Help please - for my younger brother

j2010oe

Hi - first post on here but thought it would be a good place to start. Will try and keep quite concise.

My brother is 29 (single, rents, no credit cards) and in some real financial difficulty. Through this he is pretty depressed and I am worried about his state of mind at the moment.

After working as a bar manager until 2008, he decided to go traveling for 6 months with his gfriend, had a great time, came back to the Uk with some debt (2.5k overdraft) and couldn't get back into full time work when the recession hit (his challenges finding work is a whole other story)

So, yesterday he told me that the 2.5k debt got transferred to a debt collection agy who are demanded ££ that he hadn't got. He said the only solution is to go to court to sort it out. i have suggested there may be another solution. They have only been taking £25 per month, but the problem is he was doing a part time job which allowed him to claim benefits but last month his hours went up to 17 which means that he no longer can claim benefits.

So for the rest of this month he only has £35 left so can't afford to do anything incl pay the debt collectors.

Unfortunately, no one in the family can afford to pay the debt for him so I would really welcome any advice.

Thanks, Joe

hackedoffatthem

Hi and Welcome!

What sort of debt collectors has he got the debt with? Do you mean the banks own agency have taken on the case or did your brother borrow from a loan shark/doorstep lender/ payday loan company?

determined_new_ms

Hi my advice is firstly get your brother to post a thread. If any advice is going t work it needs to be him asking. Other than that can he go back to 16 hours? I think seeing as he is getting benefits he either needs to stay at 16hrs or less (is his depression link to work/finances? is he well enough to get a full time job?) or full time. Unless he's working full time its going to be difficult to finance life & debts.

Once this is resolved he needs to work out his financial postion (SOA) and send this & an offer to the DCA. Possibly make an appt with CAB for support. Good luck x

Marisco

Hi Joe, welcome to the boards:) The first thing he needs to do, is to write to the DCA, enclosing a SOA (statement of affairs) explaining that because he has only x income per month, he can only afford z amount. Always write, never phone (and don't give your bros number either, they'll plague him with calls!!:mad:) Make the offer of payment realistically what he can afford, even if its only one or two quid. They will default him and might go for a CCJ, but if he has a very low income, the court will not award the DCA anymore than he can pay! They will inundate him with letters wanting more, but just reiterate the first letter, i.e "this is all I can afford". And tell him not to worry (easier said than done I know!!) but if he hasn't got it, they cannot have it!!!! No matter how much they huff and puff!!

Hannah_10

Marisco wrote: »

Hi Joe, welcome to the boards:) The first thing he needs to do, is to write to the DCA, enclosing a SOA (statement of affairs) explaining that because he has only x income per month, he can only afford z amount. Always write, never phone (and don't give your bros number either, they'll plague him with calls!!:mad:) Make the offer of payment realistically what he can afford, even if its only one or two quid. They will default him and might go for a CCJ, but if he has a very low income, the court will not award the DCA anymore than he can pay! They will inundate him with letters wanting more, but just reiterate the first letter, i.e "this is all I can afford". And tell him not to worry (easier said than done I know!!) but if he hasn't got it, they cannot have it!!!! No matter how much they huff and puff!!

In a nutshell there it is- SOA and follow up letters to say "this is what I've got, so this is what you're getting". DCA's (debt collection agencies) are all bark and no bite if you call thier bluff, for example they will continually threaten court (they wouldn't know how to write a letter that doesn't) but to get a case to court will cost them hundreds of pounds and the judge is not going to award them any money which is needed for basic living expenses. That's why the SOA, the SOA shows your living expenses. So in short, do what Marisco says and there wont be a CCJ, it's all hot air from the DCA because they are vultures and they have worked out that they can intimidate people into giving them far more than they are legally entitled to recieve by saying the right words in the right way and being generally horrid.

Regarding his state of mind, maybe you could both have a read of this leaflet from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. At the end it has a pretty comprehensive list of sources of help and support.

j2010oe

Hi there - thanks a lot for the advice. I am going so attempt to sit down with him asap this week to determine exactly what he has and hasn't done to resolve this, who and how much he owes etc.

The money was an overdraft with barclays that he couldn't afford to pay that was passed to the debt collection agency.

I'll take your advice to him and come back to you when i need more help!!

Joe