Need advice re debt + benefits advice.

star0001
star0001 Posts: 2 Newbie
edited 23 July 2017 at 3:15PM in Debt-free wannabe
Hello, sorry for a long winded post. I need a bit of advice on how to approach this.

I have run a thriving business for 3 years. My mental health issues (autism) have me struggle in a work environment but i did run a business from home repairing games consoles and PC components and for 3 years and BGA rework such as reballs, have ticked by quite nicely bringing home about £950 / month, not bad for 30 hrs work / week. My partner worked 30 hours in tesco and bought home about £900 a month. More than enough for the pair of us, and we enjoyed a reasonably comfortable lifestyle minus my mental health issues, which with support from close friends is manageable.

Unfortunately, a change in market conditions and my partner whos mental health severely declined this year to a point where he had to work reduced hours meant both of us suffered a loss of income by about 50%, i spend more time caring for him than I do working and with the poor market conditions, ultimately my business failed as a result (my difficulties tend to be personal care and social interaction, his are severe mobility issues and unable to go out on his own, issues i do not have). It was made worse by a bad reaction to SSNI medication, the doctor ignored my concerns and it later turned him psychotic and he had to be sectioned, this doctor is not in a good way given that i recorded everything... I despise SSRIs and SSNIs in general. He has still not fully recovered from the SSNI medication but he has responded well to antipsychotic medication. He has rapid-cycling Bi Polar 2.

The same medication (venlafaxine / effexor) turned a gentle person with cycling moods into a psychotic, deranged, dangerous person, who ended up on top of a car park ready to jump. A world peace activist into someone unrecognizable. Raising concerns to health professionals fell on deaf ears. In the end, me and the mental hospital and his mother came to a consensus instantly to pull him from the venlafaxine. I am still livid as to what this venlafaxine did to him. He got his personality back when he came off the venlafaxine.

So we have about £900/month coming in between us at present. Combined rent is £650. Our combined bills including shopping is about £250. Council tax was waived as we got approved for council tax support. We are up to date on all priority bills as i directed the money there first.

At the moment, my credit rating is perfect. Since 18 (I am now 23) there is not a single missed payment on there. I run my finances like a piece of military clockwork, hence why the unforseen loss of income for both me and my partner is proving a problem.

I have a lifestyle protector insurance policy which kicked in when i lost my business, but this only covers about £400/month for up to five years. Should have bought the bigger policy but it was more of a 'just in case' thing.

The current debts I have are:

£4k Zopa Loan, about 1 year into the 3 year term. It allows early repayment with no penalty. - £169 a month. This was money I injected into the business for new repair equipment, etc. The APR on this is about 31%.
£1.5k barclaycard - most accumulated during the shortfall of income - £60 a month. This is only 19% APR. They agreed to freeze the interest, however for up to 6 months when i called them. Having been perfect with repayments from 2013 -> 2017 helped me in this instance. Card has a £5,000 limit, i only used £1.5k.
£1k MBNA balance transfer card, this was a card i transfered to a 0% deal when i first got wind of problems. This costs £25 a month.

so £169 + £60 + £25 = £254 a month on debt.

My debts were higher than this but nowhere near the £30k in available credit across all cards that I had available and i closed many of the unused cards, but i sold business equipment (a sole trader) and loads of possessions that were non-essential to bring the debt down a bit (paid off highest interest debts like the vaniquis card first) and to carry on making repayments and to live off of.

This leaves us after paying priority bills a bit of a deficit (and ive run out of stuff to sell). I have not yet missed a payment and they fall due next month, where if we have not sorted this, I will miss a payment. All debts are in my name.

Now i am trying quickly to see what we can claim to help us.

I get PIP at the standard rate daily living, as i have bad problems with eating, cooking, washing and i dress quite inappropriately, i was awarded 8 points, standard rate. I also had a severe problem re routines, hence why I became self employed and have been for 3 years without claiming anything other than my PIP (formerly DLA).

We have put in a claim for my partner, who has worked since 16 (now 27) and has never claimed a dime for anything up to this point, for mobility, psychosis, lack of any sort of care of himself and complete inability to budget on his own and social interaction issues, as his are so severe and he has had psychosis episodes outside.

We have been advised he will probably get the enhanced rate daily living and standard mobility.

Now my partner is contracted 30 hours, but is on reduced hours (16) at the moment. Now I am wondering if the benefit office where housing benefit is concerned will treat him as working 16 hours or his contracted 30. He did have and has used up 3 months full sick pay when he was off including the time while he has sectioned.

