DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

ianmak

bailey59 wrote: »

Afternoon all,

Hope everyone had an okay weekend. I noticed that some people, me included, have had quite a stressful one. So I hope that everyone has managed to have a break from dd's, bank accounts, DMP's etc for a few minutes at least to re-charge those batteries.

I managed to finally sort my bank account out and I have now opened a brand new shiny one thats not showing in the red. So now I can let everyone know where they can start getting their money from.

I am having a major stress over my DMP so if someone can have a look at this please and let me know cos my head is in such a spin over this.
These figures are made up:
OH earns £200 per week = £800 per month
I earn £1000 per month
so forever now I have worked out that we have a joint monthly income of £1800
CCCS have now said OH earns £866.66 per month as they have x his wage by 52 then divided by 12. Fair enough I get that.
Now what I dont get is that the monthly dd's and the monthly amount for food etc that the CCCS have allowed me just doesnt add up. When there is a 4 week month I cant afford my dd's that month plus all the other sundries that I have accounted for. Its fine when its a 5 week month there is enough after but by doing an average monthly wage spread over the year I amn struggling to sort out my finances.

Am I missing something here? I keep doing the sums but unless I put extra money in my account to cover the missing weeks before the DMP starts I cant see how I am going to be able to do it. Please can someone explain to me in simple terms what I need to do. I hope this makes sense to someone. Cheers

Hi,

I'm not sure what the problem is here. Have you given them ALL of your outgoings? Have you given them your net pay, after tax?

In the meantime, are you paying token payments to all your creditors, rather than the usual?

Can you give us any more details?

bailey59

Hi Ianmak,
I will try and explain but I cant get my head round this either so its very difficult for me to explain what I mean .

Easy answers 1st, yes sent off token payments, yes gave CCCS net income after tax, yes gave CCCS all of my outgoings.

Now to try and explain, its probably just me being stupid and rubbish at maths.

OH receives a wage weekly and I get mine on a set day at the end of every month. So the CCCS calculated OH's wage over the year rather than per month as sometimes we have an extra week during some months in the year. What I cant get my head around is that when we have a 4 week month because the CCCS have calculated his wage over the year and divided it equally they have increased his overall weekly wage where as in actual fact in a 4 week month we actually have less than that. So there isnt enough money for us to pay the dd's and still have the alloted x amount for food, petrol etc as per the SOA becuase they have inflated his weekly wage to take into account those months when we have 5 weeks in them. When we do have a 5 week month then there is spare money that month. Am I making any sense?? There must be a completely logical answer here. When I do the monthly budget I am about 100 pounds out on a 4 weekly month because the CCCS have taken his wage over the year and divided it by 52. If this still doesnt make any sense to you just ignore me! I am sure it will be ok

Northstar68

Hi Bailey59,

I understand what you mean totally, got a similar problem here in that my OH is self employed and usually is without work during December and January but the CCCS have still included his average pay for those months so I can see us having a problem there, in fact, we are having a problem now as he hasnt been paid and the work has dried up for a bit.
It's very distressing I know so I am with you there.

Northstar68

Totallybroke41 wrote: »

Thank you Everyone for all your advice and kindness:o. Until I found this site I thought we were the only ones in trouble but it does make you feel better knowing you aren't. Does anyone know if there is a cut off date when the CCCS DMP Agreement has to be sent back by for the DMP to start on 1 December.

Hi Totallybroke41 :hello:
Back in October we were told to get the papers in by the 8th I think it was, for a 1st Nov start.
We missed that date due to the postal strikes but I have just sent them in now last Thursday, well before 8th Nov, so fingers crossed we will also have a 1 Dec start. There are a few of us here starting on the same date so try to get yours off too by the end of the week if poss, it would be good to get it started before the New Year starts.
Good Luck!

Jemima09

Hi all! I've been gone for a while! (Pretty much since I joined, in fact!). I'll introduce myself again... Hi, I'm Jemima, and I'm a spendaholic. I'm on a DMP due to "over commitment", I went through a few "refinances" with loans, but never got around to cancelling the CC's.. ran them back up etc, until I couldn't afford the mins each month..

Anyway, just had my first review with CCCS (3 months), put my payment up £20 (progress!). Debt Free date still 6 years+ but it's now at least a week shorter haha!

Had a little blip over the last few months, didn't really get into the hang of budgeting, and saving cash correctly.. so I'm back for support. Have set up a savings a/c to collect in all those annual costs that CCCS give me a monthly budget for (car tax, ground rent..), and an O2 cash manager card to put my grocery/spends money on, so I'm not cutting into bill paying money, and I'm going to be a lot more organised.

