Due to being on a low private pension I was entitled to quite a lot of Council Tax Reduction. I have an asset other than my house worth £6800 which I declared to the Council two years ago when applying for Council tax benefit. The Council reduced my Council tax benefit by £6 per month because my other asset was valued over £6000. I was able to pay the Council tax despite having a small reduction in the benefit. Now under the new rules I loose all Council Tax reduction due to having an asset worth over £6000. I now have to pay the full amount despite being on a small private pension. I do have a debt which is around £2000 which I assumed could be subtracted from my asset. Sadly the Council have told me that debts cannot be subtracted from assets. I find this ruling extremely strange. I thought that debts were balanced against assets in a court of law but obviously I have been proved wrong by my local Council. My local Council have told me that I can sell my asset and then obtain Council Tax reduction based upon my pension income. However, they said that I must dispose of the money and not invest in land or property in order to be entitled to Council Tax Reduction. I asked the Council if owning a £130,000 Aston Martin would count as an asset. They said that cars don't count as an asset !! Comments welcome, I am amazed with Council Tax rules and regulations. Seems to me that they are hammering poor people to allow rich people to keep their Aston Martin's. Since when was £130,000 less than £6000?

Investigation leads to shutdown of ‘asset recovery’ company that recovered no assets READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/investigation-leads-to-shutdown-of-asset-recovery-company-that-recovered-no-assets

Hello, I owe roughly 15k, on credit cards and a catalogue. I've missed no payments so far and am managing to make all minimum payments with a little on top. The problem I'm about to have is that my financial situation will change in 8 months. I have a disabled daughter who will be turning 20, and the extra money we get at present will stop. I had hoped to get it all paid off before then, but that's not going to be possible. I'll still get carers allowance for her, but income support & housing benefit will be drastically reduced. I'm a single mother, so no partner to help me out. I'm worrying myself sick about it, and it's looking increasingly likely that I'll have to go bankrupt - from what I've read, you can't do a DRO if you're on benefits - and my daughters condition means that I'll be her carer for the rest of her life, so benefits will be all I have. We live in a council home, and I have no savings. We have a car, worth roughly 1.5k and a 15yr old but much loved campervan worth about 3k. Both are registered as used for disability, with the van being the main vehicle. Both are registered under the blue badge scheme. I know that I have bigger things to worry about, but that campervan is the only way we get to have some respite . My daughter is severely autistic and we use the van 2/3 times per year for weekends at quiet beaches. We can't travel by train or airplane, and the van allows us to make multiple stops along the way, should we need. Having the campervan also means being able to afford to even get away. The van is our only asset, so I know that we will have to sell to put toward debts. I'm just hoping there may be other options open to us that I might not know about, that will enable us to keep hold of it. My daughter loves that van and we've got so many happy memories from it. I just don't know how I could make her understand that the van has to go. If anyone can offer some advice, that'd be great. I'm struggling to sleep and eat with the worry of this debt.

Good Afternoon I've had a very sketchy past involving a lot of borrowing and struggling to repay, was also suffering from depression at the time but have since overcome all of that and now the debt is catching up on me and I am starting to panic! I am currently unemployed as my recent employer has decided to sell his business! There are approx 7 - 8 debtors chasing me for debts between £170 - £950. One of those being at about £2500 (118118 money) that one is currently marked on my credit file as CCJ. I have had a visit from Fidelite Debt Collections so far, as well as various letters from other companies. I am currently living with my partner who lives with her parent. I have no assets apart from a finance car (which she is making payments for me at the moment due to me being laid off!) Bottom line is, what is the worst case scenario that can happen? I am living in someone else's house, nothing is mine apart from car. . so what will happen? As soon as I am back in employment I will start contacting them to start paying it off, but at the moment I am stuck. Thanks for help Karl

I normally manage to avoid the store exit reps, those who are selling double glazing, conservatories etc, However, yesterday whilst I was at the Range, I got caught by a lady working for a law firm offering an hour's free advice on how to avoid assets being gobbled up by Care Home Fees and Inheritance Tax. I have already written a will, as has hubby, with the help of our own solicitor - we are tenants in common on a mortgage free property and have both nominated our son to inherit our share of the property and assets in the event one of us dies before the other. The chances of our having property value and assets that would create a need to pay inheritance tax is in the realms of fantasy (unless we come up on the premium bonds or win the lottery). The lady who was making appointments for her firm seemed to bat back my responses to her questions making like despite the plans already in place, that the authorities would still be able to place a charge on the home in the event one of us requires admission to a care home - despite the other still living in the home ? I have had a read of the following article in the Guardian and used their calculator using a hypothetical situation. According to the result of the Q/A - then if only one of us required admission to a care home and the other left still living in the property then the person who was admitted would not have their share of the property included in any calculation for fees.. this was not what we were told at the Range ? https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/28/tenancy-common-care-home-fee-solution I have also looked at Age UK's website http://www.ageuk.org.uk/ I believe that I might have been misled by the above person in order to secure an appointment. The flyer I have been given indicates that there will one hour's free legal advice worth £200.00 VAT. I am assuming that if we were to go ahead with the appointment then any time outside of that hour will be charged at that rate. I will not be taking the Firm up on their offer, instead, I will contact my own solicitor on Monday to ensure that we have covered all bases, but would still be interested in hearing if anyone else has been caught out like this ?