We do not yet know the outcome of his PIP claim. The benefits adviser told me if he gets it to claim carer's allowance, even though I receive PIP myself he mentioned that the complete difference in disabilities and how severe his is compared to mine he stated if he gets it for me to go for CA and income support. But because he works this is incredibly complicated and he wants to stay in his job as its one of the few things that is giving him motivation to get better. In a year he went from a vibrant person to someone who really struggles. The stigma on mental illness lead to many alienation.

If he is on reduced hours (16) will this jeprodize any claim for income support/CA? If he ups his hours back to 30, would this bar us from any entitlement at all? With disability premiums you can get benefits at a significantly higher rate than those without, although things have changed a bit since I last claimed over 3 years ago. The lifestyle protector covers for some income in any case (it is tax-free)

I have a claim for Housing benefit pending. The large transactions that came into my bank delayed that claim (selling large volumes of personal possessions on eBay) and they are going through the proof that i sent them showing they were from sold personal possessions.


I need some advice on what we can claim in our circumstances and if there is any tips into attacking this debt problem before it gets out of hand. The whole thing has taken quite a toll on my own mental health and also the fact my business failed really knocked me for six given how long I have run it. I know i would struggle in a work-based routine and so to loose the business really sucks and if my partner is here on his own and if he has an episode, if i am not here the result could be awful.

I can claim contribution based benefits, but am unsure of the process. i paid voluntary class 3 NICs throughout. No tax bills or anything are owing.

Where do we stand here?

Hopefully someone with experience could chime in as the debt does seem quite large (although now ive been looking, not as large as the average). I am hoping we can get some other source of income to help us before i fall into arrears with these. Any backdated benefits we may get (as CA can be backdated to a PIP claim if he gets it) will go straight onto attacking this debt.

And let this be an example as to how a managable mental health condition for my partner was made much, much worse when he was given SSRI and later SSNI medication, and to anyone who may be considering taking such medication, cease it if negative interactions happen, as it is likely he would not have had to go off sick if it wasn't for the awful reaction he had with the venlafaxine / effexor and the withdrawal which later happened. Showing knowledge of how these medications work only seems to agitate professionals more, if they do not understand the mechanism fully, why are they given out like sweets? I won't deny they help some, but modifying brain chemistry isn't to be done lightly... I was offered SSRIs after my mothers death in 2013 as a front line treatment for grief and i declined citing prior experience with medication, and do not regret my decision.

The time i went on medication was a much much darker time than before or since, and the end result of wronged use of SSNI medication on my partner (and upping of the dose after reporting it to 'fix' the negative symptoms i reported) helped lead to our predicament here, with my concerns falling on deaf ears until problems happened. I am still not finished with the GP who prescribed them as my tapes are handy.

Comments

  • Your situations are complicated and my best advice would be to go to CAB and see if they can do a benefits check for you both, you could also look at the website "turn2us" and get some ideas of benefits you might be missing out on.
    Good luck to you both.
  • fatbelly
    fatbelly Posts: 20,380
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    The CAB is not a bad shout, as they should have an advisor-only version of the turn2us calculator, called Quick Benefits Checker. It's worth running a few different scenarios though it though you are unlikely to be better off by him not working, and your insurance payments will count as income.

    The only income-based benefits you are likely to get are HB/CTS, and it seems strange you have full council tax relief, while a HB claim is pending, as these are currently done by the same department. Could you be exempt for ctax under SMI (severe mental impairment) rules? Don't be upset about this and accept it if it's offered

    Anyway, you may be better with discussing your benefits issues (concisely) on the benefits board and leaving this thread for debts. We're gonna need a soa. Calculator here

    http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php
  • The CTS we claimed (you can claim separately, as we didn't feel we needed any rent support at the time) and that was under the SMI rules.


    So far, all of my creditors have agreed to freeze interest for the next 6 months (despite not having missed any payments) i had to wrangle with one of them and get through to a supervisor but all have agreed (on tape) to freeze my interest. I guess having several years of unblemished payment history helps.

    This will give us time to get back in the loop as its reduced the payments to a more manageable level.

    We have been awarded housing benefit as well.

    Thanks for your suggestions guys. It has been a tough year but should only go up from here.

    I heard barclaycard can sometimes get funny with freezing interest, but i didn't have a problem getting them to freeze interest.
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