Debt Relief Orders (DRO) - Information & help thread

wba31

Orville wrote: »

Yes he would. ANY changes of circumstances have to be declared to the IS. That does not mean however that his DRO would be revoked. It all depends on the surplus money he has left over at the end of the month. (This is the key). It could very well be that he could work full-time and still be left with under £50. If however he has more then that, then his dro maybe revoked. I don't know if there is any leway that the IS have with regards to the amount of surplus, say if he had £60 at the end of the month he maybe kept on the DRO i don't know, maybe a call to the IS to clarify if it looks like he might have would be worth doing.

there is no leway, it's as clear as black and white, if he had a £51 surplus or more, the DRO would be revoked

Orville

wba31 wrote: »

there is no leway, it's as clear as black and white, if he had a £51 surplus or more, the DRO would be revoked

Thanks for clearing that up.:D

hethmar

Thanks. Im not sure how they work out the £50 though. I mean, in theory, would you just buy more food to live on to get rid of the extra tenner or whatever? It all seems a bit vague and iffy. Say he managed to get a job giving him £170 a week after tax, then £90 for rent, leaving £80 a week. So he has to get down to approx £12 a week from that surplus? So fuel for the car, food, toiletries, clothes. Im not sure how they could qualify what was legitimate use of the money?

wba31

hethmar wrote: »

Thanks. Im not sure how they work out the £50 though. I mean, in theory, would you just buy more food to live on to get rid of the extra tenner or whatever? It all seems a bit vague and iffy. Say he managed to get a job giving him £170 a week after tax, then £90 for rent, leaving £80 a week. So he has to get down to approx £12 a week from that surplus? So fuel for the car, food, toiletries, clothes. Im not sure how they could qualify what was legitimate use of the money?

People have to produce a budget, and as expenditure for all items comes out the surplus goes down. there are guidelines, so you could simply have a single person claiming they spend £120 a week on food for themselves, plus £150 a month clothes shopping etc, so budgets have to be realistic, but that is why the intermediaries are varying advice agencies, so that a realistic budget can be drawn up and worked with first.

which is why on these boards when people have had no advice from CAB, CCCS or NDL, they are heavily advised to contact one of them, because on here we can only advise of the rules, the individual advice and guidance could only be given following a full advice session with a qualified advisor

3Dogs

Hi there - could I ask for some advice please? I was granted my DRO on 13th January 2011 so I now have only 5 months to go :j :j but, at the time, my husband couldn't apply due to the Pension Fund rules, which have now changed. However, he came off Incapacity Benefit and started self-employment buying and selling and we have been getting sorted with WTC and changes to HB/CTB etc and I have now got all the figures together which would seem to show that he would still be eligible for a DRO.

The problem is, when I did my DRO, CCCS used our total household income and expenditure to work out the surplus, whereas I believe that now, the IS require individual income & expenditure as the DRO is an individual order.

So, do I do everything together like I did for mine, half everything down the middle, or apportion expenditure to income? He is not making a profit from his self-employment but he is now covering certain expenses which used to be part of the household budget, like van insurance, MOT, van repairs, diesel, his mobile phone which are now expenses of his self-employment. So his only income as such is the WTC which is payable to both of us. I have an Occupational Pension plus I receive Incapacity Benefit, so clearly most of the income is mine.

Monthly figures are:
Husbands income from Self Employment - £ 0
My income from Occupational Pension, after tax, - £445
My income from Incapacity Benefit - £326
WTC to both of us - £392

If WTC is allocated totally to my husband, our income would be roughly 66%/33% Me/OH

If WTC was halved between us, my income would total £966 and OH's £196, so this would make a 80%/20%

If WTC split according to other income, it would all go to me????

Am I making this too complicated??????????????? :eek: :eek:

Any advice would be appreciated TIA

fatbelly

3Dogs wrote: »

Am I making this too complicated??????????????? :eek: :eek:

Yes!

See WBA's post just before yours. This is something to chat over with your Intermediary.

You are right to say individual inc/exp must be used. That was always the case but some of us weren't doing that if we didn't need to and the DRO reminded everyone earlier this year that we should.

