bankruptcy and losing my sanity

[going_mad]

right where on earth do I start well how about burying my head in the sand and hoping it will all go away, I suffer from depression really bad and have been medicated on several occasions since i was about 19(10years ago), i left home and got a flat and was on benefits for about 2 years give or take who said full council tax was just that!!! roll on two years of council tax added to the pay 5 a month minimum payment store cards and we have a debt problem, introduce a baby, more debt more head burying two more kids an ex that doesnt pay for his kids the csa who arent doing their job, two years of hard graft at college working part time to live and support myself paying off in a great apprenticeship but hey this is where the real poverty begins

as a student i can work 3 jobs earn loads of money (finally got my kids nice clothes and new furniture and no more second hand charity shop household goods)tax free, council tax free and also get student grants and loans and all my childcare paid for, bring on an apprenticeship less than minimum!!! wage, 60% chilcare covered(yes two or more children the amount goes down!!!!!) and only entitled to 25%reduction in c.tax, bring on the worst year of my life, im losing my mind, cant handle anything now and dont know what to do my kids are doing my head in im snappy irratable and crying all the time have had loads of time off work, ty my employers are great and offering me counselling but how do i get myself sorted, well ive been independantly advised to go for low income low asset bankrupcy as ive been told (its a private and highly reputable healthcare service attatched to my job that offers all kinds of support) that im living in poverty (£180 a week worse of than being on benefits, how this possible??? take into account full rent council tax travel to work nursery fees(i pay 130 a week out my own pocket (if i could afford to)for these not bad on a 700 amonth wage working 40 hours))) and how ive managed to get this far they will never know. oh and all this before ive been shopping as thats always the last thing on my mind. Im slowly dying argh its a living nightmare , im a failure as a person !!!!!

 

well today after paying two installments of 100 to council tax mob, after getting a charge for payment, theyre arresting my wages i cant physically mentally or emotionally deal with it anymore, is bankruptcy my only option, dont have a car in my name and no high value items or everything put together worth more than £5000

 

my debt as far as i can remember

 

council tax £8,000 give or take

nursery fees(thank god theyre being good and still letting me use them) £2600

hitatchi capital £1800

provident £2400

littlewoods £400

allianz cornhill £280

crisis loan £800

student loands £14000(i know these wont be included)

ntl £300

and about £8000 of debt more than 5 years aknowledged or paid

 

rent arrears none wooohoo i did something right

[Fifer]

Hi there. Calm down Bankruptcy in your case seems to be the only option..You have all the requirments to do this. It will stop people from arresting your wages and stuff. Whole process takes about 4 weeks, then all the hassle stops. Costs £100 though. Got to be much better than living under your stress. All debt written off an it only lasts a year. As usual take CAB advice BR seems best route for you tho

[going_mad]

ty for the reply Its hard to think things are going to get better i only just returned to work today after 12 weeks thinking things were looking brighter and feeling a little more positive now im once again a bubbling mess, had been advised to make sure when i got a new car after an accident to use someone elses and just insure myself on it which i did thank god or id not be able to go to work, have all the paperwork for the lila here just finding it difficult to contemplate doing it its a scary thought having someone else taking control of my life and my finances im lil miss independant and everyone thinks im tough they dont see the teary me indoors i wish id known about this site years ago reading some of the posts would have sorted me out years ago when i tried negotitaing with creditors and getting no where a Q about my ol debt when i do go for br will the person dealing with it trace all my old debt for me and decide if its still legal or do i really have to try remember it all for myself

[Moonlighter]

Hi Going Mad

 

Well done for posting - you've got everything down and hopefully getting that off your chest will help a bit cos it's the first step to getting clear of your debt. You have now turned a corner and there's a massive light at the end of a short tunnel now.

 

You've got the LILA form - that's another huge step. Please fill it in to the best of your ability and phone a local insolvency practitioner to go through it with you before you post it. They will do this free of charge over the phone and as they handle bankruptcies themselves every day, will not judge you. I wish I could give you my phone number but I can't, so look up Yellow Pages under insolvency practitioners, Google insolvency practitioner in your nearest town, or look up the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland website under IPs. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

 

 

The Accountant in Bankruptcy will be handling your sequestration (Scottish bankruptcy) and they may delegate the work to a firm of local IPs. Either way, they are not able to trace your old debt so try to remember as many old ones as you can - although some debts might be so old that they may actually be too old to claim in the sequestration (something called prescription) - so just try to remember as many as possible. If one or two come out of the woodwork then that's not a problem anyway as the Trustee would just send them the bankruptcy information at that time.

