BrightHouse/Council Tax Arrears Advice

Tixy

Honestly you would be suprised about the groceries - they are really friendly on oldstyle and will help you out loads. There are some great ideas for filling healthy meals http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1129333
This thread is about a lady who fed her family for nearly a month on the contents of her cupboards and £20!!

Hopefully at 2yrs your little one will soon be out of nappies etc. For toiletries look out for offers/bargains in £shops, wilkos or home bargains if you have them nearby. Supermarket brand goods on non-food are perfectly okay.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1625199 also look for vouchers on here off your shopping.:D

B..

Hi, bare with me folks!

The car is on lease which includes road fund license, which means i get free tax, service, maintenance, mot's etc.

I have gone down the route of buying cars for under £1000 and they have all let me down badly, got to the point where i couldn't pay any bills at all as i had to fork out for repairs etc. So even though i do realise it is alot for a car per month, it's reliable which is what i need.

Insurance is alot due to my age (22), because the car is leased, and because of the value of the car. What i am paying now is the cheapest i could get and i was getting quotes for weeks. This is also with NO voluntary excess, as compulsory is £300, so any more and i'd be in big trouble! But saying that even when i put £250 Voluntary, my premium only came down by about £20.

Fuel stated is what i use to get to work and back, so isn't possible for me to cut back on that. I have tried different ways from putting £5-10 a day in to filling the tank. I find putting £30-40 a time gives me better range in miles.

Small loan is unsecured, APR is about 60% which is incredibly high, but i needed it over the christmas period, some of which went on council tax. about £1000 left oweing on it.

thanks Tixy i will check that out.

Edit - does anyone know why BH would be a priority debt? As i'm being told they're not, they have the same rights as any other creditor and that i should concentrate on sorting the council tax out?

kindofagilr

Can you partner not get a job?

Even with childcare costs you would still have more money coming in as you would have two wages?

B..

He has applied for jobs with not much sucess, which is why he is considering college. but it's the fact that they stop the tax credits altogether while they re-assess the claim and work out what we're entitled to again etc. The fact is we rely heavily on the tax credits to survive, so even one week of no payment would mean we go without food, petrol for me to get to work etc. Had this happen a year or so ago, they stopped our money for around 2 months while they re-assessed our changes in circumstances. leaving us in debt with every single bill going including rent, which plays a small part in some of the debts we still have.

Not to mention the waiting lists for child care in our area.

bryanb

Do you need a car to do your job?

B..

Yes, because if i can't get here, i will lose my job.

There is no public transport to where i work.

Tixy

Hi B

I think the Brighthouse thing will depend on exactly the loan agreement. If the debt is secured on the items that your purchased (like a hire purchase agreement) then if you fail to pay they can take back the furniture, resell it (probably at very low price and much less than you bought it for) and you would still owe them the difference (and fees on top).

It sounds like you are in a difficult situation but hopefully things will start to improve. Are tax credits sorted now? Is tax credits and child benefit the only items in the £480 income?

Regarding the council tax - do you have an agreement to only pay the £60? if not you need to talk to them asap as council tax is always a priority and you don't want the baliffs appearing.

I'm not very knowledgeable regarding benefits but can OH claim JSA even if he is not actually entitled to receive any money (due to your wage)- I know this seems odd but in some cases I have read some people can do this and it means that his national insurance is being paid for (so he doesn't have missed years so good for his state pension eventually) and can open up entitlement to other benefits such as housing benefit and council tax benefit. Might be worth looking in to.

B..

Hi,

I'm not sure how it works to be honest it's confusing me a bit. Would it be the same as the catalogue i had with Kays, which i have a debt for now? Although they never tried to recover the items, just sent me a bill. I can't really afford to be paying BH even half so i am stuck as what to do about it. I have been told by other people just to offer them realistically what i can afford and they have to accept it, but i'm getting mixed views on it so i'm still unsure.

Tax credits are sorted now and yep just tax credits and child benefit.

We have an agreement to pay £60 a month for the previous years arrears, but paying this means we can't pay this years, so we'll be in arrears for that now but i am considering stopping paying the small loan and use that towards the council tax.

OH did claim JSA without receiving money from it however after a period of time they wanted him to start attending a class where they teach you basic skills i.e writing cv's etc, which was something like 30 hours a week for two weeks a month. But having no child care means he couldn't do this, so they stopped his claim. We weren't entitled to housing/council tax benefit when he was on JSA and we're not entitled to it now either, because my wage is around £1-2k a year too high for their liking.

edit as only just seen your post! (Merlinexcalibur)

We will make adjustments to our grocery shopping, however that figure is just what we sort of 'aim' to spend, so we have everything we need. Many months we don't get near that because we panic and end up paying tiny bits of money off to creditors etc. But yeah we will spend less than £300.

The college courses will be free, as he has no income. I recently started an open university course myself doing law and i got all my fee's paid for and also a grant towards buying a computer etc.

Plus we will get help from the goverment if he is at college full time.

We're 100% not entitled to any more benefits, we went through the process with the council last year, took them around 3-4 months, everytime we phoned they were making out we were entitled to it only to receive a letter stating we're entitled to zilch.

We have in writing that they have accepted £60 a month to clear the previous arrears and that they will stop all legal action aslong as we pay it, but i still would like to bring this down to about £30-40.. can't see it happening though.

carlislelass

can`t you use terry nappies? instead of baby wipes use cotton wool and warm water

B..

We buy nappies in bulk so are cheaper, as we do with baby wipes. This is something i am not cutting costs on. Groceries etc fine, but not when it comes to essentials for my daughter.

edit

Acknowledged Merlin thanks