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Making a claim to the Morses Scheme [old article]

UPDATE – Morses Club went into administration on 17 November 2023. This scheme has now been terminated. See Morses Club goes under – in administration – Scheme fails for details and what customers should do.

Morses sent out a batch of decisions on 6 July 2023. Many people have found these confusing – see the comments below this article.

At one point the email says in a grey box:

“Morses Club currently estimate that under the terms of the Scheme, you will receive approximately 20% of this amount and that this will be paid to you in the fourth quarter of 2024.” 

Further down it says in normal text on white:

What you need to do now
We will pay any refunds due to you electronically to your bank account, within 30 days of this notice.

So many wanted to know which is right – are they being paid now, or in more than a years time?

Morses has now clarified that the refunds that are being paid in the next month are to a limited number of customers where:

  • they have a current loan
  • their claim has been upheld
  • the redress (legal-speak for compensation) for the loans is greater than the remaining balance
  • the customer has made payments after 30 May 2023
  • it is these recent payments only that are being refunded now, NOT the cash element of the compensation – that will be paid towards the end of 2024.

Morses Club plc [“Morses”] proposed a Scheme of Arrangement in December 2022. This Scheme has now been approved by the Court and started on 30 May 2023.

Customers now need to make claims to the Scheme before the deadline on 30 November 2023. UPDATE – it is no longer possible to make a claim

The details of the proposed Scheme are in the Explanatory Statement. 

Background to the Scheme

What is unaffordable lending?

A lender has to check that a loan is affordable for the borrower before giving the loan. The Ombudsman has listed the points it looks at when considering an affordability complaint.

A simple summary is:

it has to appear likely at the point a loan is given that you will be able to repay it on time, without being left so short of money that you have to borrow more or get behind with bills. So a loan that was paid on time may still have been unaffordable if paying off Morses meant that you had to take another loan from Morses or another lender or your credit card or overdraft increased.

An affordability complaint is sometimes called an irresponsible lending complaint.

Morses financial problems

Morses faces three main financial problems.

First, it has been paying out increasing large amounts in affordability complaints. Doorstep lending has often involved customers taking out a series of loans as the high interest leaves them unable to manage without more credit. So a lot of these cases were unaffordable and Morses, like other doorstep lenders, failed to make adequate checks.

The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) was upholding 57% of complaints against Morses in the first half of 2022.

A Morses review has identified a potential gross redress owed to customers of £112m. It is working on the basis that only 40% of this would be claimed in a Scheme.

Secondly, its revenue, loan book and the number of customers have all been falling this year as it has tightened its lending criteria. It describes its operations as being constrained by the shrinking borrower base. This applies to Dot Dot loans as well as doorstep lending.

Thirdly, Morses current funding ends in March 2023. It says:

as the current funding facility is in place for less than 6 months following the date of signing the Financial Statements, there is material uncertainty in relation to going concern regarding secured funding.

The Scheme details

What is NOT included in the Scheme

The proposed Scheme does NOT cover:

  • any doorstep lending complaints which are not about unaffordable lending;
  • any doorstep lending affordability complaints about loans after 2 August 2022;

These excluded complaints will continue to be handled in the normal way. Take one of these complaints first to Morses (email mcl.complaints@morsesclub.com) and send the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) if Morses rejects it.

Comparison with other similar schemes

The main difference with the Provident Scheme is that Provident was closing its doorstep lending operation, but Morses hopes to carry on lending.

The Morses Scheme follows broadly the same path as the Amigo Scheme, requiring investors to contribute through an equity raise.

Morses Club Scheme timetable

  • 7 March 2023 – Court Convening hearing – this approved the voting arrangements.
  • April 2023 – Customers voted on whether they want the Scheme to proceed.
  • May 2023 – Court Sanction hearing – this approved the Scheme, so it has now started.
  • 30 May – 30 November 2023 – customers have 6 months to submit a claim to the Scheme. 
  • 2024 – refunds expected to be paid. UPDATE – this will no longer happen as part of the Scheme

What happens after you have made a Claim

Morses will decide whether to uphold your Claim. You will get an email saying that your Outcome Statement is ready. You can access it through your Portal Account.

