I have nothing and in bad debt need honest advice!

SKINTEASTWOOD

thanks for all the advice people, feels good just to speak about it.

I have a basic plumbing qualification which is not enough to be employed by a company. (I did a useless fast track course which turned out to be a rip off!) so can only be self employed really.

I'm just worried my debts will be passed to my ex and will affect the other people I live with who are only doing me a favour really!

downnotout

Your debts are your debts mate, nothing can be passed on to anyone else unless you have a joint financial product such as a joint account or joint loan.

SKINTEASTWOOD

No they are all mine.

What about bankrupcy will this impact on my ex who I am still married to?

downnotout

I am not sure about bankruptcy, again do you have joint assets? And are you still married?
http://bankruptcy.org.uk/6090/ask-a-question/will-i-lose-my-house-if-my-estranged-husband-goes-bankrupt/
This shows a scenario that may be linked to what you are asking.

SKINTEASTWOOD

Yes we are still married but she lives somewhere else in a rented property and all furniture etc was hers before we were together, my 4 kids live with her and I couldn't live with myself if they had their goods removed because of my bankrupcy.

downnotout

At the end of the day you are not facing bankruptcy just yet, you can come back on here later and cross that bridge when you have too. Your short term goals have to be getting yourself signed on and claiming JSA. And working towards getting regular employment. If you do decide to go down the education route (that won't start untill September) hen you can still work part time, maybe jsa and working under 16 hours a week? You will then be set a new rate o maintainence that is realistic in what oh can afford. Following this you can make sence of what your financial picture is, and where you go from there. Are you on a housing waiting list? You should maybe look into getting your own place, again there is help such as benefits that can help when you have your own accommodation. Things will start to look clearer once you have made the first steps.

podperson

Think you are going to have the bite the bullet and sign on for now. Have been there as it took me a long while to admit that I wasn't earning enough as self-employed and really hated the idea of signing on, but sometimes you have to swallow your pride and do what has to be done.

Get started on JSA, this will allow you to cut back the child maintenance for the time being and depending on your living circumstances might be able to get some help with your rent (is it a rented room with a tenancy agreement or just friends helping you out, if the former you might be able to get some housing benefit towards it). Also speak to someone like CCCS, CAB or National Debtline about sorting out miniumum payments to your debts until you can get sorted.

When you are sorted out in the short term speak to your local jobcentre about whether they can help out with training, a lot of them will offer free or very cheap courses to people on jsa. Also check your local colleges for what courses they run. You say you're doing plumbing and odd jobs at the moment, if this is something you are interested in then look at courses that will give you the proper qualifications needed to work in this field. Many of these courses can be done part-time so you can still sign on and look for work at the same time.

Your debts are in your name and no one else can be held responsible for them. Regarding bankruptcy, as someone said earlier I don't think you are at that stage yet (although you may want to post a soa when you get your income sorted out showing what debts you have) but if it is something you consider in the future make sure you get advice on it from a debt charity who should be able to say whether it will affect your ex (wouldn't have thought so unless any debts are in joint names or you have any joint assets).

Good luck with it.

RAS

SKINTEASTWOOD wrote: »

Yes we are still married but she lives somewhere else in a rented property and all furniture etc was hers before we were together, my 4 kids live with her and I couldn't live with myself if they had their goods removed because of my bankrupcy.

Hi

The OR is interested in things that sell for lots of money - high value cars, big plasma YVs, antiques and artwork.

They do not take normal household goods. Nor do they take things that belong to partners, ex-partners or children. There is no beneficial interest if she rents.

You really need to sort out that maintenance - you should be paying 25% of your income, which is not a lot if you are not earning. In practice the £5 per child benefit rate seems more appropriate.

Speak to one of the debt charities and have a chat on the BR forum.

Jesthar

SKINTEASTWOOD wrote: »

I know its a pride thing I guess, I've never claimed a single thing in my life and would prefer to get off my butt for the same money as JSA, I've been applying for everything I see but all jobs seem to be £6 per hour these days and need an NVQ for anything else there also nothing in construction!

I used to have that attitude, until I actually needed to claim after not being able to find a job for a few months. I survived on my savings for as long as I could, the old 'not wanting to be a burden on the state, other people need it more' attitude - only to find that when I finally did apply when the savings were almost gone, they nearly turned me down for not applying at the start of my unemployment! And sent me a *very* snotty letter about it, too - so much for my ideas of them being grateful for saving taxpayers money! :mad:

Thankfully they both paid out and backdated it, but I learnt that lesson the nearly-very-hard way, and although I haven't needed to claim since, if I ever needed to in the future I wouldn't hesitate. Not for a second!

Pride has it's place, but you can't eat it

~Jes

Hannah_10

SKINTEASTWOOD wrote: »

So how would you get back into education with debts is it possible?

I would love to train for my degree and become a teacher but I didn't think it possible till I'm debt free

Yeah it's totally possible because the student loans company aren't like bank lenders. You can also do your degree through the Open University which if you take 6 years to do costs you about £650 a year tops but if you're unemployed or a demonstratably low income it's significantly less and can even be done for free. With the OU being a 15 hour per week committment then it's possible to have a full time job (like someone said about the NHS) and study for a degree at the same time. A lot of employers (the NHS being one of them) even pay OU fees for you. Like I said though, on JSA it can be done free.

The thing with JSA is, it's not just JSA. It's also Housing Benefit or Local Housing Allowance and free prescriptions and a load of other stuff. £60 a week is nothing, but when your rent is getting paid and you can claim back essential travel and your education and training are free and so on... Well now that's different. That gives you a starting point to make your comeback from.

Also you can get JSA if your income is variable, I've known self employed people to do it before but it means you have to keep records and some weeks you get it (by it I am also including HB/LHA which are the rent-paying ones), some you don't. Also you're limited to 16 hours a week, for which you wont be more than £5 a week better off than if you did no work at all, so it's not in your interests really if I'm being frank, you'd be better off in part time education (night school) and looking for a full time job. Anyone on JSA is assessed to be able to afford £5 a week child maintainance and that's it.

Once you're on JSA then you can get a lot of help to travel to interviews, and put your CV together and stuff (you have to push for it a bit sometimes) and your creditors (who you owe money to) are a lot more likely to consider token payments and freeze the interest and so on.

What you then do with the debts has a couple of options open to you- IVA, Bankruptcy, DMP (debt management plan) just off the top of my head. I don't know much about the first two but I know you're in the right place to find out, this forum is a goldmine of information. Those however are a tomorrow problem.

For now I second what people are saying, set the van and tools to one side and give yourself the permission to stop what you're doing and start again. What you're doing isn't working mate!

You need a fresh start. Get a JSA claim in this afternoon or tomorrow, along with a housing benefit claim and if you pay it a council tax benfit claim (just walk into the job centre and ask). And then come back to us at that point when your claims are in. We'll look at your statement of affairs (SOA) and between us lot and you we'll work out what to do with your debts.

In the mean time closing time for regular Uni applications is January so you've missed the 2010 intake, but the 2011 intake is very possible. As colleges are more flexible you have just about got time to sign up for an AS level in the mean time (believe me this is worth it's weight in gold when applying as a mature student) to evidence "proof of recent study", which the Uni's all want to see. As you're on JSA an AS level is going to be free or nearly free as well- ring your county council and ask to be put through to "adult education" as your starting point.

You can pick yourself up off the floor, stop the spiral and make a new life- but not unless you first truly accept that the way you're doing it is a write-off and you need a fresh start.