please help! cant cope anymore!

geoffky

Can i just jump on this thread and say what a great job you lot are doing here..well done:T:T

tigerfeet2006

Hi HA and welcome home. Sorry that you had such a bad time of it and hope you are feeling better soon.

A flu jab will not stop you getting the flu it will just stop you getting one particular strain of flu. The bods decide which strain they think will be the most virulent each year, sort out a jab that will conteract it and then administer it to all those in need of it. Unfortunatly it is not a catch all.

homealone_2

as suggested i spoke to cap but they would not do information over phone wanted to make a home visit and was not really happy about someone coming to house. have become almost total recluse since hurting my back and do not like people coming to house that i know, let alone strangers and even if they were prepared to do it on phone would not be for at least 3 weeks. then CCCS rang to say they could not do a review of budget as booked on 2 feb as councillor off sick till 13feb, friday 13th feb!!! not normally superstitous but that date does worry me a little. i explained to her that i was not sure if they would be able to help anyway as they had suggested a DMP and i did not think i would be able to continue paying £500 approx for 5 years as there was a sizeable chunk of that money used every month for things they deemed as luxury items. anyway i seem to be rambling, again!! i will try and post my question in as straight forward a way as possible. if i start with what are the facts and then go on to the variables it might help.
i have £15,500 owing to the inland revenue for tax credits overpayments, £8,500 of which i am solely responsible for (long story) a further £7,500 yet to be proved but if owed ex is liable for half, a further approx £8900 is owed to the halifax on an unsecured loan and a £6500 lloyds credit card bill. i then owe perhaps a further £1000 in small sums owed to catalogues etc all manageable. my car is on motability and i rent my flat from a housing association my income is made up of benefits as disabled and i live with my almost 18 yr old son since husband leaving almost 2 months ago. debt all in my name unfortunately. my assets are A £3000 isa and shares were purchased for my kids in the 80's that are in my name and total approx £4500, so obviously whatever path i choose i will lose these. my options are as follows the CCCS feel i should give them £309 a month on a DMP, clear start want me to give them £509 on an IVA. i had decided i wanted to go bankrupt and spoke to CCCS today while they were adjusting my reveiw date and they said if i did not go along with their suggestion that basically i would need to go it alone. with the bankruptcy and having surplus of about £400 i would probably have to give all of that in an IPA, i am trying to not just figure out what will be best for me long term but what i could apply myself to now without being penniless. all of you know how all the above options are worth but i am now considering a new one and wanted all of your thoughts on this. as already stated i have a £3000 isa and the shares worth approx £4500 that no one knows anout as yet as i do not consider them to be mine i am now stuck with the fact that they will be classed as mine. if i cash them in now and aplit between 3 kids or sign them over to the kids it will just look like i am trying to hide fumds i have explained this to the kids and they are ok about them being used on debts and i dont see any other way of them being able to keep them so if i sell these and relinquish shares i will have about £7500 if i give halifax and lloyds almost half each, pay little bills that will bring my monthly debts down quite a bit and although it still leaves a potential £15,500 to the inland revenue they are not asking for any money as such yet as they have passed me onto the hardship team who will review my case every couple of months and assess when they feel i can start repaying them so no monthly money will be going to them AS with all other plans on offer they all want to start paying them now along with other creditors whether they want the money or not as they feel they will want it at sometime so i may as well start now as at any other time. with this option i could come to arrangements with creditors for the balance after lump sums paid and i will be the one in control again. what do you all think??????????????

fiveyearplan

Okay so apart from tax credit overpayments how much debt do you have and what is it made up of ie credit cards/loans.

My suggestion might possibly be offer F&Fs since you do have some cash and then make an arrangement with tax people. Get some proper advice first. Also if your cc/other debt is too much then possibly bankruptcy but you do want to explore all options first.

