Hi, I have been self employed since 1999. As of 2003 on wards i have not been paying myself any salary nor NI contributions or PAYE because theres been no income to my company and I have been investing and developing a new product. I had no income. I used my own savings and finally, re-mortaged my house to finance. I had a break down in 2010 and then again last year and have been off work since june 2010. I did not know anything about benefits and regretably did not apply for any until someone adised me that i was entitled to DLA and ESA. I have now been granted DLA but unfortunately I just received a letter from Jobcentreplus/DWP that they cannot pay me any Employment and Support Allowance because I have not paid or been credited with, enough National Insurance Contributions. Can any one help? According to Direct.gov. uk there are two entitlements - Contribution based or Income related. It states under Income related that : You may be entitled to claim income-based Employment and Support Allowance if you do not have enough money coming in, or you have not paid enough National Insurance contributions, and you satisfy the entitlement conditions. I desparately need ESA as it will help me with my mortgage. Without it, I am well and truly stuffed. Can any one please advise me what to do next as i am really not knowledgable at all. My initial application for ESA was contribution based, so shall I ask them to consider me on Income related? Thank very much Wrecked.

Hi Lea Thanks for your messages. yes i'll make the proposal in writing. I'll start on it soon. And yes - I seem to be getting my act together. I noticed that too. I think its having had the gut wrenching discussion with my children. but most of all, I have you to thank for that. So thanks Lea. Notwithstanding - I am still totally scared because i really do not want to go to court with all its remifications ...... But i suppose its going to be inevitable if they do not accept my proposal. thanks again Wrecked.

Hi Lea Thank you for your message and warning. Yes I agree with you totally. I will be able to afford this. So I am not obliged to provide I+E? I did not speak to my lender but i think i spoke with their solicitor - although the phone number i called them on was the arrears dept., they transfered me to their "eviction team". the lady would only give me her first name and said i was to contact her again through the same phone number. I may need some help from you in writing this letter/proposal if thats ok. thnks again wrecked

Hi Lea many thanks for your message. I decided to call up the lender and see if i could come to some arrangement. I just came off the phone with the eviction team. First they wanted the full amount of arrears, but i explained my circumstances. I offered to pay £ 300 now and a further 300 Tuesday next week and the balance the following week. I porposed that I will be able to pay £1000 per month. She asked where i was getting the money and i explained that i am self employed and i called up my old clients, explained my situation and asked if they can give me more work, and that a number have agreed to do so and i would be able to make this amount regularly every month. She said she will send me a personal income and expenditure form. I was to complete that and return it with my proposal and they will consider it. I dont know if its going to be good news or bad, but the phone line was really awful, so i could not detect any significance positivity out of her voice. I did make it really clear that I would be able to make this, a regular monthly payment I did not tell her that i have already completed my own personal income/outgoing statement, nor that my children were willing to contribute (I would like them kept out as far as possible) what do you think? I suppose i have to make them an offer they cannot refuse!! Best Wrecked

Hi Pat, thanks for yr message - Its very kind of you. Yes ok I will do that. Wrecked

Hi Lea Yes u are absolutely correct. The masterplan was to sell at the end of the term and yes, it is worth much, much more. Thanks again for yr fast reply. Lea, I really am grateful to you. I am slightly less wrecked than when I first started as now i hv a clearer idea. thanks so much Wrecked

Hi Lea Many, Many thanks. I'll get it done. I just read though this thread again and find There was one question you asked me which I did not answer. I am sorry about that. Mine is an interest only morgage and not a repayment. Does that make a difference? How does that affect the situation? thanks Wrecked.

Hi Lea Ok thanks i did not see in #16 but i got the jiest of it. ok i am going to write to lender with a. my personal budget b. I'll check ont he arrears again then include a proposal for repayment of arrears c. monthly payments d. Clarification of exact amount of arrears e. request extensionof term by say 10 more years f. sum up my medical condition and also refer them to my mental health advisor I will also contact CAB and council for MRS and try and arrange to go see them if the lender agrees to my proposal then can I submit a N244 form to hv the eviction notice cancelled? the lender may not agree to extending the term... and should that happen i suppose i can request an extension to the eviction period Should I write to the lender or not bother, just submit N244? what would you say would be the best course of action?

