Debt Relief Orders (DRO) - Information & help thread

wba31

Hampshire345 wrote: »

I have finally posted off my completed dro application to stepchange today,
how long will it take them to process it and decide if I can do a dro?

It can vary on how busy they are, i was last told they were turning them around in about 2 weeks, but that was a few weeks back

Hampshire345

I received a letter on the 23rd may saying that they had received all the paperwork and are now processing the dro application.

Hampshire345

I have just received in the post the letter to pay the £90 fee. I will be paying it tomorrow morning.

after paying the fee and phoning up stepchange do they then send you an envelope to send the dro application form to the insolvency service?

Jonj1611

They should do all that.

fatbelly

It's all done electronically. They should let you know when it's accepted

Hampshire345

on the dro letter that I will use to pay the dro fee tomorrow it has the wrong amount for my catalogue debt, on the debt amount it says 286, when it is only 166, I think this may be because they have added the arrears and buy now pay later amount I owe. However this is wrong as the 166already includes the buy now pay later amount, it clearly states this on my catalogue statements and on my online account with the catalogue. I also think they have included 15 arrears to make the figure 286, but the arrears are already part of 166.

after I have paid the fee I will phone up stepchange and see what is going on, there is absolutely no way that I owe 286 on my cataogue account as the amount I have left to spend on the account plus the 166 matches the total credit limit of my account

wba31

Hampshire345 wrote: »

on the dro letter that I will use to pay the dro fee tomorrow it has the wrong amount for my catalogue debt, on the debt amount it says 286, when it is only 166, I think this may be because they have added the arrears and buy now pay later amount I owe. However this is wrong as the 166already includes the buy now pay later amount, it clearly states this on my catalogue statements and on my online account with the catalogue. I also think they have included 15 arrears to make the figure 286, but the arrears are already part of 166.

after I have paid the fee I will phone up stepchange and see what is going on, there is absolutely no way that I owe 286 on my cataogue account as the amount I have left to spend on the account plus the 166 matches the total credit limit of my account

As long as it doesnt take you over the £15000 limit it doesnt really matter. They may have a different balance from your credit report and have listed the highest amount to be on the safe side.

I was told when i was trained that if for example you did owe £286, but your application was submitted with £166 as the balance, the creditor could pursue you for the £120 difference.

I have no idea how that works with the debt being written off at the end of the moratorium, if it would the £120 difference as an outstanding debt, but i dont take chances with it to even try and find out...

it's better to have too high a balance than too low!

mlane

I used the Citizens advice bureau, completed a budget sheet and had the appointment on the 26th March after a 4 week wait. it took untill around 2nd April for the experian report code to arrive which was provided immediatly. My partner took the same budget

sheet to a different adviser and was told that the budget sheet should be ammended as the disposable income figure should be as close to zero as possible as we are hemorrhaging money trying to pay the debts. I submitted an ammended budget sheet on the

6th of May Then finally on the 19th May I received the draft after paying the £90 for the DRO on the 15th May. On the draft there were many errors, such as the amounts of each debt and the status of my health, I returned the draft with all of the ammendments. I had to keep contacting the adviser as nothing appeared to be happening, replies were sparse.

Finally on the 2nd of June the adviser replied saying that the DRO had been submitted we were told we should hear something by the end of the week, I contacted the adviser on the 9th June asking for an update and she said she'd chase it up via e-mail the following day, I received an e-mail on the 11th stating that she'd "re-submitted" the DRO and that we should get approval by the friday. I then contacted the Insolvency as there had been many times throughout this process whereby I doubted the abilities of the adviser. I was told that the DRO had been submitted on the 11th June and that they hadn't received anything on the 2nd June. I was told to call the insolvency back at the end of the week if I hadn't heard anything. I've just contacted them and they've said that the information needs to be ammended as the budget sheet has been done as a joint income between me and my partner and as its in my name, it needs to contain only my single income.

Now the problem is that I dont know what my income is, or even if I have one. My parner started his own business last year and we are minus £2000, we are basically living off working tax credit (in my partners name), child tax credit and child benefit (in my name). I dont actually have an income - does the child tax credit and child benefit count as my income? the other problem is the insolvency worker said we can't count any bills that are in my partners name as expenditure and he has a number of business expenses that need paying and there are a number of bills in his name such as the gas and electricity and phone/internet. These bills still need paying but we cannot include these as expenditure. What do we do?

Hampshire345

my dro have been accepted and I have received a letter with my dro number:)

Lucy5781

103 days away from mine finishing and three of the creditors have tried selling the debts on AGAIN to new collectors.... Deleting pestering texts, returning letters with my DRO no. included in big red capital letters and hanging up on call center types who don't know anything about DROs.

It will end eventually, I hope!