Bankruptcy and DLA.

skylight

If your OH is going BR, then the OR only wants to know his finances. They will ask what your contribution to the household expenses are, but as a non-earner, you are not going to be contributing anything.

Your sons DLA is not included in any calculation for an IPA, and thats regardless of whether you or your OH are paid it. Its not your money. The CCCS are wrong. DLA is not included as anything as income - the goverment do not accept it as income for housing benfit for example and the ORs are no different. Obviously the additional money you get in child tax credit will be included in the SOA.

If you want to, call the insolvency service about if (insolvency.gov one NOT the others who are paid companies). Or someone else will be along and are able to quote the legislation/rules etc.

Sammy3008

Thank you Skylight. Going to contact Insolvency Enquiry Line now.

Sammy3008

Just contacted the Insolvency people.

We will have to declare that we get DLA, Tax Credits & Child benefit, but the OR will only take into consideration my OH's income.
The tax credits and child benefit is paid to my OH, but the chap I just spoke to, said the OR is only interested in OH's income from work.

As for expenditure, will this be taken into consideration for all of us (2 adults, 2 children?)

Also when I put in a claim for DLA, I had to appeal against it in the end, so from the 02/02/09 (when I first claimed) up until 14/07/09, we got a lump sum back, which has obviously put money into our bank, which again is our son's money, so what would we have to do with this?
Should we withdraw it, and keep it to one side? Or can we just tell the OR that its a lump sum from the DLA claim I put in?

skylight

The backpayment - where was it paid?? Into an account of your name only, then there is no problem. Its not the ORs money. If its paid into a joint account, then you need to take action right now.. (I mean now!!) to open an account in your name only and get the payments paid into that asap. Any joint account will be closed upon your OHs BR (unless its already a Co-Op one as they are BR friendly; everyone else will close the account).

On the statements the OR gets, it will list the payment as DWP-DLA so the OR will know anyway what its for and will not be interested in it.

Sammy3008

skylight wrote: »

The backpayment - where was it paid?? Into an account of your name only, then there is no problem. Its not the ORs money. If its paid into a joint account, then you need to take action right now.. (I mean now!!) to open an account in your name only and get the payments paid into that asap. Any joint account will be closed upon your OHs BR (unless its already a Co-Op one as they are BR friendly; everyone else will close the account).

On the statements the OR gets, it will list the payment as DWP-DLA so the OR will know anyway what its for and will not be interested in it.

The payment was paid into our joint account.
Can I open any account in my name? Could my OH's wages be paid into that account or not?
Or should we leave his wages paid into the joint account until the account is closed? Would my OH then be able to open a co-op account and have his wages paid into there?

Or would it be best for my OH to open a Co-Op account now, and close the existing joint account down?

skylight

You can have OHs money paid wherever you like, but I would strongly recommend that you open a separate account asap, and start getting stuff paid into that long before BR. Theoretically its easy to change payments and stuff but all to often there are posts on here where wages/benefits are paid into the old account and frozen; they are recoverable but its a long hassle thats avoidable by doing it all before hand.

You can open a Co-Op account too if you wanted and if your OH had one then its unlikely to be closed at BR point (most are left open, but rarely they may be closed). Call them now 0845 602 7057 and get it done.

Cashminder gives you a Visa Electron (changing to proper Visa soon), online banking but no overdraft. The only thing I dont like is that they don't update on the spot with pending (ie if I spend £30 in Tesco now it will be a few days before its deducted off the balance and shows as a payment), but its something you get used to.

Sammy3008

skylight wrote: »

You can have OHs money paid wherever you like, but I would strongly recommend that you open a separate account asap, and start getting stuff paid into that long before BR. Theoretically its easy to change payments and stuff but all to often there are posts on here where wages/benefits are paid into the old account and frozen; they are recoverable but its a long hassle thats avoidable by doing it all before hand.

You can open a Co-Op account too if you wanted and if your OH had one then its unlikely to be closed at BR point (most are left open, but rarely they may be closed). Call them now 0845 602 7057 and get it done.

Cashminder gives you a Visa Electron (changing to proper Visa soon), online banking but no overdraft. The only thing I dont like is that they don't update on the spot with pending (ie if I spend £30 in Tesco now it will be a few days before its deducted off the balance and shows as a payment), but its something you get used to.

As its only the DLA thats paid to me, is this the only thing I'll need to transfer into another account?
Can I hold an account with anyone, for instance at the minute we have a joint account with Lloyds, could I change this account just into my name, or is it just as easy to set up elsewhere?
Can the OR ask details of any other accounts held by anyone else in the family?

