SOA for a family of 5 - Please can you have a look!!

combo81

Well I couldnt claim HB as Im now buying, but when I wasnt, I couldnt get it.

What about the high tax credits you get? Is this due for renewal, I think you will be in for a shock.

As for imaginative accounting, thats whats called cooking the books. Whats to say the OR says you can live in 300 per month shopping and that frees up 280 for debts. Is this not their job to assess if you qualify for BR?

To me it looks like you earn a lot of money to go BR. How much debt are you talking about here?

peachyprice

Combo,
The interview with the OR is AFTER you have been made BR, it's not to assess whether or not you can go BR.

The idea of an I&E in bankruptcy is to demostrate that you can have a reasonable standard of living, without resorting to credit, it's not to strip you bare so you have to struggle.

If, after all your reasonable outgoings have been taken into consideration, you have a surplus of over £99 the OR will take a percentage for 3 years to pay towards your creditors.

Just becuase you cannot see the level of debt involved doesn't mean it isn't there. And it is not the OR job to 'punish' you for going BR by making you live like a pauper.

The fact that you spend £240 on groceries is presumably out of choice as you are servicing your manageable debts. That is your own personal decision.

combo81

I guess I would be worse off BR, I have equity in the house.

But Im just pointing out how high 580 is a month. And they dont question that?

nervousmother

combo81 wrote: »

Sorry if Im dumb here, but if you get 1200 a month then how do you get HB? and that amount of tax credit? Is he not supposed to be living with you?

I get 1375, no HB and 300 tax credit for me, mrs and three kids.

Also, 550 for croceries!! How will this be seen as appopriate. We spend 240.

And it looks like you dont have any debt??

is that £240 pw? :rolleyes:

if its per month you spend only £55.43 to feed a family of 5 for a week?

We are a family of 5 and our groceries bill is £120 a week + school dinners no creative accounting, it is what it is, and no we are not overweight nor do we eat caviar.

Zandytobedebtfree

No shock on my Tax credits thanks, this is the amount I get until at least October, as my youngest DD is under 1, then it will go down, but only slightly - Thank you very much!!!

combo81

Yes. 60 quid a week. I spend 50 on a weeks croceries (sometimes 40) and leave the mrs 10 for bread and milk thru the week.

Its not all rubbish either, in fact we seem to be eating a lot healthier since the LBM.

peachyprice

combo81 wrote: »

I guess I would be worse off BR, I have equity in the house.

But Im just pointing out how high 580 is a month. And they dont question that?

You have to look at it from the point of view how much would you spend ideally, if you didn't have debts to service.

That is the whole point of BR, to give you a sustainable standard of living with no debts to service. If you were no better off after BR there would be little point in doing it.

combo81

Surely the point of bankruptcy is because you cant afford to pay any debt back, not because you want a good standard of living that having to pay back debt doesnt allow?

I thought that was the criteria between solvency and being insolvent?

If you have reached debt crisis then you are insolvent.

peachyprice

That is the point of bankrputcy entirely, if you're not insolvent the judge won't let you go BR.

But once you are BR the OR doesn't expect you continue living in poverty. You no longer have debts to service, you money can be used for a normal standard of living.

Nowhere did anyone mention a 'good' standard of living. Reasonable, normal and sustainable is what you are entitled to achieve.

£240 on groceries for a family of five is not a normal standard of living.

combo81

Over on the debt free wannabes forum it is

Im trying to understand, so you have to show the judge a soa with the expenditure that you WANT to live by after BR not the one showing how you are living now and how you cannot meet payments?

Seems a bit ridiculous. Far better show them how you struggle now.