Help Completing County Court Defence Forms Please :)

UnderPressure

Morning all

OK I have been served witha county court claim from Northampton, I acknowledged the claim online to give me a bit of breathing space to defend part of the claim, I have just started the process of filling the form in online and could do with a bit of advice

I am on the income page, now the claim is in my partners name, my only income at the moment is Incapacity Benefit do I need to include my income on the form as well?
Also should I include housing and council tax benefit?

Next question is the expenditure, I dont want to put forward to the court we are spending more than we should so if someone could offer advice as to what a maximum allowed amount would be for the following we are 2 adults and 3 children under11:

House Keeping, Food, School Meals: This in our world equates to around £800 per month we dont shop stupidly and dont spend for the sake of it, I have included in this figure toiletries, cleaning products, food, school meals and pet food. Do you think this will be alright what is the max you can put on these forms I really dont know?

Travelling Expenses: Here I have put £120 per month basically for 1 car and costs and petrol for the month, less than we spend but if I am not careful my income is going to be less than my expenditure which is how it is in the real world but I need to be offering to pay something to keep the creditor happy

In the utilities section for elect, gas etc we are in arrears with them all, we pay an extra amount every month off the arrears do I include this as well?

There is space at the bottom to enter other expenses that are not listed on the form what should I be entering here if anything?

When it asks about bank accounts I have been truthful, I have none My partner has a Barclays current account and a Co-Op saver account it asks for balances we prefer cash so there is never a balance £1 in the current and literally 8p in the savings account again am I right being this truthful or does it just look stupid ?

Crikey I hate these income expenditure forms I really do talk about wake up call

Any help and guidance appreciated thanks in advance

bottleofred

Hi,

Nationaldebtline or the Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to advise regarding completing the forms. Failing that, I'll bump it up and hopefully someone else will be able to advise you.

Good luck

Hannah_10

No the truth is you have £1.08p in the accounts- so be it. This isn't stupid, it's a fact of how you got so broke as to have to see the court to start with and so it's relevant.

With everything lumped in like that it looks artificially high, not because it is, because it gives that impression. I think you'd be better off breaking it into it's bits. Have you seen the SOA Calculator? That does the job neatly and lots of people use thiers in court. It's here... http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

I've had to do a spending diary to get to the bottom of what I spend on what as I also mentally lump everyting I buy at the supermarket in as groceries, but in actual fact it's not quite like it. Was really shocked when I worked out how much the dog and cat really cost in food, flea collars, replacing thier lost name tags or chewed leads, wormer, toys etc. As none of this is purchased at the vet's I would have missed it if I wasn't looking.

Also kids school lunches are a big number all of thier own accord, cleaning products and toilettries again take a fair chunk out. Same goes for everything you have mentioned. My advice is split it up.

kathy40uk

I may be wrong and you would need proper advice but the form you are filling in sounds more like the 'admission' form whereby you complete income/expenditure so an installment arrangement can be set up for paying. Admittedly I haven't had any experience of these forms since they have been on line so the procedure may be different now but I thought that if there was a dispute over the amount then the case would be transferred to your local court once the defence had gone in?