council refused payment plan, what now?

stephbond89

gas electric and water are all arrears, well the water isnt "arrears" as such, just when the direct debits started halfway through the year i think not 100% on that. I know we missed a payment due to a problem with our wages one month.

The mobile phones are 3 contracts, actually sorry im mistaken, 4 contracts, one of which is ending in October for £15. The others are two phones and an internet contract with the mobile phone company (this is the lowest we can use, the lower one is only 1GB a month allowance, and we use more than that so no point lowering it as we'd have higher bills). The other two are mobile phones for £20 andf £25 which is the lowest they can come to, I have recently lowered these two from £30 and £35 so they have come down quite a bit, they end one in December and one in January. They were 24 month contracts so not like we look them out when we couldnt afford them. lol

As for the person who said that is why we havent gotten the payment plan agreed, i am afraid i cannot agree with that, i was speakign to someone who had £50 a month on their SOA for a hairdressing fund as they went the hairdressers every month and their payment arrangement was put straight through, as far as i am aware they take what your outgoings are as outgoings unless you have a food bill of £400 a month for two people in which case i guess theyd be like well you need to cut down on those. I cannot cut back on contracts.

We put nothing aside for car repairs or MOT, just have to pay them when they come around- we cannot afford to put anything aside for them Im afraid.

As of the other debts, how do I go about asking the companies about lowering their payment plans they have agreed with us, send them the same letter again but explain my financial situation has worsened? And what do i do if they do not agree to the new payments of £1 per debt? If I know what to do, I can get onto that asap!

stephbond89

AndreaE wrote: »

Might you be entitled to Council Tax Benefit?

I'm not sure what the criteria are but I know someone who was having a problem with Council Tax arrears and I think had even been taken to Court for it but when she applied for Council Tax Benefit, not only was she given it for the current year but they wiped out most of her arrears too.

Worth checking the Benefits Advisor:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DoItOnlineByCategory/DG_172666

No we're not entitled to any benefits at all!! We have tried tried and tried again lol! im only 21 and my husband is 23 so we dont even get working tax credits which we qualify for income wise, but you have to be over 25 to get it!!!

Ames

It doesn't matter whether or not the commercial debts agree to £1, it's all you can afford, so you just pay them that much. Don't ask them, just tell them.

It doesn't matter what was on other people's budgets. She may well have been allowed to spend £50 a month on haircuts, but if she was planning to pay her debt off quicker then that would make a difference. It's all about individual circumstances. The people at the council don't know you or care about you, all they can see is that you're spending a lot on mobiles and sky tv and not paying your council tax. They'd be much more likely to accept a high food bill than they would 'luxuries'.

Even with your savings when the mobiles are out of contract you're still not going to be able to clear it. When is virgin out of contract, that's the biggest problem. And how much is the broadband, from my calculations that must be about £30 which is horrendous for a small package. Was it one of the deals where you got a free laptop with it?

I think for a start you need to get a water meter fitted, although it'll be a few months before they'll change the monthly payment as they need to get a reading. Then change your payments to your creditors to £1 each per month. You also need to find out when the contracts are ending so that you can cancel them, you usually only have a small window in which to cancel.

Are you absolutely sure that the virgin can't be lowered to the cheapest package? Because that's your biggest problem.

kathy40uk

stephbond89 wrote: »

No we're not entitled to any benefits at all!! We have tried tried and tried again lol! im only 21 and my husband is 23 so we dont even get working tax credits which we qualify for income wise, but you have to be over 25 to get it!!!

Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit are still possible under 25 although at a reduced rate. it may still be worth asking again

stephbond89

We have tried 4 times (once every 6 months since we moved in together) for council tax benefit (and housing benefit as they're the same form, the check if your eligible for both when you send the form off), and we haven't been accepted, we get around £20 a year too much, something ridiculous like that to stop us getting it, and before someone says, no my husband cannot lower his working hours, or wages, they're set as they are.

As for having a water meter, I had a water meter in my last property which was a flat, a small flat at that, and we were paying MORE a month on a meter than we are doing now on a tariff. It was often £60, no idea why as we showered and didnty take baths, used the washing machine on a full wash etc, so I am very reluctant to have one fitted as it is too flexible, one month it could be £20 and another it could be £50 and we'd never know what to expect. At least with how it is, we know what we pay each month and it isnt going to change from one month to another.

The Virgin contract ends in around 6 months too I think, Im not 100% sure if I am honest, I was sure we had had it for more than a year now, unless they roll on the contract without telling you, I have no idea how they work.

Yes the internet came with a laptop- we could not afford to buy a laptop, not even a second hand one for £50, and if I am to email people instead of phoning them which costs a fortune in 0845 numbers, then I need the internet and a laptop (i diont have internet access on my mobile either so i cant do it that way). And again, it is under contract.

