Help! Need advice/suggestions please

[am365]

Hi All.

 

I'm really struggling and have to make a decision fairly soon - would appreciate any help.

 

Firstly have to say that I'm responsible for the current mess - never have been that good with money - although when earning all bills were paid.

 

I'm self employed and for some time now been losing money after a sharp downturn in business and have cut back on everything but last year got to the stage where I couldn't afford to eat.

 

I reluctantly applied for benefits - housing and working tax credits but there is still £150 plus shortfall per month and my self employed income varies each month.

 

I took advice in December and made an offer (as advised) of token £1 payments which none of my creditors accepted. Survived the past 6 months by just paying the rent, 2 recent CCJs and incredibly aggressive Council Tax collection tactics. Bailiffs, texts threatening arrest and lots of misleading letters. I've paid them as much as I can.

 

At present I owe around £11,000 in unsecured debts Wonga/Natwest/Vodafone etc. and £10,500 to family member on a loan agreement. Rent a flat and no assets. I have a personal pension scheme with £20000 and could apparently release 25% of this in 5 and a half years - but no help to me now.

 

Have been advised to apply for a debt relief order or consider bankruptcy - the latter I cannot afford and the DRO appears very restrictive with the possibility of it being stopped if I have a good month.

 

I really want to fight on and pay off creditors and to get out of this situation but I'm spending more time sorting this out than running business. Perhaps have been too optimistic that that things will improve.

 

The only other thing to mention is that I did go bankrupt in 1993 - after 3 years discharged - this was under very ]different circumstances.

 

One part of me says give up as it is too stressful whilst the other says fight on.

 

Sorry for the long post - any suggestions would be greatly appreciated -

[DuffNCustard]

Whatever you do don't touch any of your pension pot! If DRO and BR are off the table for now the only other option you have is to arrange a Debt Management Plan. First big rule here is do not pay a company to do this for you, there are debt charities that do this for free, National Debtline, Step Change Payplan and CAB. You can also run your own DMP. You must bear in mind though that a DMP is an informal arrangement and creditors cannot be forced to stop charging interest. If you are pushed for time then you may wish to contact Payplan or Step Change, for a preliminary discussion with them.

 

http://www.payplan.com/?gclid=CKWx2ZHhqbgCFcjKtAodTmoAJw

http://www.stepchange.org/?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=200012&WT.seg_1=step%20change&gclid=CO6jsrLhqbgCFdQPtAodPh8Aow

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

 

Before you embark upon this there are some things that you should do first. Get all of your statements out and scour them for penalty charges or any other type of 'fee', it should be possible to reclaim these. Next you should complete an income and expenditure spreadsheet, you can find templates for this on the debt charity websites. This will establish just exactly how much you have left each month to bung your creditors, if there is nothing then all they get is £1 each. The only exception to this is Council Tax, this is a classed as a 'priority' debt, not paying this can have very serious ramifications. Next priority is the CCJ's, if you cannot afford to pay the amount you can apply to the court for a redetermination.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi am365,

 

If you'd like any help with the Vodafone side of things could you email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - CAG Forum in the subject line?

 

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. To make sure it reaches me could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

[am365]

Thanks DuffNCustard.

 

Should have mentioned Stepchange are the ones advising DRO.

 

None of the creditors accepted the £1 token payment - most ignored it. One of the water companies declined and it went to a CCJ increasing the bill 3 fold - I've recently read that creditors are obliged to accept payments offered.

 

The debt management plan is something that I wanted to look at but I'm not earning enough to cover bills.

 

Insolvency is looking more attractive

[Peterbard]

Have Stepchange completed a Common Financial Statement (I&E from) with you?

 

With the CCJ's, were they gained by default, or did you go to court? If you went to court, were you Means Tested before any fine was imposed?

[matty39]

Didn`t want to start a new thread so asking my question here. Im on JSA and pay £18 a month council tax. Would that stay the same if i got a part time job and would it go up? thanks

[Peterbard]

Didn`t want to start a new thread so asking my question here. Im on JSA and pay £18 a month council tax. Would that stay the same if i got a part time job and would it go up? thanks

 

It would depend entirely on how much you earned, so it's impossible to answer definitively for you here sorry.

[matty39]

It would depend entirely on how much you earned, so it's impossible to answer definitively for you here sorry.

 

ok thanks anyway.