Disability benefits and bankruptcy advice

robbond55

Hi there.
A few years ago my wife and I were both working full time earning a decent joint income and had, as many people do accumulated debts of approx £18000 (this was pre MSE days of course!) but was happily managing to pay these loans off and had it not been for circumstances they would have all been paid, or nearly paid off in full by now.
However, circumstances changed in 2004 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and to cut a long story short I had changed jobs because of it, reduced my hours and finally left work in October 2008 due to my health. All this time my payments to the two loans and one credit card reduced whilst being under a debt management plan with the CCCS.
All the household income is now due to disability benefits - my wife is my now my full time carer in receipt of carers allowance. We live in private rented accomodation and our car is a Motability vehicle.
I have been advised by CCCS that bankruptcy may be the best option - after paying my creditors I am left with around £25 per month disposable income after all other costs have been taken into consideration.
The only assets we have are general domestic ones - PC, TV (26 inch LCD) sons 14tv/dvd combo, cd's and DVD'd (approx 200 of each) and HI FI system. All of these are the lower end of the market and was wondering about any implications to these and on anything else if I were to take the bankruptcy route.
I cannot see any other route as at the current rate of repayment that I can afford it will take around 80 years to pay these debts off so any advice would be welcome.

sizzler

Hi there couple of answers.

Firstly glad you took advice, very important and judge allways asks this question.

Secondly your good will be fine going down BR route.

any more help let us know.

goood luck sizzler:)

robbond55

Thanks for that - I know that it seems a bit presumptuous but I do not ask for much and do not have a great deal so if I can hang on to what items I do have which have taken me a long time to accumulate then I would love to keep them. It seems that this is the only route available to be debt free but of course any advice will be great.

confused76

i believe they would only be looking to take items they could sell at auction for over £1000 so your household goods will be fine - you don't need to list them on your petition

dojoman

I did not list any household items on my SOA.

David_F

I did not list any of my household items and the only question I was asked about this during my OR interview was whether I owned a computer. I told them I had a laptop worth approx £100, they weren't interested and certainly never mentioned DVDs or Hi Fi etc.

I think if you have recently purchased a tv or large item using credit they would want to know what it was for but I wouldn't bother listing household items as assets on your SOA.

IF

Hello robbond55, I'm so sorry about your illness. As everyone has said cccs have recommended bankruptcy, it's the only way to go now. Anything else we can do ask away.

Take care
Ifwishes...x

robbond55

Thanks ifwisherswerehorses... to be honest I am not going to die from my illness and apart from mobility issues and fatigue and a bit of pain now and them the rest of me is fine and I intend to live a good long life!
I will be having a couple of more queries here as CCCS have said it is an option to consider so with everyones help here I should be able to sort something out.

IF

robbond55 wrote: »

Thanks ifwisherswerehorses... to be honest I am not going to die from my illness and apart from mobility issues and fatigue and a bit of pain now and them the rest of me is fine and I intend to live a good long life!
I will be having a couple of more queries here as CCCS have said it is an option to consider so with everyones help here I should be able to sort something out.

I suffer from M.E. Just take everything steady. Filing in forms pace yourself so it doesn't become too much x

immoral_angeluk

Just want to say if you need help with filling out the bankruptcy forms nip along to your local CAB and see a debt caseworker who will be able to help you.
Don't include any household goods in your assets, nor any money which is used to cover household bills. For your disability benefits include them as income but put the whole amount as 'care needs' on your financial statement as DLA etc isn't classed as income for them to do an income payment arrangement etc with.

debtinfo

he wont get an IPA in any event as his whole income is from benefits