DRO not suitable now after Income support changes

blind-as-a-bat_2

debt_doctor wrote: »

I think that is none sense from CCCS. Your entitled to reasonable living expenses as per the common financial statement. If that is their attitude then I suggest you go to the CAB or elsewhere with a more appropriate financial statement for your DRO.

DD

Watching with intrest, they have sussed they screwed up re the 'secret CFS' ;)so dont know if they have changed, in line with the new family expenditure servey,
so have refrained from commenting.

I am however concerned with the advice from CCCS of late, you know me, i may not post, but i watch, starting to think they are following payplan, sort of, though the reasons may be differant, but i am close to removeing thm from my recommended contact list, put it that way:(

debt_doctor

How old are the children please?

Also why dont you get all your rent paid by HB ? Are you in private rent making a top up to LHA ?

DD

CB_0164

Sorry for my ignorance - what is a DRO?

lauren_1

They are girl 8 and boy 4. I am in a rented property (3 bed) and my LHA will not cover the entire rent until my DD turns 10, in my previous house (a 2 bed) they had the bedrooms and I had the lounge as they could not physically share a room due to space issues and the frequent murder attempts on each other.

lauren_1

CB_0164 wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance - what is a DRO?

A DRO is a debt relief order, there is a sticky at the top of the page which explains it in depth, if your are on a low income or benefits and have less than £15k of debts its worth looking at. I lost my job back in October and to be honest really didn't think I would be unemployed for this long but here I am in a rather big mess.

Eager_Elephant

Hi Lauren

I am also an intermediary for DRO's.

I think your outgoings in some areas are very low compared to what would be allowed according to the Common Financial Statement.

I agree with another poster who said that you should visit a face to face adviser.

When my clients come in I complete an income and expenditure with them and then before I submit the DRO I check it against the common financial statement. If it is someone on benefits there is usually no change to I & E as they are within the £50 per month but for people who work part time or full time the common financial statement can give leeway in the most unexpected of areas.

EE

lauren_1

Thank you EE, I thought my outgoings were pretty high especially my car costs.

immoral_angeluk

Completely agree with the above. Your SOA was showing very low levels of housekeeping for starters, which could be amended to a more realistic level and push you back into DRO eligiblility.

jamesb1239

Hi, I'm not an intermediary, but I do have a DRO and spent quite a while fine tuning my SOA, there does seem to still be room in your SOA to adjust it up. My advice would be to take it to a different debt charity if CCCS wont let you change your SOA.

As a quick note housing benefit (LHA) is usually paid bi weekly, can you confirm if you are on LHA or something else as I was trying to put your details into a CFS to see where you had room to increase and i'm getting your monthly income to £1611 instead of £1509 and that is made up of:
IS £65 weekly = £281.67
CTC £330 4 weekly = £357.50
CB £132 4 weekly = £143
HB £507 4 weekly = £549.25
CSA £280 monthly = £280

The LHA rates can be checked at https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHASearchIntro.aspx

lauren_1

Thank you immoral angel

What is about average for housekeeping?