I think it’s worth checking your Portal Account every month to see if there is an update there. If your claim is rejected you can appeal this, but there will be a time limit. So don’t forget to keep looking for this.

What refund may you get?

If an affordability complaint is upheld in the Scheme, the compensation (called “redress”) is calculated:

  • for upheld loans that have been repaid, the redress is the interest paid;
  • for outstanding upheld loans, interest is removed so the borrower only has to repay in total the amount they borrowed. This may mean a lower balance is owed or that the loan cleared and a cash refund is due.

Where your balance is being reduced or cleared, this will be paid “in full”.

But where a cash refund is calculated, you will not receive that amount. The amount you will get will depend on the total cash refunds calculated and the amount of money in the Scheme to be distributed.

Morses currently expects that customers will be paid about 20% of the calculated cash refund.

Now the Scheme has failed, people will get only a tiny amount, massively less than the 20% they thought they were promised.

Credit records

Morses will removing loans that it has decided are unaffordable from your credit record.

Comments

  1. Kim says

    Morning, Iv just had my outcome statement and only 7 loans out of 13 were upheld which I get they will probably rarely uphold all of them. But what I don’t understand is the one on 25/04/14 for £750 was upheld but the one 05/06/14 for £950 wasn’t when they would’ve overlapped each other. Is this worth appealing?

  2. Kully says

    Hi I’m due compensation back but have to wait till next year to receive it my question is due to the cost of living and all the health issues are out there will we be still here to enjoy it so I can’t see why we have to wait another year when we can all use it now

  3. Marie says

    Claims are open until November i think …so they wouldnt process anything until after this ….but yes im unsure why we have to wait so longer considering the company is still trading and offering loans!!

  4. Alison Thompson says

    I have been told I am due money but they have asked for my bank details, if there paying till next year why ask for bank detail now.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Because getting the correct bank details is the largest pain that a firm has when making these mass payments.

  5. Lyn says

    I had 35 loans altogether and 29 in the period 2007 to 2022 but they are only including 29 to 35? And only upholding loan 29. I appealed and got nowhere, the only details available for a second appeal are the same email address etc as Morses. I put in an unaffordable lending complaint in 2020 and got nowhere and subsequently don’t have all the paperwork they sent to me when I submitted a subject access request. Why do I have to supply the information of the other 20 odd loans when they definitely have it all on file. I’m losing the will to go on with the process as its just one hoop after another and I only have another 3 weeks to get an appeal to the independent adjudicator whoever that may be as no contact details supplied, sent to us and it’ll automatically go to them, mmmm I don’t think so.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      You need to make a claim to the Scheme – there is a section in the article above that describes how to do this.

  7. Kim says

    Hi Sara, I put an appeal in over the loans that overlapped and got a reply today saying they want bank statements, wage slips and info on the loans I took with them but the loan in question was in 2014. How am I meant to get a bank statement when I’m not with that bank anymore and the banks don’t go back 9yrs!

      • Kim says

        I had 13 loans only 6 upheld but it’s the 2 overlapping I’m appealing. As the first loan was upheld but the second one that overlapped wasn’t and that was higher. I don’t know what to reply as there saying it’s basically scheme rules I have to provide all the info within 7 days

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          Reply saying you have no evidence but you want them to reconsider their decision as it makes no sense to uphold a loan and then reject a larger one which was taken out afterwards but overlapped with the first one.

          • Kim says

            There reply
            Morses Club Support
            08/08/2023 11:11:36
            If you cannot provide any evidence to support your appeal, then we can let the appeal run its course, and we will then send you a new outcome statement confirming that the outcome remains unchanged. Within this letter, will be details on how to further appeal it to our external adjudicators
            Kind rega

          • Sara (Debt Camel) says

            then that is what you have to do. It sounds as though the first “appeal” is just a formality and they are hoping you won’t bother. It is the appeal to the external adjudicator that will be the real one.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      contact Morses and ask for it – the link with contact details is in the article above.