How can you possibly have that much overpayment? That is the one thing that scared me when I made my application for tax credits because I had heard so many stories of overpayments. I was completely honest in my assessment and read everything with a fine tooth comb but I am afraid when April comes round they will want me to pay them back.

homealone_2

apart from tax credits i owe approx £9000 in an unsecured halifax loan and approx £6000 to llods bank credit card and a further £1000 in small bits and pieces catalogues etc. what does ff mean? as for overpayments they paid me single family money of £8000 for one year, which seemed excessive so i called them and was told they would look into it when i had told them i was married. it took them 3 years to tell me this. then when all this kicked off they said i owed a further £7,500 as i had been overpaid every year since then too. this i am looking into as when tax award notices arrived annually it said entitled to nil payment as earnings were too much. they have sent me pages of corresspondence supposedly to sort it out but all they have sent is copies of computer screen showing applications for awards. paper tower they have sent is 2 feet high and none of it shows where this further money was paid so this is something else outstanding. am not excessively worried at the present as like i said they have said i need not pay them anything will i qualify for child tax credit as my income is so low. so am just at present looking into repaying £16000 approx to the 2 creditors mentioned. hth

homealone_2

:j just bouncing

fiveyearplan

So apart from any tax credit overpayment your debt is mainly the halifax loan of £9,000 and lloyds at £6,000. How far in arrears are you with them? You could stop paying and offer Halifax £1,000 (that is just over 10%) and Lloyds £1,000 (that is nearly 20%). They will probably not accept those offers but when you tell them you have no choice but BR they may start negotiating. Halifax should settle at £3,000 and Lloyds at £2,000. Don't tell them where you will be getting your money or how much you have. You could do the same with the rest of your debt then it will only be the tax credit people you owe. I'm sure since it was there mistake either you won't have to pay it back or they will come to some arrangement.

It is worth trying the above and if it saves you from BR it will be worth it. If you end up BR well at least you tried!

IF Halifax & Lloyds take you to court they would only get what you could afford to pay each month anyway.

krisskross

Just a thought but are you paying income tax on the money you get from the insurance plus the Incapacity Benefit? I would imagine both are taxable. wouldn't like you to get any more problems.

homealone_2

fiveyearplan wrote: »

So apart from any tax credit overpayment your debt is mainly the halifax loan of £9,000 and lloyds at £6,000. How far in arrears are you with them? You could stop paying and offer Halifax £1,000 (that is just over 10%) and Lloyds £1,000 (that is nearly 20%). They will probably not accept those offers but when you tell them you have no choice but BR they may start negotiating. Halifax should settle at £3,000 and Lloyds at £2,000. Don't tell them where you will be getting your money or how much you have. You could do the same with the rest of your debt then it will only be the tax credit people you owe. I'm sure since it was there mistake either you won't have to pay it back or they will come to some arrangement.

It is worth trying the above and if it saves you from BR it will be worth it. If you end up BR well at least you tried!

IF Halifax & Lloyds take you to court they would only get what you could afford to pay each month anyway.

hi ya


i had a similar idea myself and thought they would agree to a lesser sum if br was only other option. so couple of weeks ago i rang lloyds and got through to their repayment problem line and said pretty much what you suggested and all they said they could offer was a 6 month freeze on interest and small reduction in monthly payments. they did not even flinch when i said i may have to go br if i couldnt get help with repayments and explained this situation was not caused by overspending or gambling debts but due to my husband leaving me with all debts in my name and only income being benefits but she just repeated what she said. so i did not even bother with halifax as i know form dealing with them on husbands behalf when i met him (yes i should have seen the signs) that all they did was freeze interest and every 2 months go through budget on phone and he paid a third of what should have been paid, eventually they started a whole new plan for him longer term but half the payments and he is still paying it to my knowledge, so doubt they would look on me any more favourably. i am only just as of this week 2 months behind but have paid £10 every 10 days or so

homealone_2

krisskross wrote: »

Just a thought but are you paying income tax on the money you get from the insurance plus the Incapacity Benefit? I would imagine both are taxable. wouldn't like you to get any more problems.

thanks but tax is taken from incapacity before i get it and the income protection plan i get from my old employers they deduct national insurance but not tax so am assuming that earning £386.24 a month is below when you need to start paying tax