Hi Lea Wow - Thank you so much for your input. I think i understand your suggestion. I 'll definitely check this out and get back to you. There is one more issue - having read through Ell-enn's write up on how to deal with Repossessions, one of the things mentioned was extending the term of the mortgage. Could that be a possibility? Were they to extend the lending period, this would reduce the monthly repayment of the arrears. Best Wrecked.

Hi Lea Just a thought - what if I were submit a personal budget which covers the monthly payments of the mortgage plus an additional amount for the arrears - with a suggestion that I put the house on the market now? I just wanted to hold off selling it a year after my eldest finishes her Uni (she finishes this summer) as i thought the market would pick up next year, but I can put it on the market now. Its bound to take a few months to sell but it is in a good location and there is a premium for my houses in my area. best wrecked

Hi Lea, Thank you so much for your fast reply. The bad news you gave is actually extremely bad. it had skipped my mind about the end of mortgage until you raised it. The plan when i bought the house was to to sell it around 2010 but due to my illness and the fact that the property prices dropped, i thought I would stay on. I thought of putting the house on the market next year. I think i will really struggle to make that amount of repayment on the arrears but there is a very slim chance that i may be able to. I will have to work on this a bit moe I think. I do not really want to take my children into court at all. Its bad enough having to go through this issue with them. No father should have to go through this. I will contact my council and check out MRS. Thanks for your advice on this. It much appreciated and i'll get back to you. best Wrecked

Hi Pat 2010 I am unable to reply to your private msg as I am too basic an account holder. But, FYI I received acknowledgements from the both benefit authoities within a couple of weeks from my submission. They told me that the whole process will take 16 weeks and now theres like 12 weeks left. I hope this helps. Best Wrecked.

Hi Lea Many thanks for your message. I am very grateful to you for your message. I must say I spend the last couple of days going through threads in CAG on this issues and there has been some great responses to others on this topic. My children are great. They contribute what ever they can. I had a discussion with them about this and they will contribute a fixed amount regularly and they have been truely supportive. Yes I have done a personal budget plan and it was really awful. However, its now looking pretty likely that I will get sufficient income to enable me to meet the monthly mortgage amount and pay something towards the arrears. I also spent yesterday and today phoning all my old clients and I am glad to say that they are going to give me some part time work which I can do from home so there will be some income now. Its amazing how things change over the course of a few hours. This has given me an incentive to contact other clients and hopefully, I will get a bit more work. I just hope that my condition improves. In the meantime, will you please clarify - what is MRS? I have not heard of this. What type of department in the council should I ask for/contact. Yes there is a small loan secured on it but there is quite a bit of equity in the property. Theres 3 years left on the mortgage. The arrears are around £ 8K How do these factors have impact? I tried to get another loan but my credit score is pretty bad as a result of this problem and I was turned down. thanks. Any other suggestions or ideas will be very gratefully received. wrecked

Hi I was going through CAG and saw a guide posted by Ell-enn "CAG guide - Are you facing eviction or repossession " and I found this to be really, really useful. It is quite the best document I have seen. It did make me feel a lot better. I am able to follow this document and prepare my case however, the flaw is that I have a serious problem because my curent income is pretty bad. I have little income right now, and am not on benefit (but Employment Suppport Allowance and Disability Living Allowance have been applied for) I also have some other arears which I am paying off. Based on this guide, I need to be able to show that I can cover the monthly repayment plus an addition for the arrears when I apply to the court (to cancel the eviction notice) using the N244 form, supported by a personal budget sheet. Unforunately, due to my medical condition and lack of income, right at this point, I am not in a position to achieve this. Will it be possible to apply for to the court for a stay on the eviction order based on my medical condition.? Can anyone advise? I have a 22 year old daughter and an 18 year old son living at home with me. My daughter is a student at university. My son is currently unemployed and looking for work and will go back to college in September. Does the fact that they live with me help my case at all? You can see my dilemma. Please help me out and give me some suggestions. thanks Wrecked.