 

Things are going to get so much better when the sequestration goes through. The nasty letters and phone calls will stop from debt collectors. The wages arrestment will stop. Sequestration only lasts for one year and your day to day life will not be adversely affected at all. Life will get back to normal, I promise.

 

All the best.

[out of cash]

hi, going mad,

 

As from 6th April 2009 the Government have increased the cost to self petition for bankruptcy to £510.

 

you can get this fee lowered if you are on job seekers allowance to about £360.hope this helps.sorry just noted your in scotland could be lower there my apologies.

regards

 

out of cash

Edited May 29, 2009 by out of cash
erorr

[Fifer]

It used to be free here. (Scotland) if you were on benefits. Then they introduced the LILA route and charge you £100. CAB are brilliant at helping you fill in the form. Enclose as much info as possible with your application. Debt letters and stuff. Photocopy everything as you will get a telephone interview and your answers need to match up with whats on your form. Your bankruptcy only lasts a year. Everything including council tax is written off. Finally get a co-op basic bank account. They are one of the few banks which won't cancel your account when your made bankrupt.

[Moonlighter]

Hiya, just confirming what you said initially that the student loan(s) won't be written off under the sequestration.

 

Kind regards

[going_mad]

rbs have said they are willing to keep my accounts open for me if and when i go for bankruptcy as i dont have any financial obligations to them and my accounts arent credit accounts but ive heard alot of people condemn them are they just saying this to keep me for the meantime or are they genuine any thoughts? also wanted to ask a savings account for my son in trust of my name, if im paying 50 a month into that for the 3 kids christmas/ household goods/car emergencies and clothes etc does that get taken into account theres nothing in it at the moment as ive just raided the measly 200 out of it to buy their summer clothes and stuff and got another one starting school in august so two new sets of uniforms and not entitled to a clothing grant

[going_mad]

oh and another thing im being wages arrested as of next wage because of last years council tax after sticking to a 100 agreed (over the phone!!!) and apparently not sticking to the agreement which i did, but ive not even started paying this years council tax what will happen there with my arrears on that will it get included on my bankruptcy and just pay what i owe from the date it starts or what theres not alot of advice out there oh and the shut down the cab in my area even though its supposedly one of the bad areas for poverty and the usual tags that go along with low income towns as they said it wasnt used enough

[going_mad]

ive just checked out my credit report online and it actually makes for pretty good reading from experian its no where near as big and scary as i thought it would be, my ex is on there as being associated with me but dont know how we or at least i never applied for credit with him, there are 9 on file only 4 defaults 1 i forgot about and another i dont have a clue what its for a catalogue by the looks of it but cant understand where all the other entries are for all my other debt especially all the ones that are chasing me does this mean anything thats not on there is long since forgotten and i can write it off as even two of the defaults hit 5 years this month. so is there any way of finding out what happened to all my other debts if they arent recorded there where else would they be recorded cheers in advance

[going_mad]

ps who are 1st locate uk ltd does anyone know are they a company that try to find people for debt they searched for me at my old adress i take it that how these old debts found me at my new address

[Smeesue]

ps who are 1st locate uk ltd does anyone know are they a company that try to find people for debt they searched for me at my old adress i take it that how these old debts found me at my new address

 

 

I found this forum whilst trying to find out who 1st locate are (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/63976-anyone-had-dealings-lcs.html)

 

Don't phone them. Someone who has more experience than me will be able to tell you how to deal with them, but I simply ignored the card I got through the post and have heard nothing since.They specialise in finding people, worldwide and their website is Billing and revenue management, customer outsourcing solutions and I suspect that cards and calls are fishing expeditions. If you don't respond, then they have no bite to go on.

 

I didn't find one person who'd had satisfactory dealings with them and there were a lot of folks who were angry and some who had been intimidated.

