final salary + JSA, bankruptcy

seh567

After a period of short employment I will now be claiming JSA, HB & CTB. I have been struggling to pay my debts over a period of 3 years due to poorly paid self employment and previous unemployment. I will be contacting CCCS today to discuss my DMP which I can no longer pay due to current situation and I believe they will recommend bankruptcy which they did before I embarked on DMP. I took the DMP option at that time because I wanted to do the responsible thing and try to pay off my debts. Included in the DMP was an overdraft with Natwest so I changed my bank to a Lloyds TSB basic account. Yesterday I paid my final salary £2.2k (included bonus) into this account. Will the OR let me keep this money in view of my current situation. I really need this money to supplement my benefits for the next couple of months. If I draw it out will the OR question this and will it cause me major problems? I have no other assets except for a car which I have previously asked about on this forum. Thanks

skylight

Well, your final salary (if only salary) would still be used for living expenses. If you have only just left the job and only just signed on, then you wont get JSA for a few weeks anyway (they regard your salary as enough to live on for a few weeks; but it all depends on circumstances!!)

Personally. (And this is my own opinion), I would withdraw the money little but often and leave it in cash at home. You can justify this to the OR that its living expenses, bills, fees to go BR with; and it will be used for all that so you are not lying in anyway. Stop all DMP payments and go BR in a few months when all the money has gone. There is nothing that your creditors can do in the meantime except the hassle.


Lloyds is not the most BR friendly bank. You would be far better off with a Co-Op Cashminder who are very BR friendly and there is a next to zero chance of the account being closed. Open one with them and tell them you want a Cashminder because you are going BR. Even on the remote off chance that Lloyds let you keep the account you still have another boosting your credit rating.

seh567

Thankyou for the advice. I have spoken to CCCS today and they say in view of my circumstances they would advise a DRO rather than bankruptcy so I have been reading about this on the forum. Am I right in thinking that Contracted out Serps Policy value and frozen stakeholder Pension value from previous employer counts as assets, in which case is over £300 excludes me from having a DRO?