Please help me im new

Lilmissunhappy

Hi All,
I am a manic deppresive who has ran into thousands of pounds in debt due to my gambling addiction of online gambling,fruit machines and land bingo.This has been going on since April 2004 and i have only just recently stopped the gambling online by buying a block on my computer so i cannot access these sites i very rarely go to land bingo now.Where do i start ok im currently unemployed and live in Scotland i do not own my flat although one day i do wish to buy it through my local council.I dont have a car either.I dont know who i exactly owe money too as i have lost track and just bin any letter i recieved hoping it would go away.Is there any way i can find out who i owe what too?.What would anyone reccomend i do now i am really at the end of mt tether here and have continplated taking my own life although this has just been a thought i am on antidepressants.I think i owe around £40,000-£55,000 but dont know to who or exact amounts.I have losts of questions to ask also any help/advice would be greatly appreciated as i feel i really need to sort this out.

I owe money to the DSS for overpayments as i worked whilst i claimed for almost 3 years to fund my online gambling habit would this be written off if i went bankrupt?

Same as above to council for over payments for Council tax and housing benefit would this be written off if i went bankrupt?

If i started a job after the bankrupcy had processed would this affect me?

My computer jewelery etc would i lose these?

My daughter lives with me would they take anything from her room or my guest room?

would i be better to try and work after the bankrupty as being honest i dont know if i could keep a job due to my depression as i have good days and bad days

What exactly do they take from your home?

And how do they do this?

and do they visit your home?

Thanks again in advance for any advice

skylight

No, they do not visit your home or just take stuff. They do expect you to be honest on your forms and declare any assets (over £1k is the norm) of which they would then make arrangements with you to send someone to collect it. Nothing else is taken. So the PC you are using at secondhand value of next to nothing is not going to go. Nor is your daughters TV or stuff.

To help with whats owed, I would suggest that you get your credit report from somewhere like Experian to make a start. And don't bin the letters - make a note of who and whats owed and file it in a box so you have it but don't have to look at it.

As to the gambling - you are likely to get a BRU/O due to this (if the majority of the debt was because of it). http://www.gascotland.org/ Please try here - the ORs will want to know that you are taking steps to sort out your life.

The BR (Sequestrian) rules are bit different in Scotland though - the processes are not the same as the UK, so http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=01_bankruptcy is a good place to start for specific info.

tigerfeet2006

Check Martins article on how to get your CRF's for free

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/credit-rating-credit-score

ThreeQ

Hi, first of all welcome, I hope you find some good advice and support here. I've browsed for a while but only joined today. Lots to think about in your first post!

First - well done on stopping yourself with the gambling. Maybe you look at the whole situation and always think you've done so much wrong - so remember that you've made a good step here. If what's ahead of you looks difficult, remind yourself you can take control, even if it's just a little at a time.
Where to start? I'd say get your information together: 1) collate your income and living expenses, keep your bank statements and try to categorise what your outgoings are. 2) You will need to tot up what you owe, not sure if you've lost track of your creditors but I think you have to face opening those letters. Compile a list of who you have debts with and how much they are. And a report from Experian might help you list them all too (good point Tf). It might not be pleasant to see the totals, but if you want to deal with it you'll have to do this. I went BR last year, and speak from experience: it's easy, day to day, to not look at the problem, but after you have finally dealt with it (and I mean looking back after some months) it does feel better, and you can be proud of yourself that you found the strength to face it.
If you think it's getting too much to deal with, do a little work towards sorting it out and do something else pleasant for a while (leaving what you've done in a state that you can pick it up again later).

I'm assuming that you're currently living on benefits and have pretty much come to the conclusion that you're going to go bankrupt? If you have other options, explore those too, because although I'm talking about bankruptcy here I don't want to tell you that is the only option. I'm an ordinary person only speaking from my own experience - please take other advice too.

I would say (and please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong) that the DSS and the council would be no different to other creditors, so these debts should be treated in the same way. If they're making deductions from benefit payments, it might be more complicated to stop them doing that, but afaik, they should.

Browse these forums and look at threads about SOAs. Statements of Affairs are where you declare your income and expenses, and you can see examples of how other people have set them out. I found this on the CCCS website, you can fill in one of your own (have a look at "debt remedy") http://www.cccs.co.uk/ and ah - I've just seen Tigerfeet's sig with lots more contact info. For better informed advice than I can give, note well.
After bankruptcy, the Official Receiver reviews your SOA and will (by phone) talk it over with you. I was anxious about this, of course, but it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. If they find that you have some money left after all your outgoings, they ask you to make an Income Payments Agreement, but it won't be a massive amount.

