How can I cope with all this debt?

I'm no expert on this and have only just found this out as it applies to myself as of Monday but your husband needs to get a job, any job, even a minimum wage job for 30 hours per week and then you will be entitled to working tax credits/child tax credits.

Re the baby stuff, my son slept in pink baby grows that were handed down from a friend, keep the more neutral colors for during the day but your baby won't mind what color its wearing or what pram it's in.

I've also just had to SORN my son's car, i put it off and put it off but it was really simple in the end, it took about 30 seconds online,

Hi try not to worry it is only money and you will be ok.

I just wanted to weigh in on your worries about the baby. Babies can cost literally nothing or the earth - you get to choose. We took on our granddaughter at no notice and my income got slashed to £0 not long after this and it took ages for us to even get the child benefit so we had nothing.

Free cycle is great for newborn clothes, they literally are almost brand new. You can put a shout out on your local facebook page - resident's group - and people will donate stuff and even drop it to you. Bootfairs will be starting up now and you can pick up lovely bits for pence. I bought our buggy second hand off of ebay. You don't need a moses basket a drawer will do just as well. I picked up our cot and then a john lewis toddler bed via freecycle.

Are you hoping to breast feed? Obviously if you want to/can then that will save you a great amount. You should also be getting milk/fruit tokens being on IS and you can use these at aldi if you have one near you.

we had 1 income for over a year and I have still done lots of activities with our lo but mostly they are free activities.

I know it's frightening but it will be ok and you will just have to baton down the hatches until your oh can find work

Have a cup of tea, sit down and stop fretting. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you've got a roof over your head - and that is covered.

None of the other debts are important. If I were in your situation, this is what I would do:

Contact StepChange debt charity.
Speak to the car finance company and see if you can voluntarily give up the car.
Open a new basic bank account and start contacting the DWP etc to get your benefits paid into it.

You'll be fine.

Hi OP,
Take advice from a free debt charity (stepchange / Christians Against Poverty) and/or post up your statement of affairs.

You probably need to stop paying your non priority debts (such as loans and credit cards) and find out about if you can hand the car back and what happens if you do, in order to free up money for food and priority bills. Ask the debt charity about this or post up the details of what you owe.

If you can't manage to pay for everything (and you need to buy proper food especially as you have a child and are pregnant so living exclusively on cheap carbs for a while is not an option) then your non priority debts will have to go to token payments. This will affect your credit file but once you accept this needs to be done to keep you all well you can move forward with it.

Tlc

Edit: have you took advice re the work dispute from a union or anyone else (citizens advice, any charities). Employers have additional obligations to you when you are pregnant so it's worth investigating whether they are allowed to leave you hanging unpaid. Get advice with this from whoever you can find. Have you complained loudly to HR / head office - if these exist in your line of work.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

They will pay out on the third party claim - however they may well then come after their policy holder to recoup what they have paid out. Bottom line is that you would be driving the car illegally, and a lot of insurers state in their policies that this is not acceptable, as you might expect. In terms of whether it automatically invalidates the policy, it varies dependent on what is stated in the policy - however in the event of an accident if it DOES invalidate, you could expect the police to treat you as an uninsured driver, in addition the offence of driving a vehicle without a valid MoT Test Certificate. Combining those two would most likely cost you your license and net you an almighty fine (the fine for driving without insurance is currently unlimited and disqualifications are frequently dished out.

No valid MOT does not necessarily invalidate insurance.


Case in point - MOT on my wife's car was due 2 years ago, received letter from Honda advising of required recall. Spoke to garage who advised they couldn't do recall until 3 days after MOT due date, but to hold off on MOT in case recall revealed other issues (car was 12 years old going on 24 years old in condition). Opted to not use car for the 3 days, and on drive to garage had an incident with another driver.
Insurance company paid out value of car minus 10% for no MOT.


All that being said, I wouldn't recommend driving with no MOT, so car should be parked off the road and declared sorn if insurance is not affordable. Only risk is car is not covered if stolen.

OP - get some advice from a debt advice charity (CAB, NDL or Stepchange)