HELP! Unable to meet repayments on Provident loan!

dannimaycox

Hi, basically my mum took out a loan with Provident 2 years ago and she has £1,600 left to pay off. In the past week her circumstances have changed and she is now unable to meet the repayments of £45 per week. I am her daughter and i'm disabled, she is my full-time carer and is unable to work. Up until this week, my mum used to get £166 per week income support, but now she is just getting £40 and her carers allowance which is £50. I recieve DLA and incapacity benefit which is around £200 per fortnight. My mum has phoned the Provident and the manager is coming around to speak to her on Monday. Do you think he would agree to let her pay £5 or £10 per week? She can't pay anymore than that because she has another loan with RBS which she owes £2,500 and we are both paying £10 a week off (£80 per month). The reason why she took these loans out was because she wanted to take me on a nice holiday, she looks after me 24/7 so i do not mind helping her. Do you think the Provident manager will allow her to pay back £5 a week? If he says no what rights does she have? What can he do if she refuses to pay more than this?
Thanks

west43

Hi, we were in a similar situation, my wife had a provident loan at the rate or £35 per week, I then lost my job and could not work, and still cant, she contacted the CAB for advice who basically told my wife to make provident a weekly offer that she could afford, and she offered them £10 per week, the advisor from the CAB also told my wife if they did not accept the offer she made that she had been advised by the CAB to go back to them who would contact provident on her behalf, and make a weekly payment offer, it did take alot longer for my wife to clear this loan, but her offer was agreed on and as she kept up the offered payment nothing more was said.

dannimaycox

Thanks west, another thing i'm wondering about is the interest. I'm not sure how much interest provident charge on their loans but i'm worried that if they do agree to the £5 per week, will the total of the loan still go down or would she just end up paying the interest?

west43

Hi, my wifes loan remained the same with no added interest for her paying less each week, it just took her an extra year to clear it, each payment she made of £10 took the loan down each week. On talking to my wife yesterday, she reminded me that when she had a visit from th eprovident manager, she agreed on the lower payments for the foirst 10 weeks, then said it would be reviewed, all the review was is when our collector came they asked if her situation was still th esame, and as she said yes the lower payment was accepted for the next 12 months, Good luck anyway, just tell them that you have been to the CAB for advice and that they have advised you to make an offer that you are able to afford.

Rafter

Personally I think you should contact CCCS, national debtline or citizens advice about your options.

Given her income, I see no possibility of ever being able to repay this amount and therefore you should consider bankruptcy. Sounds a bit drastic, but in your case I cannot see why it shouldn't be fairly straightforward. Provident and RBS should probably never have lent her the money in the first place given that her income is just benefits.

Good luck.

R.

welf_man

Why has her IS reduced so dramatically? She could try a credit union (yes, I know I plug them a lot but they're great!) s they are set up for exactly this kind of circumstance - to stop people needing to use doorstep lenders.

Mel.

dannimaycox

Her IS has been reduced because i am now classed as an adult and because i am no longer at college her child benefits have been stopped, but we still think that the amount that she is now getting has been worked out wrong. When my mum rang them up to question them about it they said that it is definatley correct, but when my mum explained that all she will have is £40 IS and £50 carers allowance, they said to her and what about your incapacity? So she said that she doesn't get incapacity (its me who gets that) but they were adament that she does, she has never claimed incapacity in all her life, so i'm wondering if there has been some kind of mix up. We've spoken to Welfare Rights about it and we're waiting for them to get back to us, if they cannot help then we'll probably have to go to C.A.B, it does seem abit drastic for her to lose over £70 a week doesn't it?

[Deleted User]

if the additional child payment and child benefit is stopped because you are now an adult the a £70 reduction in your mums benefits sounds about right.But that should have been replaced almost £ for £ by additional benefits paid to you.

KimYeovil

Are you seriously saying the total of you and your mother's two separate benefits are that significantly lower? Or are you just saying you have no intention of helping your mother repay the debt for your holiday? Why would you want to lower payments and pay even more interest?

It was very foolish to take the loan in the first place - if you could afford to make repayments of £200 per month then a city break or two whilst saving up for bigger holiday would have been a much saner idea - and no interest to pay.

KimYeovil

dannimaycox wrote: »

it does seem abit drastic for her to lose over £70 a week doesn't it?

But you said you receive £200 per fortnight. So surely that's £30 per week more.

How much money does your essential support actually cost? If you don't have too many real costs surely it is better to knuckle down and pay off the £1600 as quickly as possible? With a combined income of more than £825 per month you might even be able to pay off the loan this year. Then you can settle down next year and relax and enjoy a decent standard of living without giving away your income in interest.

The last thing you want to do is to lower your payments to the Provident.

dannimaycox

Kim, i AM helping my mother, i am paying £40 a month off her RBS loan, i have to pay money towards bills £30 per week, food around £30 per week, rent £20 a week, Sky £30 a month, Aol £14 a month etc. So i AM willing to help her but i think that it is more important to get the RBS loan paid off first as that has the higher amount left to pay off. I have told my mum that when i get a few hundred in front i will pay a couple of hundred off for her. Its just that there is no way we can afford £45 a week, so were hoping to pay £5-£10 instead.