Yes, try to get a job (if health and depression allows). Perhaps you might find it to help you feel that you're getting your life under your own control again. If you do, you have to keep the OR informed of your changes in circumstance. If you start earning more, the IPA might change, but it won't take away all your extra income. [Again, from my experience - I'm just one example]
They will not visit your home and take away anything that could be sold for a few quid. Like Skylight says, I think you won't ordinarily have things in the home that need to be declared. I would imagine that it would have to be something like a massive TV or an antique piece of furniture that might be of sufficient value. It's probably not necessary to list and declare all your jewellery.
Also, as I recall, it's regarded acceptable that a normal person should have things like a tv. So a computer is something that you use in the normal course of your life, eg for communicating with the world or job searching (it's worth stating that, I think) it's likely that they'll leave it. I was most worried about losing my car, but since I use it to get to work, it was left too.

My word, that's a long post. I hope it's helpful!
Best of luck.

coolcait

Lilmissunhappy wrote: »

Hi All,
I am a manic deppresive who has ran into thousands of pounds in debt due to my gambling addiction of online gambling,fruit machines and land bingo.This has been going on since April 2004 and i have only just recently stopped the gambling online by buying a block on my computer so i cannot access these sites i very rarely go to land bingo now.Where do i start ok im currently unemployed and live in Scotland i do not own my flat although one day i do wish to buy it through my local council.I dont have a car either.I dont know who i exactly owe money too as i have lost track and just bin any letter i recieved hoping it would go away.Is there any way i can find out who i owe what too?.What would anyone reccomend i do now i am really at the end of mt tether here and have continplated taking my own life although this has just been a thought i am on antidepressants.I think i owe around £40,000-£55,000 but dont know to who or exact amounts.I have losts of questions to ask also any help/advice would be greatly appreciated as i feel i really need to sort this out.

I owe money to the DSS for overpayments as i worked whilst i claimed for almost 3 years to fund my online gambling habit would this be written off if i went bankrupt?

Same as above to council for over payments for Council tax and housing benefit would this be written off if i went bankrupt?

If i started a job after the bankrupcy had processed would this affect me?

My computer jewelery etc would i lose these?

My daughter lives with me would they take anything from her room or my guest room?

would i be better to try and work after the bankrupty as being honest i dont know if i could keep a job due to my depression as i have good days and bad days

What exactly do they take from your home?

And how do they do this?

and do they visit your home?

Thanks again in advance for any advice

Hiya lilmissunhappy

Like ThreeQ says - well done for facing up to the gambling problem, and doing something about it :T .

I'd really recommend going to have a word with your local CAB, or the local authority money advice/Welfare Rights people, as they can give you advice - and help on gathering together the info on how much you owe, and who you owe it to.

You might be able to make yourself bankrupt under the Low Income Low Asset (LILA) rules if you don't own a house or a car, and are on benefits, or earn less than the minimum wage. If your computer, and each item of jewellery, is worth less than £1000 - and if the total value of all of those kind of things is less than £10,000 - then you'd almost certainly get bankruptcy under LILA. But the CAB/local authority money advice could check things out for you, and give you more definite advice.

I'm afraid that if the authorities consider that you got DSS/Council tax/housing benefit through fraud, then those debts wouldn't be written off in the bankruptcy.

If you got a job after you were made bankrupt, and before you were discharged, then you might have to pay money into your bankruptcy (an Income Payment Agreement - IPA. Or an Income Payment Order - IPO - if it's set by the courts). You'd have to keep paying this for three years from the time you first start paying - unless your circumstances change again.

Only your own assets would be included in the bankruptcy - so your daughter's things would be safe. Though if she's got anything worth over £1000, it might be a good idea for her to see if she's got some kind of proof of ownership.

If the things in your guest room belong to someone else, then the same thing goes. If they belong to you, and any one thing is worth over £1000, then you might lose it. But furniture and things like that aren't counted - you can keep those.

If you have health issues which would make it difficult for you to work, then I'd suggest that you consult your doctor about the idea of working. If your doctor doesn't think you're ready to work, then you could probably get a letter from him/her confirming that.

I'm sure the Accountant in Bankruptcy website has a list of things they wouldn't take from you. But I can't find it right now! I know that it covers things like furniture and so on.

Would they come to your home? Technically they could. But I think it's pretty unusual for that to happen. It's even less likely if you go bankrupt under LILA

HTH

Good luck!

Cherry1

Hello,
My answer is regarding your mental health.

Would it help having someone to support you and facilitate things for you such as phone calls/maybe voluntary work when you feel well/making sure you're looking after yourself on a bad day?

May I suggest you contact your local Mind office and also ask them about support available locally whether it's from the council (Adult team - might be in the housing department or Social Services - Social Worker, it depends I think on each area).

You may be taking on too much by trying to work at the moment, you can always do that in the future when your situation is more settled.

You're half way there as you are aware you need to change things so best of luck. You can do it.