 

I hope you get sorted soon

[Fifer]

Hi once your BR thats it, do not enter into any agreements to pay of debt. Your legally free of debt. AIB will send out letters to inform the companys, council etc that debt is written of. Companys like wescott and scott and co may still try to contact you. Simply refer them to AIB or point them to Edinburgh Gazette. Ignore thier request to send proof. Info is public domain. There problem not yours. As posted elsewhere send a letter denying a door step collector. All correspondence by post only if they enclose a SAE. On personal exp I can say BR saved me a lot of aggro and is painless, nothing actually changes. Your still black listed but not due anything and no phone calls etc. GL

[going_mad]

can i ask why none of my bills from my previous address ie phone bills, electricity etc(my meter was a duff and always gave me more leccy than what the power cards should have gave me) are showing up on my credit file as it stands on my credit file at least 3/4 of my debt has totally disappeared, yes about half of it is definately statute barred and doesnt even show on my credit file yet still get letters in about it seriously its like 8 years old. and now to top it off ive got to do two years financial statements for tax credits and one of my chilminding agreements was cash payments and never got receipts for although t.c did confirm at the time with the childminder my kids were there argh now feel like the world is conspiring against me and i know there are discrepencies in my t.c because my depression and stuff i was late making changes to my details sometimes to my advantage most times not but i bet they only going to concentrate on the times it was to my advantage !!!!!

[Fifer]

They probably been sold to a collection agency. wescott or similar. Tax credits are a minefield. Get help from CAB on that one.

[scaniaman]

Sorry to hear about your plight. Bankcruptcy is possibly your only option, as said before it will stop the hassle. But it doesn't stop here. In future when you fill in insurance proposal forms and such like, you are asked if you have ever been bankcrupt. If you say yes, most of them will not process your application. You won't be able to get normal credit and the few "tick" stores that will give you stuff will charge an exorbitent interest rate---so the cycle starts again. Before you sign,

Probably the best thing to do is get as much as you NEED(not want) from whoever will deal with you. Then see if cab can put you in touch with someone who can work out a budget with you, wherebye you know what you HAVE to live on without getting into debt.

[going_mad]

Sorry to hear about your plight. Bankcruptcy is possibly your only option, as said before it will stop the hassle. But it doesn't stop here. In future when you fill in insurance proposal forms and such like, you are asked if you have ever been bankcrupt. If you say yes, most of them will not process your application. You won't be able to get normal credit and the few "tick" stores that will give you stuff will charge an exorbitent interest rate---so the cycle starts again. Before you sign,

Probably the best thing to do is get as much as you NEED(not want) from whoever will deal with you. Then see if cab can put you in touch with someone who can work out a budget with you, wherebye you know what you HAVE to live on without getting into debt.

 

 

im not too worried about getting credit in the future to be honest a mortgage eventually would be good but my financial income in 5 years is going to be a very different story to what it is now so i shouldnt need credit, just keep those fingers crossed, i have been told some of the things i got now i may be able to keep like my kays that i dont owe money to if they wish to keep my account open, and at least my bank (rbs !!!!!!!!!) are going to let me keep all my accounts open as i dont owe them anythings and have been a customer for 11 years. got the forms in hand now just need to start getting them filled out so i can sit back and relax a while

[Moonlighter]

Hi Going Mad

 

If you are going for sequestration, then I understand from others who have gone down this route that insurance cover can be obtained (with perhaps only a slightly higher premium) through an insurance broker as they send in the forms with a letter of recommendation, even if they've never met you before! So please don't let that put you off. The relief of being free from completely unmanageable debts which are affecting your health and that subsequent return to health more than offsets any problems in the future.

[citizenB]

Sorry to hijack your thread, looking for some help for the OP on this link

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/benefits-tax-credits-minimum/199218-council-tax-benefit-help-2.html#post2242070

[gerb]

Just been throught the AIB process - Seq'd in May --- and its the best and easiest £100 I've ever spent. Don't delay - get it started NOW - CAB etc start the process straight away and all debt (except student loans) are gone - nobody questions how the debts occured -- no stigma involved. It's great not worrying about debts - being able to answer the phone and laugh at the threats these **** make -----