If my OH was to open a Cash-Minder account now, this won't be closed etc when he goes BR?

The other quick thing I wanted to ask.
Currently my OH has a property with mortgage, and we were looking to sell the property before going BR. Would this be more ideal, or should we look at going BR whilst still owning the property?

Whats concerning me, if going BR whilst still living here, is if we'll be able to go into private rented when we have to move out, will agents/landlords except us?

Put it this way, with the mortgage included on the debts we already have, it brings it to around £157,000 my OH owes, excluding mortgage its around £80,000, plus we are in negative equity here too.

skylight

You will need to change everything - tax credit/child benefit/DLA/Wages etc into a new account. Lloyds will close the joint account at OHs BR. Unless you can change it into your name only BUT is there a debt on it? If there is, then you are not allowed to change the names on the account at all.

The OR does not and cannot ask for detials of anyone elses accounts. As long as your OH is not named on them that is!

Technically, all accounts are meant to be closed at BR, but the Co-Op are most BR friendly and they will not close them (normally). A new account without an overdraft or debt on it does not vest an interest with the ORs either.

Mortgage - is there going to be a debt on it whether you sell or allow it to be repossessed?? If there is little monetary difference to you then its not worth the hassle and stress of selling it yourselves. Are you on the mortgage too? As to privatly, most landlords do not care about BR; to them you have more disposable income to cover the rent. Some are fussy though so it may be better to be upfront about your plans but highlight the pluses (like the disposable income).

Have you taken advice about the house? Can you afford the mortgage? Being bankrupt does not automatically mean you will lose the house. Do you have any sescured loans on it? Do you want to stay if possible???

fatou256

Sammy3008 wrote: »

Should we withdraw it, and keep it to one side? Or can we just tell the OR that its a lump sum from the DLA claim I put in?

hi sammy i can tell you the OR won't be interested in your lump DLA payment as when i got mine my OR was not even interest by it and he even told me not to mention anything on the form as it is not an income. DLA is given so you can pay towards extra cost such as carer specialist equipment etc etc ..... ... .and i agree with sky CCCS got it wrong there.

wehn i applied for my DLA my Or told me not to mention anything to them about it .. thye just want to know about income which is wage and CTC or WTC .

regarding account you could always open pone at the post office just to receive your benefit only here is the link below
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=19100189&mediaId=19200177

Sammy3008

skylight wrote: »

You will need to change everything - tax credit/child benefit/DLA/Wages etc into a new account. Lloyds will close the joint account at OHs BR. Unless you can change it into your name only BUT is there a debt on it? If there is, then you are not allowed to change the names on the account at all.

The OR does not and cannot ask for detials of anyone elses accounts. As long as your OH is not named on them that is!

Technically, all accounts are meant to be closed at BR, but the Co-Op are most BR friendly and they will not close them (normally). A new account without an overdraft or debt on it does not vest an interest with the ORs either.

Mortgage - is there going to be a debt on it whether you sell or allow it to be repossessed?? If there is little monetary difference to you then its not worth the hassle and stress of selling it yourselves. Are you on the mortgage too? As to privatly, most landlords do not care about BR; to them you have more disposable income to cover the rent. Some are fussy though so it may be better to be upfront about your plans but highlight the pluses (like the disposable income).

Have you taken advice about the house? Can you afford the mortgage? Being bankrupt does not automatically mean you will lose the house. Do you have any sescured loans on it? Do you want to stay if possible???

The Tax Credits and child benefit are paid to my OH, would it be worth changing them into my name? If I can do this?

Regards the mortgage, I'm not named on it, well not technically, my name is down being able to speak about Mortgage, but not on mortgage statements etc.
Currently our property is on the market for £75,000 and obviously not neccesarily going to get this for it, and my OH has a outstanding mortgage of £76030 on it, so in negative equity straight away. No secured loans on it. It was a together mortgage with an unsecured loan on top, so all together to the mortgage company he owes £102,000.

Have just spoken to a letting agent, whom said they wouldn't say 'no' to us renting (obviously house would have to go into OH's name, as he's the one who earns) but we'd have to pay a pretty high deposit, she gave me an example, they just had someone in, who'd recently gone BR, they are renting a property for £475 PCM, and they had to pay a £1500 deposit :eek:

Currently regards the mortgage, my OH is on interest only, as was struggling to find the full payment. We could probably just about afford the payments at the moment, but ideally want to move out anyway.