For a few years now I have been burying my head in the sand over my debts and have decided now I need to deal with them as they are looming over me like a dark cloud. My situation is: Housing: Tenant/rented accommodation Income: ESA/DLA I have been contemplating bankruptcy for a while but the stigma and shame is holding me back. I have a breakdown of my debts: Mortgage express-£64,000 (This is the main reason for this thread) Mail order-£1400 (no payment plan in place) Mobile phone-£209 (no payment plan) Credit cards Vanquis credit card-£195 (pay £1 pcm) Link financial (Barclaycard)-£1950 (pay £1 pcm) Tesco credit card-£2400 (pay £1 pcm) Egg (now Barclaycard)-£5100 (pay £1 pcm) Capital One-£451 (pay £1 pcm) I am thinking of writing to all my credit card companies and request they write off these debts where I have been paying £1 pcm to each of them for approx. 4 years now, what is the likelihood of them executing this request? I am thinking of the same action with the mobile phone debt and mail order. I cannot agree to a payment plan as I simply do not have any surplus income. If they refuse, do I set up a £1 token payment plan like the credit cards? With regards to the mortgage shortfall, this has been on my file for approx. 3.5 years and I haven't had the chance to dispute this amount (I had a buyer that the mortgage company refused to sell to as I would not sign an "acknowledgement" of the "£64k" alleged debt). If they had accepted the buyer, then this debt would have been approx. £18k, but they decided to proceed with the repossession (negative equity) and this resulted in this amount. They have written to me a handful of times over the last 3.5 years but no action via the court as yet. As I want to deal with my credit file, would it be wise to instigate communications with them so this can be settled via the court?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/20/scrounger-stigma-poor-people-benefits I have to say I agree about the stigma. I have a blue badge form and am entitled due to HRM, but I haven't completed the form because I'd be scared of using the blue badge due to potential abuse. Instead I pay extra for taxis when I know I won't be able to get parked close to where I'm going - or just stay home.

Thought this may be of some interest. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/nov/20/benefits-stigma-newspapers-report-welfare