debt and benefits

jennymw

hello i'm new and i need some advice for my mum.

My mum is on pension credit and her husband gets DLA. They have around £5k debt on credit cards and bank loan and currently cannot afford to meet minimum payments and still meet essential expenditure, like food and bills.

My question is, is there any way for them to be able to write off any of their debt? I know if you're working you can get an IVA but what do you do if you are on benefits which is the minimum amount you have to live on and you cannot afford repayments? My mum is really struggling and is going without because she cannot afford these payments...surely the companies cannot expect her to meet these payments when she is on benefit?

any advice welcome

thanks, Jenny

dancingfairy

I would get them to go to the CAB or phone one of the free helplines like National Debtline or maybe give CCCS a call. Not sure if they can wipe off the debt but they will be able to explain the different options and possibly negotiate a smaller repayment plan for them and possibly get some interest stopped.
The most important things are obviously that they eat and pay the priority bills ie gas/electric/mortgage/rent/council tax etc. The creditors can't have what they haven't got. Tell them to be strong and there is help out there for them.
Oh and welcome by the way.

princess-of-plastic

Hi,

If she calls the companies and explains the situation they may accept lower payments and freeze the interest, it depends how nice the company is. Also she should call citizens advice as they help people to deal with things like this all the time.

Hope your mum gets everything sorted soon!

L x

GeorgeUK

I would definately contact national debtline or Citizens advice. I would strongly recommend they prepare a statement of affairs so that they know exactly what their income, expenditure and debts are.
https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Also enquire about an Administration order - i believe this deals with debts up to £5k. I'll try to find a bit of deatil on it.

Edit:
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=09_administration_orders

Ames

If they contact CCCS make sure that the DLA is down as used for care needs, they took it as income for me but wouldn't allow me care needs, which is wrong.

There's always the option of paying £1 per month per creditor. In theory it's not a long term thing but I've been doing it for well over a year now. A lot of my debts have been passed on to DCA's which trashes the credit rating but stops interest and charges.

Do they own their own home? If they do then the token payments might not be a good idea because the creditors have more options.

Food and essential bills should ALWAYS come before unsecured debt, there's no way they should be going without food to pay a loan.

Jacks_xxx

Hi Jenny, :hello:

They could go bankrupt, which would write it all off - or enter a Debt Managemnt Plan which wouldn't write off the debts but would (usually) suspend the interest and reduce the monthly payment significantly.

Have a chat to CCCS and see what they say:

http://www.cccs.co.uk/contact/contact.aspx

Love Jacks xxx

richard9991

was told by cab dla is for care and mobility needs not for debts

Ames

CAB told me the same thing and as a disabled person I agree wholeheartedly with that, my quality of life would suffer a lot if I used my DLA for debts, which is what CCCS told me to do.

jennymw

thank you all very much for your useful advice. I'm sorry it took a while for me to get back to you but i suffer from ME so am not out and about or online as much as i used to be.

You've given me some useful links and advice and i am going to follow these up for my mum. thank you all so much

jenny x

SunderlandBlackCat

Hi Jenny

As well as debt counsellors Citizens Advice also have benefits advisors & might be able to suggest additional things to claim for.

You can also get a rough ide of other things to claim for at https://www.entitledto.com

markandkate

Hi I work for CAB and your situation is very common. The Staff are friendly and will not judge you. There are a number of options depending on who you owe money to and whether you have any court judgments and if you own valuable assets such as a house or car.

You first need to have your benefits checked to ensure that you are getting all the money you are entitled to as some components of DLA will qualify you for additional money.

If you have a county court judgment (CCJ) and have debts of less than £5000 then you can apply to the court for an administration order where the court take one usually low monthly payment and then pay it to the creditors. After a couple of years of paying regulalry then you can apply to the court to have the debt cleared.

If you are being threatened with court then a good tactic is to ask them to take you to court so that you can get the CCJ and apply for an admin order as the definatley won't want that especially if you tell them that you are on long term disabilty benefits. Probably you will be too scared to do this and so this is why some one like CAB can help as they won't get angry or upset at the threats.

I am sure that noone wants a CCJ but its not the end of the world if you are not likely to want to borrow money in the short term and not being able to borrow may not be such a bad thing.

Only as a last resort should you ever consider borrowing more money to pay off the debts unless the consequences of not paying them are severe such as bailiff action or eviction.

The sooner you get help the sooner you can stop worrying.