SOA questions

bubbles_bonbon

Hi,
I apologise if I am going over ground that you guys have covered before but I have a few questions about our family expenditure.

I have a partner and four kids. I work as a freelance sales agent. I earn on a commission only basis and have an average income of about £2000 per month gross.
My partner takes home around £1300 per month.

I tried to arrange an IVA with the help of a specialist company, but £750 later it was rejected.

My OH has owned the house for 13 years. I moved in 2 years ago and since then I have lost my job and we were flooded out of the house by a freak storm in the August. (do you think that someone is trying to tell me something).
Since the floods the house has lost at least 25% of its value and we are now classed as a flood risk area. This means that my interest in the house is in negative equity.

I am filing for bankruptcy as I am unable to keep up the payments on the loans which I took out before loosing my job. My earnings then were considerably higher than now.

At the moment I spend over £400 per month on petrol (business milage). Do you think that the OR will gawp at this?

Is £800 per month to much to claim for house keeping?

Can I claim for school bus, dinner and trips etc?

Will we have to take the kids mobile phones away. (they go to 3 different schools all of which are a bus ride away)

HELP PLEASE

Thanks

Waspeze

I think you're best bet might be to put up your full I&E and let people comment on it? (just a thought )

peachyprice

bubbles_bonbon wrote: »

Hi,
I apologise if I am going over ground that you guys have covered before but I have a few questions about our family expenditure.

I have a partner and four kids. I work as a freelance sales agent. I earn on a commission only basis and have an average income of about £2000 per month gross.
My partner takes home around £1300 per month.

I tried to arrange an IVA with the help of a specialist company, but £750 later it was rejected.

My OH has owned the house for 13 years. I moved in 2 years ago and since then I have lost my job and we were flooded out of the house by a freak storm in the August. (do you think that someone is trying to tell me something).
Since the floods the house has lost at least 25% of its value and we are now classed as a flood risk area. This means that my interest in the house is in negative equity.

I am filing for bankruptcy as I am unable to keep up the payments on the loans which I took out before loosing my job. My earnings then were considerably higher than now.

At the moment I spend over £400 per month on petrol (business milage). Do you think that the OR will gawp at this?

Is £800 per month to much to claim for house keeping? Maybe a bit high, have you tried cutting back at all? As a rough guideline they seem to be allowing £600 ish for 2 adults and 3 children

Can I claim for school bus, dinner and trips etc? Yes, I claimed £100 for school dinners and £15 for after school clubs

Will we have to take the kids mobile phones away. (they go to 3 different schools all of which are a bus ride away) No not at all, you can pay for this out of your surplus.

HELP PLEASE

Thanks

Hi Bubbles, just given some quick answers, hope this helps some

bubbles_bonbon

Hi Waspeze,

Yeah we have cut back, but with four teenagers in the house its not easy. We use the cheaper super markets and buy clothes from the usual, primark etc. But I am sure that we could get it down by at least another £70 or so.
I will post my I & E tomorrow.

bubbles_bonbon

Thanks peachy.

What are your thoughts on the petrol costs. Will they tell me to get another job?????

peachyprice

I doubt they would do that, if that's what it costs, then that's what it costs. I've never heard or them asking people to change jobs.

Regarding the housekeeping/clothes, they cannot take your child benefit into account when calculating an IPA, so if you cut the food down, up the clothes allowance, if it came to it you can then argue the point that you are using your child benefit for childrens clothes.

bubbles_bonbon

Good thinking Peachy. I knew that there was a reason for me talking on this forum.
I feel like I have the whole world on my shoulders and no one understands. But I guess thats how we all feel. A problem shared and all that.

bubbles_bonbon

I am sh*****g myself,

OR interview at 09:00.

AAAAHHHHHHHH

dalip

Sorry a bit late but fingers crossed.D

Jaks

Good luck with your OR interview.

Can you let us know how you got on with your SOA in reguards with your OR did or did not allow on your SOA, I am especially interested in the housekeeping allowance as we are a family of 6 (me, my dh & 4 kids).

Jaks

bubbles_bonbon

Ok......One and a half hours later I am kinda smiling.:D

Jaks. I claimed for £700 per month for house keeping but I also claimed £40 for school bus and £100 for school dinners. OR said that it is better to list the individual outgoings rather than just lumping them all into house keeping.

Everything else seemed to be ok.

We have a slight wait on the issue of our house.
I have only lived here for two years and my partner has been here for 13yrs. OH obviously built up a good amount of profit in the property over this time. Unfortunately since I moved in, in 2006 we have been flooded. This happened in the storms 2007, thus the value of the property has dropped considerably. My argument is that I only have claim to 50% of the increase in value from the time that I moved in. This would now equate to about -£35,000.
The OR agreed with this but he is going to get back to me in a couple of weeks.
I will post again when I know more.,