Hi Is there anything else any one can contribute ? should i go back to the lender with a repayment proposal ? I dont know what I can offer them. I just spent money on fixing the boiler as I had no heating or hot water since the new year. Had I known this was going to happen I would have not fixed the boiler and just pay them the money. I can write to the lender and get clarification as Rocco suggested but what can I offer them as a payment plan?I do not have any income just now. Its things like this that just blow my brains. Thanks Best Wrecked.

Hi Rocco Thank you - yes I contacted the legal advisors and got an appointment for following monday. But the issue is I am loosing "days" and the worry is by the time I see them we have already lost another week. I am also shocked that they were able to get a warrant without me even hearing about the hearing or anything. I think i will follow your suggestion and write to the lender "...to find out the full details of what has gone on, what the full arrears balance is and whether they received your letters..." if they reply by the Monday then i have some information for the meeting. thank you best wrecked

Hi Rocco Yes I have not received anything from the lenders through the post. I am getting mail from others. Since my reply to you my case advisor called me and she referred me to a legal team. They reopen after lunch at 2pm but I have not been able to get through. When I told my case worker that I had not heard anything from my lender, she commented that they probably just want money now. best Wrecked.

Hi Rocco, Its quite a lot at £ 8000 may be a little more. I received the notice yesterday but I have not spoken to the lender yet. One of the problems I have with my condition is that I cannot hold a conversation on the telephone. I get tongue tied, nervous, anxious, scared and just go silent. I cannot express myself. I find it better to write as I do not feel under pressure and have time to think through clearly. At this point I also do not know what to say and what proposal to make. This has affected me very badly. I have been writing to them and keeping them informed. I sent them copies of sick notes and supporting letters from doctors from my surgery where I have been treated by three different doctors there. I also notified them when i was referred to the mental health care clinic. I am trying to contact my case advisor there to see if she can help but I think she is seeing people and has not returned my calls. I am not yet on any benefits, but I have applied in January. As I said I did not apply for benefits earlier because I thought I was coming out of it and was able to make regular payments over to cover the arrears to the lender. But i had a bad break down in the summer and things had got worse. I applied for employment support allowance in January. Yes I was told by the job centre that it covers my mortgage interest but i think it will take another 12 weeks or so before I hear anything from them. I do not even know if I will get support. I have never had to apply. I received an acknowledgement from Employment Support Allowance and Disability Living Allowance and I copied these to the lender. I wrote and posted to them on 30 Jan and they sent the eviction notice on 16 Jan. I received the eviction notice yesterday so I think it must have been delayed in the Post. So they may now have received my letter of 30 Jan. So at the moment, I do not know how to proceed. best wrecked.

Hi Applecart The Bank of Scotland... does this make a difference? do different lenders have different ways of handling my kind of circumstance? appreciate any help pl. As u can imangine i am totally messed up at the moment. wrecked

hi Anyone?

Hello, I received an eviction notice as my mortgage payments are in arrears. Two years ago, they sent me an eviction notice but i was able to negotiate to make increased monthly payments to cover my then arrears. Things were going fine, till the summer last year when I had a breakdown due to severe depression and work suffered and my clients were not making up their payments. I kept my the lending bank informed about my situation but I was making reduced payments which covered the monthly amount they required. However, things got worse and my condition worsened. I have not been able to make any significant payments since December 2011 and applied for Employment Support Allowance and DLA in January. I am curently being treated at a Mental Care Clinic. I was very surprised to receive the eviction note - as I have been keeping the lending bank informed about my condition. I also notified them that I had applied for ESA and DLA. I did not even receive any warnings from them at all. I ram now extremely worried as unlike two years ago, I don't see any significant income for myself and I don't quite know how to go about trying to negotiate with my lender. The eviction date is set for 09 March when they say that their bailiffs will attend the house and that I am to move out. The letter was dated 16 Jan and I only reiceved it today. I have been a complete wreck trying to figure out what to do when I came on the forum by luck and I see other people in my situation. Can some one please advise me. best wrecked.