As for the other debts, I am going to get onto it today and send them all emails to tell them that our circumstances have changed and we cannot afford to pay them any longer and they will need to accept my £1 payment per month, and then I'll change my standing orders etc whihc I have sorted out. Thanks for that, I honmestly didnt realise that I could do that, as I was told that I should offer this calculation thing and pay them that, but as you say, council tax is a million times more important!

As for my SOA, what do I do? Claim my food bill is higher than it is, and lower the amounts I pay for "luxeries" like TV and Phone? Or would they check on this?

I was admitted to hospital once more last night with stress and the baby, so I really could do with getting this sorted now. I had an email off the council this morning saying they could accept £25 a month on another account we have with a balance of £194, which I have said we can actually pay off this month completely (we're getting some money from my mum which she has inherited only of £200 but it pays this bill off), but that they cannot lower the other amounts, this confused me as the account they offered me the plan of £25 a month on, is at least 3 years old!!! It is as though they're testing me to see if I can really afford £200 a month. Clearly if we cannot afford £200 a month, we're not going to be able to afford £225, needless to say I emailed back and said I wanted the other account cleared asap and that considering I was getting £200 this month from my mother I could pay that debt off. I have also "threatened" with complainging to the local councillor and also the local government ombudsman...I am hoping this moves things along.

stephbond89

YEY! I have received an email in response to the last email I sent the council threatening a formal complaint been put in, and they have now agreed to allow us to pay £150 per month, they have even offered that as of April when the new council tax bill comes through they have lowered the payments to £60 to ensure we can afford the two together.

I have ensured them that I will review our financial situation in 6 months as we will start receiving tax credits in september when the baby is born and we might be able to pay some more then, but at the moment I am just happy that they have accepted our payment of £150 per month! All it took was threatening them with the local councillor in the end! Shame they can't treat people with a little bit of humanity without been threatened first!

dancingfairy

I think is the hardest bit for you - hopefully things will ease up - the phones you can cancel/renogiate when they come up for renewal, tv licence will go down, water may go down?
debt management can come right down to 1 pound per month each (until things are more sorted with council tax etc) which will free up some money for food - make sure you are eating properly and some money for clothes - well you may need to buy some at some point. I would open a savings account and put 20 a month in here to cover clothes and also a little towards car costs so you are not caught out.
Also make sure you are registered to get the benefits when you child arrives - you should get child benefit? not sure what else?
Also there are baby clubs you can sign up to - tesco, boots etc and offers on the interenet - try the family section on here as they will be able to help with things like that.
Also perhaps you could set up a new bank account not connected to anyone you owe money to and treat the ex overdraft like any other debt and offer them what you can afford to pay it off?
df

dancingfairy

I think it might be worth doing a new SOA with amounts you need to spend ie something for clothes, something for car maintenance, increase the food - 120? something for presents - 5/10 pounds etc then you can see what you have left for debt repayments. There is no point making arrangements to pay your debts off then find you need to get more debt because you haven't allowed any money in your budget for clothes etc.
Like I said before - then set up a standing order to a savings account each month so as these things crop up you have the money there.
df

RAS

Good.

Now do an SOA and see what you can do to make this work.

Also, do check whether you can reduce the packages on the phones - tell them you have priority debts and they may crumble.

stephbond89

Thank you yes I will do this, some of the bills should go down soon which will be great, I am just glad that this matter is sorted now too!

Our food bill actually is never a problem, the £90 a month we spend is a "high month", we buy all of our meat in "bulk" and pop it in a chest freezer, we get it direct from a wholesaler so its very cheap, at least 50% less than what we'd spend in the supermarket, and we buy a lot of other things in bulk too, so we tend to have a "large" food bill month, and then a couple of low food bills where we're just topping up on toilet rolls and fresh food like fruit, veg, milk :) We always make sure we have food in the house before any of our bills are paid, we made the mistake a couple of years ago when times were even hardee than now, with an income of just over £1000 a month and MANY more bills going out, we'd pay the bills and have just £20 left for food, and found we had to scrounge off my parents for money for food which was terrible. So we learned from that mistake and i think we have our prorities kind of in order now, with rent been highest priority, food and groceries on par with the rent, and then the bills. Sadly we just havent had the money to be able to keep on top of it all! I hope we can get it all under control soon though!

I ahve emailed the debt companies today about our finances, have sent them our budget which clearly shows we have nothing left to pay them, and basically they'll have to like it or lump it, as you say, there isnt all that much they can do about debts of a couple of hundred pound.

We have around two whcih are "high" at around £2000-£5000, which I know can actually try to make us bankrupt for the money owed, though they'd get nothing from us in bankruptcy as we have no assets, we dont own our own home, and even our car is owned by my mum, so they'd get around £100 and that's it.

Thank you everyone for your help though! I am thinking of contacting Virgin tomorrow and asking them about reducing our payments by lowering our tariffs to something more affordable for us!