Where are these silly rumours coming from. He can't do anything on his own, he would be the leader of a party and anything done would be by consent of parliament. The things being said make his role seem dictatorial, he will be the sole ruler.

Does not affect me, but just wondered what it means to people if the government sell off the mortgage assets they bought from Northern Rock. Does this mean that some with a NR mortgage will at some point be asked to pay a different company ? If they are in arrears, could they be faced with a new company who take a much stronger position on dealing with the arrears ? I think the government have sold off mortgage assets previously. Were there any problems the last time this happened ?

Hi all....AS title says is it possible for solicitors to find out what assets you have,do searches in your name etc prior to charging order,OFS etc...cheers Madasfish

If assetts are sold eg car to pay Court and insolvency service fees will OR regard this as trying to pay less to creditors and kick off?

Does my childs mother have any right to see my bank details and payslips? specifically any savings or investments i might have. she seems to think that she is entitled to 15% of any savings i have as well as 15% of my monthly pay. we have a private arrangement for maintenance. She had told me she is going to contact the CSA if she does not get to see this information and refuse to let me see my son. i have asked her where she got this information and what law she is quoting but all she says is she has got it from "a friend". we were never married or in a relationship and i pay maintenance (15%) I see my son as much a finances permit (i live 200 miles away) personally, i think she is either misinformed or more likely out for all she can get but i will happily eat my words if there is a law entitling her to 15% of my savings.

Hi looking for some advice,got a ccj judgement against me 2 years ago,i was on the dole so a was oredered to pay £10 a month,and a second charge put on my property for the debt. .Last week i had to attend court again because there had filed a disclosure of assets against me...no big deal im on the dole anyway...but i did have to pay £50 on there behalf,and use my own time to fill it in...whats the earliest time there could apply for me to go back and fill anyother disclosure of assets form in...could there have me in there every month...every year...anyone know??? thanks

Like many others we (a professional couple in our 50s) have fled our debts in the UK. Background: We had a house with a $180,000 mortgage, and a personal loan of $14,000 both with NatWest. We each had 2 credit cards -NatWest and MBNA. When both of us lost our jobs in February and March 2008 we tried to go self-employed, tried renting our house, tried pretty much everything. To cut the story short, it was a disaster. We could not generate enough income; the property management company were useless. we ended up financing the mortgage and loan using credit cards and it all spiralled out of control. We asked NatWest several times but they just would not halt interest charges on the loan and we could not pay that too, so in the end had to default. We put the house on the market and made arrangements with NatWest and MBNA CCs to make token £1 payments (with no additional interest)while we were making enough to pay the essentials plus the mortgage (£666 how ironic is that). It was getting unbearable with letters arriving every day and phone calls too; we were starting to become ill from the stress and it was having a knock-on effect as we both have elderly mothers who were getting very upset by the whole situation. Of course we had missed the bubble. Now we could not sell the property and even if we did, the market had crashed and we would be in negative equity. So we finally made the difficult decision to give it up. I came to Canada and my spouse stayed behind to wind things up. I could n't face it. We gave the keys back to NatWest last Christmas. The house is still on the market. They have frozen the mortgage and the loan until such time as it sells, at which point we will still owe then the difference -assuming we're still alive. Que sera sera as far as that goes. My question for the forum is about the credit card debt. We made the mistake -if only I'd read the forum pages back in 2009/10 -of speaking to the CC companies on the phone. They persuded us that we could inrease our payments (MBNA £70pm NatWest £15pm). So for the last 3 years we have been paying £200. We have kept it up pretty well but there have been some missed payments while we changed banks, changed cities, changed jobs etc. We have kept in touch with our local NatWest branch -who were fabulous by the way -via fax and have always informed them in writing of any change of address. We thought long and hard about not telling the CC companies and now I wish we hadn't, but back then (2010) we still believed we should 'do the right thing'. So.... today we got a letter from Arden Credit Management (Co. no. 3303780 alias Moorgate Loan Servicing Limited). The letter, addressed incorrectly (town name misspelled) makes reference to an account number which does not correspond to any of our credit card accounts. However, from the sum mentioned I am assuming it is one of the MBNA cards. They state, "you have failed to make the agreed payment in relation to the repayment programme you agreed with us." They further state , "Failure to address this situation could result in us taking further action including passing your account to a third part or commencing legal action." We have never agreed anything with them; this is the first I have ever heard of them, and they are already a third party aren't they? Questions: 1. Should we respond to these people? 2. Should we write to MBNA? There is no reference to MBNA at all in the Arden letter, so I cannot be 100% certain this is the debt in question. 3. What is the situation regatding legal action? We have no assets in the UK other than our household effects which are in storage because we can't afford to have them shipped to Canada. We are living in rented accommodation here. We intend continuing our arranged payments. If and when the UK property is sold, I fully expect we will declare bankruptcy as the shortfall will be beyond our means. Sorry this was a mammouth post, but then, life's complicated! Any advice gratefully received. Liz_8991