my knowledge or consent.

I understand that you are no longer looking for a copy of my wife's standing order.

Yours sincerely,

Declan Heavey

27 June: Despite his earlier dealings with the RBS Executive Response Team, Declan has been waiting over four months to learn from Natwest Bank who cancelled a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent (Financial Ombudsman case ref. PNX-3576860-D6B8)

On 11 March Declan received the princely sum of £9.50 from Royal Mail to refund the postage on our employment contracts to the United States. It is evident from the track and trace report that the mail item was lost by the United States Postal Service one step away from the delivery point. We have had problems with the delivery of this mail item for the past few years. In fact, this was the second time in three years that Royal Mail compensated Declan for his postage of the item. Three years ago the item didn't even make it past our nearby Royal Mail collection office; see my post of 18 February, Mail delivery: I have just discovered that a United States Postal Service image no longer appears in the relevant Royal Mail blog post last year! I have written to MediaFire about this (WITH UPDATE 15/05/20).

From My Pick's:

30 June: District Judge Ruth Fine orders Declan to pay £1,850 in costs. St Mungo's are under no obligation to even vouch over the phone that we are clients of the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's TST programme (WITH UPDATE 08/07/20)

The Central London County Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice.

What the issue in these court proceedings boiled down to was whether the Court would decide that Declan and I should live in a destabilised tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life, simply because the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team in North London (TST North) would not even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs. Declan argued that this was not proportionate and lawful. But District Judge Ruth Fine agreed with counsel for St Mungo's that TST North was not obliged to take such a phone call and ordered him to pay £1,850 in costs. Declan had asked the Judge to take into consideration that St Mungo's had clocked up exorbitant legal fees without mentioning this phone call in their application for strike out. Less than a week later, St Mungo's TST North had agreed to take this phone call for us both. But still our landlord, Peabody housing association, will not renew our tenancy like for like as twice before (Housing Ombudsman ref: 202002510).

Our list of 278 Honorary Associates includes 16 Nobel Prize laureates, 11 US National Medal of Science laureates and 12 knighted professors notwithstanding the excessive targeting of these three categories of emails in particular.

http://churchandstate.org.uk/honorary-associates/

"Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out." Edd Doerr (1930-2020), (then) President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Wednesday, July 08, 2020

This time the Financial Ombudsman Service tells Declan that it is investigating Network for Church Monitoring's complaint about The Royal Bank of Scotland, not his complaint about NatWest Bank. He tries a second time to correct its line of investigation

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