Debt management plan while on maternity leave

nevenche

I am currently on a debt management plan with Payplan.My average monthly income is £1100 and after all my expenditure deduction I pay 200£ towards my debts.I owe just under £18 000 on personal loan and CC to 4 creditors.3 of them are all Barclays-CC,overdraft on personal account and a loan.The biggest one is Barclays loan-£16,301.22 towards which I pay £170.81 each month.My other debts receive small amounts from £2.15 to £11.79 However I just went on maternity leave and my income will drop down significantly - probably at just about (statutory)£500 a month average for the next 12 months(excluding any child benefits and credits).It is obvious that I would not be able to keep up with the repayments of £200 a month and I will have to meet a lot of new expenses related to the baby.I spoke to my account manager but he was not very supportive as he says that I will be receiving child credit and child benefits as well as my partner's contribution towards the child care so that should not affect my monthly repayments.However I do not see how the child credit and benefit will make up for the lost earnings.Obviously I will be sharing the child expenses with my partner but anyhow my earnings will not be the same and my expenses will be bigger because of the baby.However I have been thinking that just to keep my management plan running I will be able to afford only a minimum payment of 25£ a month for the next year or so.Once I have returned to work I guess I will resume the bigger repayments.I have been thinking to offer Barclays loan just a minimum payment of 10-15£ a month and to keep the other small repayments the same.My question is if Barclays will accept such a small amount when I am owing them so much.Can someone help and share their experience.My debt manager sounds unsupportive and I have been thinking to ask if he can be replaced with someone else.
Thank you very much in advance for all your advic

Nitha

The account manager should be more supportive, particularly as it is a temporary situation. I would ask them to review your plan again, offer to send revised proof of income/outgoings again. Payplan seem to be getting a fair few bad reports lately which is a shame.

nevenche

Yes,it is a shame.They were highly recommended when I started with them.
I am going to send a review of my incomes and outgoings and see what happens.

MrsTinks

Can you not return to work before 12 months? Unless your company is VERY generous you won't get stat for 12 months - I think it's 9 and 3 unpaid you can take... However - you need to sit down and do the maths for how much child care will cost you when you return to work. Not including any extras then the childminder alone costs us £712 a month... and that is cheap for round here!
Unless you can arrange free child care you need to do some serious thinking about how you will sort that additional expense... If you can't meet that it might be worth you looking at an alternative way of dealing with your debts like possibly going BR...

angelicmary85

MrsTine wrote: »

Not including any extras then the childminder alone costs us £712 a month... and that is cheap for round here!

HOW MUCH?! :eek:

MrsTinks

That's £712 for a child minder... I have shopped around and TRUST me it's cheap. That's £3.60 per hour (that's the total - we pay as much as we can with Child care vouchers through work schemes which does save a little bit but still smarts!)

angelicmary85

I'm glad I don't need to use childcare!!

MrsTinks

Yes oddly it put a serious dent in my overpayments on MY debts Thankfully - not including the car finance (as the car is in positive equity I don't count it... my world, my rules lol) my debts are finally under £10k and the end in sight...

nevenche

Yes,my statutory maternity is 90% of my salary for the first 6 weeks and then £124 for the next 33 weeks.However I am dividing it by 12 months just to make it average per month for the duration I am taking the maternity leave.Afterwards I think we will be receiving higher child credit because of the child care we will be using.My biggest concern is to reduce the payments for the time being and then deal with the problem when the times come.

RAS

Hi

Legaly, you continue to accrue annual leave during your mat leave, so you can take 11 months mat leave, then "return to work" but take the first month (ish) as holiday leave on full pay.

Nitha

My childcare is £31 per day for a private nursery. It works out about £403 per month as I'm part time. I guess it depends where you live and how many hours you use.