  9. Matthew Porter says

    So morse’s only pay back 20% of what is owed to you but automatically take off what is owed on any current loan…they then expect you to wait a year for your payment…how the hell did this get passed through a court and how the hell can they carry on operating.

  10. Glenda Shepherd says

    I was awarded but they’ve taken it of my loan but in meantime I paid loan in full. Its now showing as a credit? They said it takes 30 days will I get full amount back

  11. IAN R says

    Has anybody received any repayment from Morse’s yet – it says 30 days from 20 July so that’s nearly up so what are they playing at again-if nothing by 18th aug will be on the fone to them-they’ve got no excuse they’ve got my bank details

    • M says

      I’m waiting for the exact same thing, the VREQ payment? Added details same day and still waiting. Called them earlier to be told wait until 30 days is up then they can escalate

  12. Alison Thompson says

    I was told that we won’t get pay out from moores until September, October next year

    • M says

      I normally get transfers through a day early around 5pm because of who I bank with and got nothing yesterday so it’s either Thursday or Friday or they’ve missed their own deadline. Got no faith in them paying on time. Funny really as if you hadn’t paid your loan by mid day you’d have an agent ringing none stop demanding payment

  14. M says

    Well it’s the last working day before the 30 days are up and no payment received. Color me surprised. Let’s see what they have to say

    • M says

      The vreq refund, it was supposed to be paid in 30 days but I phoned this morning and was told some haven’t been processed

  17. Leeanne says

    I applied and have been told I’ll get 25% of just over £1500 – on the terms on the letter from them – put my details in and so just going to put it out of my mind now until the payments are released
    On a side note, I originally made a complaint earlier in the year about unaffordable lending and it was rejected and they’ve now accepted it. So, do apply via the scheme if a previous claim was rejected!

  18. D M Brown says

    I thought morses said compensation payment will be sent out to people 30 days after receiving the letter which was issued explaining the outcome and the amount of compensation.

    I accepted mine and also put my bank account details in the portal and was expecting to get the payment this week but none pay into my account. Imagine the cost of living crisis which we going through but yet still morses doesn’t take it into consideration.

    When owed them they come at us but hard to pay the compensation. Its about 30 days sin e I got my decision letter and details of the amount am getting. That money would do me well.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      then you will only get a percentage of this – Morses currently says this may be about 20%, in which case you will get about £540.

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          Their letters seem to be written by lawyers and aren’t always easy to follow. Can you copy in here the bit that says what you may get?

          • Shammi Akthar says

            IM
            We have completed an assessment of the claim you submitted into the Scheme and consider that it is a Valid Scheme Claim
            Our assessment indicates that you have a Valid Scheme Claim of £2,738.93 and you are
            If you had a loan (or Loans) with Morses Club where a balance was written off this will be included within the Set-off calculation. The amount of any previously written off Loans with Morses Club will be reduced by this amount.
            Note: Part of your set-off may have been subject to Withholding Tax. Where applicable, the amount of tax that has been deducted is shown on your statement at Annex A. Subject to your individual circumstances, you may be eligible to reclaim this amount from HMRC. You may need this document to show how much tax you have paid. Morses Club is unable to answer any queries you may have on your personal tax situation.
            3. Ascertained Scheme Claim £2,738.93
            This is the balance of the compensation that is owed to you under the Scheme. Please be aware that this amount will not be paid to you in full. Morses Club currently estimate that under the terms of the Scheme, you will receive approximately 20% of this amount and that this will be paid to you in the fourth quarter of 2024.

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          “you have a Valid Scheme Claim of £2,738.93”

          This means that they have agreed some of your loans were unaffordable and that they have calculated that they would normally owe you £2738.

          However because this is in a Scheme, you will only be paid a small amount of this.

          They don’t yet know how much, but they think it may be about 20% – that would mean that you will be paid about £560 next year sometime.

  20. Nicholas Haynes says

    Does anyone know exactly what payment we were supposed to receive within 30 days of the outcome email? its been 32 days and so far nothing.
    I tried calling morses, but the wait time was ludicrous

  21. Marie says

    Any over payments i believe…..the rest of compensation 20% of total will be last few months of next year

  24. CM says

    Morses could have pay customers whom they ripped off with high interest rates. Instead of waiting until next year, maybe some customers won’t be alive to receive those payments. They’re investing with the money when we are desperately in need. Moreover, thier loan business is still in operation. The whole informations are so confusing. Thought I would have get the payment since last week. I don’t understand the whole explanation to be honest. Ridiculous!