However, there is no one way of approaching it. It just has to be logical. I think you'll be OK but you have to talk it through with your intermediary

3Dogs

Many thanks Fatbelly for that advice, I will be ringing CCCS tomorrow

wba31

3Dogs wrote: »

Hi there - could I ask for some advice please? I was granted my DRO on 13th January 2011 so I now have only 5 months to go :j :j but, at the time, my husband couldn't apply due to the Pension Fund rules, which have now changed. However, he came off Incapacity Benefit and started self-employment buying and selling and we have been getting sorted with WTC and changes to HB/CTB etc and I have now got all the figures together which would seem to show that he would still be eligible for a DRO.

The problem is, when I did my DRO, CCCS used our total household income and expenditure to work out the surplus, whereas I believe that now, the IS require individual income & expenditure as the DRO is an individual order.

So, do I do everything together like I did for mine, half everything down the middle, or apportion expenditure to income? He is not making a profit from his self-employment but he is now covering certain expenses which used to be part of the household budget, like van insurance, MOT, van repairs, diesel, his mobile phone which are now expenses of his self-employment. So his only income as such is the WTC which is payable to both of us. I have an Occupational Pension plus I receive Incapacity Benefit, so clearly most of the income is mine.

Monthly figures are:
Husbands income from Self Employment - £ 0
My income from Occupational Pension, after tax, - £445
My income from Incapacity Benefit - £326
WTC to both of us - £392

If WTC is allocated totally to my husband, our income would be roughly 66%/33% Me/OH

If WTC was halved between us, my income would total £966 and OH's £196, so this would make a 80%/20%

If WTC split according to other income, it would all go to me????

Am I making this too complicated??????????????? :eek: :eek:

Any advice would be appreciated TIA

I would split it as it's awarded. Anything paid to you goes under your income. Anything to OH is their income. Anything joint is split 50/50. I'd then work out what %of income is yours, what is OH, then apply those percentages to the budget figures.

Sound complicated? If you're with CCCS, do a full joint budget with them, that will be important for you and your OH so you can manage on that in your own lives, and if they refer you to their DRO department, they will be able to split the budget for you and tell you what it works out to.

3Dogs

wba31 wrote: »

I would split it as it's awarded. Anything paid to you goes under your income. Anything to OH is their income. Anything joint is split 50/50. I'd then work out what %of income is yours, what is OH, then apply those percentages to the budget figures.

Sound complicated? If you're with CCCS, do a full joint budget with them, that will be important for you and your OH so you can manage on that in your own lives, and if they refer you to their DRO department, they will be able to split the budget for you and tell you what it works out to.

Many thanks WBA for your good advice :T :T

Sillymiss

Hi everyone, I've been reading up on this thread most of the day, I decided to take the plunge and register then I can pick your knowledgable brains, please be gentle with me!


I only heard of a DRO today from this thread, it sounds like the answer to my prayers, I want to know if I will be eligible on the following;

I know a lot of people who have been accepted for DRO's are on benefits, I work part time, my OH full time but he is getting in debt due to not having enough money month to month for the bills as I am paying debts with my wages. My little boy is due to start school next month too which will Increase costs (after school club, lunches etc), will my income go against me? I certainly have less than £50 disposable income come payday!

2nd, I have a DMP with CCCS with 3 o/s debts which has been running for about 6 years, but I have about £5k worth of debt I incurred in the years since it started that they don't know about (I'm an idiot, I know) all in all I have about £10,000. Will that go against me with the CCCS and preferential creditor treatment? It's been a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, I haven't defaulted on any payments but basically we can't cope. I'd rather not include the 'new' debts in my DMP, I've been paying it for years and I've only paid 2/3, it will take forever this DRO seems like a dream, to be debt free in a year.

Lastly, I had a house jointly with my OH but when we moved to a new house he took it in just his name as with my credit history we didn't think we would get a mortgage, the equity went into the deposit for the new house, this was 18 months ago. My name isn't on the deeds at all. Will this stop me in getting a DRO?

Thanks for reading, I would really appreciate any help and advice