A quick question

dippynina

Can anyone confirm that you are allowed 2 years to pay off arrears? (We are old rules) We were advised this a year ago and have recently had a phone call out of the blue stating they are increasing our arrears payment by an additional £25 per week. I have calculated this out that that means it will be paid off 5 months earlier. I am trying to remain positive in that the arrears will be paid of in March next year but at the same time worried sick in how we are going to manage in the interim. The last re-assessment was July 2008 and there has been no change in income etc since then. How can they justify this?

(ok - it was supposed to be one quick question but gone off on a rant!!):mad:

marksoton

dippynina wrote: »

Can anyone confirm that you are allowed 2 years to pay off arrears? (We are old rules) We were advised this a year ago and have recently had a phone call out of the blue stating they are increasing our arrears payment by an additional £25 per week. I have calculated this out that that means it will be paid off 5 months earlier. I am trying to remain positive in that the arrears will be paid of in March next year but at the same time worried sick in how we are going to manage in the interim. The last re-assessment was July 2008 and there has been no change in income etc since then. How can they justify this?

(ok - it was supposed to be one quick question but gone off on a rant!!):mad:

You should push for the two years. It is however a guidance timescale. The CSA will try and recover as quick as possible.

DUTR

When the hun wanted arrears paid off instantly , I told them NO! and offered £5/week , they started blarting on with their home made rules, I reminded them that if going to work was not beneficial to me, then there is no point me going to work and they can have then the statotary £5 , they asked for something more reasonable which I agreed (and expected anyway) . £100 a month EXTRA is a lot to find, don't they know there is a recession on?

dippynina

DUTR wrote: »

When the hun wanted arrears paid off instantly , I told them NO! and offered £5/week , they started blarting on with their home made rules, I reminded them that if going to work was not beneficial to me, then there is no point me going to work and they can have then the statotary £5 , they asked for something more reasonable which I agreed (and expected anyway) . £100 a month EXTRA is a lot to find, don't they know there is a recession on?

The thing is we are on a DMP at the moment and on a really tight (unrealistic) budget. I have informed DMP of this and have done a re-assessment with them but they say they cannot reduce the payment we give them.
I am already worried sick about Xmas as my OH only receives a basic holiday pay for 3 weeks. It is a few pounds more than his protected income (we took a voluntary DEO years ago thinking, naively it was less hassle) This means we will accrue more arrears which will be deducted from his earnings for the following few weeks and we will be living off his protected earnings for a few months. This happened last year and took us to March to pay back and how ended up with mortgage arrears and on a DMP - it will only be worse this year with the additional £100 they are taking. I am worried that we won't be able to afford the mortgage and ultimately lose the house as we are already behind with these payments and on a repayment plan to pay arrears back which we CANNOT default on.

kelloggs36

Don't worry about Christmas - postpone it. Seriously, prioriities are paying your mortgage and making sure that you keep a roof over your head. You can celebrate Christmas without spending any money. Not nice of course, but it can be done. That is after you have tried to negotiate the CSA - if they won't budge then you need to re-evaluate such priorities.

dippynina

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Don't worry about Christmas - postpone it. Seriously, prioriities are paying your mortgage and making sure that you keep a roof over your head. You can celebrate Christmas without spending any money. Not nice of course, but it can be done. That is after you have tried to negotiate the CSA - if they won't budge then you need to re-evaluate such priorities.

Even if we don't have a 'proper' Xmas (yet again) - we still don't have enough to pay priority debts and mortgage. There doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel just now.

Donedoingdebt

dippynina wrote: »

The thing is we are on a DMP at the moment and on a really tight (unrealistic) budget. I have informed DMP of this and have done a re-assessment with them but they say they cannot reduce the payment we give them.
QUOTE]

If you're on a DMP with one of the respected charities/companies such as CCCS, Payplan or via the CAB, they are usually very accomodating when a DMP reassessment is requested due to change of circumstances.

If you're with a private fee paying DMC, then change as soon as possible to a free one. Not only will you save the fee which you may be able to use for the CSA if they continue to be inflexible, you should also be able to negotiate a lower DMP payment.

Still try & stick to your guns with the CSA. If necessary, send them copies of all your DMP info & an income/outgoing expense sheet. Send these documents via recorded or registered post so the CSA can't deny receiving them.

Deal with them in writing only & keep copies of everything sent & received. If you phone them, they may try & bully you into paying more than you can afford & then deny that any such conversation had ever taken place.

dippynina

Donedoingdebt wrote: »

dippynina wrote: »

The thing is we are on a DMP at the moment and on a really tight (unrealistic) budget. I have informed DMP of this and have done a re-assessment with them but they say they cannot reduce the payment we give them.
QUOTE]

If you're on a DMP with one of the respected charities/companies such as CCCS, Payplan or via the CAB, they are usually very accomodating when a DMP reassessment is requested due to change of circumstances.

If you're with a private fee paying DMC, then change as soon as possible to a free one. Not only will you save the fee which you may be able to use for the CSA if they continue to be inflexible, you should also be able to negotiate a lower DMP payment.

Still try & stick to your guns with the CSA. If necessary, send them copies of all your DMP info & an income/outgoing expense sheet. Send these documents via recorded or registered post so the CSA can't deny receiving them.

Deal with them in writing only & keep copies of everything sent & received. If you phone them, they may try & bully you into paying more than you can afford & then deny that any such conversation had ever taken place.

I am actually with the CCCS and was really surprised when they said we couldn't reduce monthly payment - when we did the re-assessment with them taking into consideration the additional CSA payment and few other things (both positive and negative) we were down £70 per month - rather than reduce the payment they said we would need to find it from somewhere - the only place it could be deducted was from our monthly grocery bill. It was at the minimum anyway and now it is, as the CCCS have said themselves below the average for a family of 3.

Donedoingdebt

Possibly worth trying again with a different CCCS operative?
They are supposed to be on your side when working out what you can afford to pay & shouldn't really be setting you an unrealistic budget.

DUTR

dippynina wrote: »

The thing is we are on a DMP at the moment and on a really tight (unrealistic) budget. I have informed DMP of this and have done a re-assessment with them but they say they cannot reduce the payment we give them.
I am already worried sick about Xmas as my OH only receives a basic holiday pay for 3 weeks. It is a few pounds more than his protected income (we took a voluntary DEO years ago thinking, naively it was less hassle) This means we will accrue more arrears which will be deducted from his earnings for the following few weeks and we will be living off his protected earnings for a few months. This happened last year and took us to March to pay back and how ended up with mortgage arrears and on a DMP - it will only be worse this year with the additional £100 they are taking. I am worried that we won't be able to afford the mortgage and ultimately lose the house as we are already behind with these payments and on a repayment plan to pay arrears back which we CANNOT default on.

It maybe worth getting one of the independant arbitrators to negotiate on your behalf or advising of the best course of action, it wouldn't be so bad but the child/ren are not starving to death, the working populas sees to that. Wouldn't be so bad if the NRP was avoiding paying anything

CMAC_2

The maximum deduction rate should ensure that the liable person retains a
minimum of 60% of their net weekly income (or in respect of old scheme cases,
assessable income) after paying maintenance.

Look on your last assessment find the income included in the assessment amount take off the maintenance payment and 40% of the balance. You get to keep the remaining 60% and the exempt income figure