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      They don’t pay that so they keep it. So they can use that money to to offer more horribly expensive loans to desperate people.

  26. dean says

    I made a claim back in 2018 on a total of 18 loans that were fully paid off, all crossing over from one to the next. Only the first 2 were upheld paying £108 compensation.
    On news that morses were looking to start a repayment scheme i reapplied.
    I recieved an email last week to the news the remaining 16 loans were being upheld and redress of just under £7k is owed.
    So a possibilty of around £1600 to be refunded next year. Im just glad its been dealt with finally even to the loss of thousands of pounds.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      What a shame you didn’t send the claim to the Ombudsman in 2018 instead of accepting that very poor offer

      • Kerry says

        Yes, I have to wait until next year I believe for my payment. But noticed the missing payments are still showing on my credit report.

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          I suspect they will want to batch up removing already settled debts from peoples credit records. I have no idea when they will do this.

  30. Caroline Ackerman says

    Hi would like to put a claim in for Morses club I’ve been with them since 2018 I would like to claim all my money back if possible, as I have heard a lot of loan from them
    My names is Caroline Ackerman

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      The article above explains what you have to do to make a claim. This website has nothing to do with Morses – saying here that you want to make a claim does NOT kick one off.

  31. Leanne C says

    I’ve just had my outcome letter and I’m confused by it:

    Our assessment indicates that you have a Valid Scheme Claim of £300.00.
    However, our records show you had a debt that was previously written off and/or MCL sold your debt to a Debt Purchaser. This debt is greater than the amount of your Valid Scheme Claim and has subsequently been off set against your claim.
    Your Valid Scheme Claim amount will be reduced by any previously paid compensation that relates to unaffordable lending claims on the Loan(s) assessed within the Scheme. The amount of any previously paid compensation can be found in the ‘Customer account detail ’inAnnexA.
    The assessment is applied as follows:
    1. Set-off against Loans that have been sold to Debt Purchasers £300.00 The balance of any Loans sold to a third party (calledaDebtPurchaser)will be reduced by this amount. As of the EffectiveDate,you have an outstanding balance of£340.00and repayments should continue to be paid to the Debt Purchaser as usual.
    2. Set-off against your written off Loans(ifany) £0.00 .
    3. Outstanding Loan Balance £0.00 As your Outstanding Loan Balance has been previously written off, we will not be pursuing the Outstanding Loan Balance.

    Does this mean my Debt has been written off and I now owe nothing and I will not receive payment?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Not exactly clear, is it.
      Did you have a Morses balnce. Was it sold, who to, and are you making payments to that?

          • Leanne C says

            So Morses have come back with:

            Good morning,

            1. Set-off against Loans that have been sold to Debt Purchasers £300.00
            The balance of any Loans sold to a third party (called a Debt Purchaser) will be reduced by this amount. Any outstanding Loan balance with the Debt Purchaser(s) Lantern will reduce. As of the Effective Date, you have an outstanding balance of £340.00 and
            repayments should continue to be paid to the Debt Purchaser as usual.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      ok, then contact Lantern to confirm that. Lantern should also remove the default from the debt.

  32. Shelly says

    Hi, I’m a bit confused (& annoyed with Morses). They originally upheld 10 of my 16 loans. Refusing the higher amounts. I appealed & after jumping through hoops, with them requesting bank statements, credit reports & medical evidence from 2016-2018 (showing I have & had a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder), they have upheld them all. They stated that this is because I had reduced capability to accept the terms & not that they were unaffordable (which they were & that is what I was originally appealing).
    Although I’m pleased that they’ve upheld all of the loans I wondered if the 6 that they originally refused are still part of the scheme as they refused them under the affordability rules & only accepted them because of my health?
    I would like to raise these loans as a normal complaint (because I think they only refused them because the redress is the same for these 6 as the original 10), & I don’t think thats fair & the documents they requested were ridiculous & I don’t think they expected me to be able to find them.
    Do you know if the scheme covers a claim regarding health conditions aswell as unaffordability or is it possible to raise this as a standard complaint?
    Obviously a normal complaint would allow me to ask for the full amount & sooner, & whether I received it or not I don’t think they should be allowed to deal with it under the scheme when they refused it under the scheme? Do I have a chance with a normal complaint? Tnx

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      The Morses Scheme FAQs say
      “If your complaint has additional concerns not related to unaffordable lending, we will log this as a separate complaint and process this in line with Morses Club’s standard complaint handling procedure.”

      You could go back to them and say that as they have decided these 6 loans were affordable but you had reduced capacity, you would them to confirm that the redress for these loans is being handled outside of the Scheme, which solely relates to affordability and so you will be refunded in full.

      I have no idea if this is is likely to work.

  33. Dale says

    Hi I’ve been with Morses for a very long time I don’t know how this works so can you help me please what do you need I’ve had plenty of loans off them thank you ??

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I’m sorry I can’t help you with this. Read the section in the article above on “Making a Claim to the Scheme” – that says what you need to do.

  34. Lynette says

    I appealed and then appealed to the independent adjudicator and have once again been told they are only upholding 1 out of the last 9 loans that I had even although I had 35 altogether and 29 from 2007-2018, is it worth going to the Ombudsman I’ve heard because of the scheme they’re not really getting involved? It’s so stressful but I hate to think that if everyone gives up then they’re getting away with all the misery they caused.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I’m sorry but the Ombudsman cannot take cases that have been rejected in a scheme.

  35. Tim says

    So it looks like Morses have now gone in to administration. So is this the end of the scheme ? I am guessing it starts all over again with the administrations as we would have been owed money from the scheme. I currently have a live loan taken out this year with Morses I am guessing I still need to pay this despite being owed money from Morses?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      yes it is the end of the Scheme. I will put up another article about this in the next couple of days. This will cover the situation you are in.

      • Kerry says

        Just tried to log in to my claim portal account and its just saying invalid details. Looks like they’ve totally shut accounts down.

    • Claire says

      I’ve just been the morses app, there is an announcement about going into administration, but they are saying if you have a loan you have to pay your loan still.
      So I guess they are going to keep us all waiting on what’s going to happen next.

  36. Kerry says

    Really really bad , redress payment of what was guaranteed at least 20% has now dramatically fallen to 0.09 pence to the pound. In other words, we’ll get £9 (if lucky) back on every £1000 we were owed. Personally, I was hoping to get at least 4k back. Now it’s more likely to be less than £180 if that!!!
    Disgusting and out of order.

  37. Sarah says

    Hi Sara I have a live loan with morses which I took out beginning of may 2023. I was never informed about a scheme of arrangement and now just seen about administration. what does this mean for me please? Can I do anything?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Is this your first loan from them? How large?
      Are the repayments a struggle?
      What are the rest of your finances like – other high cost loans or cards/catalogues?

      • Sarah says

        Hi Sara,

        Yes first loan, just about making payments, it’s £1000. I’m one of the people awaiting amigo with a large loan, I have a credit spring and a debt collection with Lowell too.

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          So your credit record is pretty poor?

          One option now is for you to put in a complaint to the administrators saying the loan was unaffordable and at the same time ask to make lower monthly payments that you really can afford.

          There will be almost no money for paying refunds, but they should be able to reduce the loan balance by removing the interest. If your complaint is upheld they will clear the negative payment arrangement marker – so the only risk is if it isnt upheld it would hamr your credit record. But if your credit record is already poor and you have to get through December and January… this could be your best option, it depends how difficult things are.

  38. Patricia says

    I have just seen this scheme. I have never received and information regarding this, no letter, no text and no fone calls either. Why was this ???. No-one contact me over these claims. I have had several loans via this platform and request all details about this asap

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      This is an independent blog with news about debts and lenders. It has no connection to Morses. You would have to ask them the question and as they have just gone into administration you are not likely to get an answer.

      Do you have a current loan?

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