Out of curiosity.. My creditors have all been v quiet (I had a few calls from sainsbury's CC as the forms took a while to get to the right dept, but they were v understanding)... is that it now, or are they likely to suddenly harrass me after a few months?

Roll on December payment... that should take my total to under £20k! (only started at £20,900, so it's not much... but it'll seem a lot less)

Look forward to getting to know you guys

ianmak

bailey59 wrote: »

Hi Ianmak,
I will try and explain but I cant get my head round this either so its very difficult for me to explain what I mean .

Easy answers 1st, yes sent off token payments, yes gave CCCS net income after tax, yes gave CCCS all of my outgoings.

Now to try and explain, its probably just me being stupid and rubbish at maths.

OH receives a wage weekly and I get mine on a set day at the end of every month. So the CCCS calculated OH's wage over the year rather than per month as sometimes we have an extra week during some months in the year. What I cant get my head around is that when we have a 4 week month because the CCCS have calculated his wage over the year and divided it equally they have increased his overall weekly wage where as in actual fact in a 4 week month we actually have less than that. So there isnt enough money for us to pay the dd's and still have the alloted x amount for food, petrol etc as per the SOA becuase they have inflated his weekly wage to take into account those months when we have 5 weeks in them. When we do have a 5 week month then there is spare money that month. Am I making any sense?? There must be a completely logical answer here. When I do the monthly budget I am about 100 pounds out on a 4 weekly month because the CCCS have taken his wage over the year and divided it by 52. If this still doesnt make any sense to you just ignore me! I am sure it will be ok

Have a word to CCCS to see if they can advise, but generally you will need to build up that slush fund in the month or so preceding your start date (do you have one yet?). Use that to survive if you can, then as they normally inflate your food budget, try and save money during those short months to take into account the others. Though thinking about it, surely you have less food to buy during those short ones? Have a look on the MSE forums here for recipe ideas, there maybe some here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33 there's also various threads on struggling to budget, live on 50p a day challenges for more ideas and help.

I know your problems are more extreme than mine, but I struggled a huge amount to budget at the beginning, but when I'm left with £3 to last 2 weeks, I soon learn!

Don't know if any of this will help you, I'm just trying my best!

Completely_Confused_2

Hi all, after my post yesterday when I was feeling awful about not paying my Natwest loan this month....

I actually got a letter from Natwest saying that they'd had contact from Payplan and were looking forward to receiving their offers on my behalf within 30 days. However, that they could not stop interest and charges at this time.

I think that's a pretty decent and pleasant letter and now I feel much better. There was me thinking they'd come round to my house and steal my children!

With love, CC xx

bailey59

Thanks ianmak, any information or advice you give out is a big help. I think you are right about trying to build up some money for the month before the DMP. I am trying to put as much money into my account before the DMP starts hopefully in December. Everything is being posted today so fingers crossed. I will just have to learn to budget, thats what normal people who arent in debt do so it cant be impossible. I sat down and thought about it last night, I cleared my head of dd's bank accounts letters DMP's andd just thought logically so I feel much better today thanks, I was starting to get myself into a right pickle.

Northstar my CCCS pack is going today, special delivery, so hopefully I will be joing you on the 1st December:j

LittleMissSkint

Good Morning!

Well today I got my 2nd acceptance of DMP payments letter! :j:j:j

So far Cabot (Egg Loan) had accepted, and today I got a letter from Coventry (Personal Loan) confirming they are accepting and will review in May. I was so happy I sat on the kitchen floor and cried :rotfl:I was really worried about them saying no because they had been getting £154 per month and are now only getting £29, but they've accepted straight away. :eek:

I haven't had anyone come back and say no yet - but also no other acceptances. So, Northern Rock, Fredrickson (Tesco CC) and Roxburghe (Nationwide CC) haven't said. I think Roxburghe will say no - they've started calling me loads and today sent me a letter saying I need to pay £40 immediately. They should have their offer by now, but they haven't acknowledged it yet. Not gonna stress over it, it is what it is! :beer:

Dory68

:jJust wanted to say Well done ,that brill news ,i have been reading some of your posts as you are starting your Dmp around the same time as me ,i have yet to receive replys for exceptment ,looking forward to reaching that moment ,mmm i hope ,my only fear of all this is charging orders they are so unfair :mad: ,rant over love your signature too,lol :beer: