My soa

ceejaydee23

As you can see things are starting to look a little tricky! I hope someone can help. I know there is a little scope for cutting back further, but i will discuss my situation and how it materialised.

We were managing perfectly fine when i was on maternity leave and receiving SMP BUT i left work and started applying for CTB and HB all seemed to be fine, received decition noticed and was thrilled to think i was getting nearly full HB and CTB and even claimed the rebate they told us we were due. After then thinking great in a better posission then we thought we upgraded on things like the TV package which i know we will have to try and down grade again. And due to switching mobile packages because of free gifts we thought in the long run were a good deal.

BUT after 3 months of keep trying to chase my council of a !!!! up of my HB payments being paid into a dormant OLD rent account for my previous address, i wasnt sure how much actual rent to pay my landlords so worked some figures out and i was making some payemtns, this wasnt quite enough, BUT now we get told I hadnt suplied them with info of my CTC and WTC but i did they OMITTED them from the original claim, so consequently we now have OVERPAYMENTS, which we have to pay back, aswell as paying almost full rent and CT again.

We are now in a situation thats pretty much biting us on the bum now, I'm hoping it may only take a few months to try to sort out. BUT i got advised by my bank that consolidation wasnt an option due to my income not being sufficient (we hold seperate accounts) I asked about the chance of the account becoming joint and my other half paying his salary into it, he said possible but would require 3 months of salary payments before concideration.

I checked with Moneysupermarket.com for posible other loan providers but then clicked on the so called debt advice centre thing, kinda wish i hadnt as i got passed to a company called Pink Money trying to sell me a Debt Management Plan, I'm not sure if this is really what we want, as i had hoped we could just try and release some extra cash from the debts we had as repaying minimum repayements on the credit cards are gonna take us years, and one of the Debt companies my other half pays would take us to 2020 to repay! At the moment im unsure which way to turn!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1020
Benefits................................ 700
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1720

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 416
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 42
Gas..................................... 36
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 95
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 12.91
Car Insurance........................... 42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 30
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 3.99
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1269.02


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1400


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0<
Council Tax....................570......(0)........0<
Rent...........................400......(0)........0
Total secured & HP debts...... 970.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Personal Loan.............6480......232.......14.9
HSBC Credit Card...............2250......60........23.9
Barclaycard....................3300......74........9.9
SRJ Debt Recov.................480.......5.........0
Aktiv Kapital (debt r..........2500......15........0
HMRC...........................648.......20........0
CapitalOne.....................900.......45........33.9
Total unsecured debts..........16558.....451.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,720
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,269.02
Available for debt repayments........... 450.98
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 451
Amount short for making debt repayments. -0.02

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -970
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,558
Net Assets.............................. -16,128

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Tixy

Hi and welcome

If you did decide a DMP was the right option for you then only ever use a free provider, eg one of the charities or possibly payplan. Anywhere else will charge you a monthly cut of your repayments and keep you in debt longer.

It also sounds like a consolidation loan wouldn't be suitable for you either, if your problems can be sorted within a few months. Beside consolidations loans are rarely the great solution they seem at the time.

Don't switch your accounts to joint accounts at the moment if they are not already. If you get in a position where one of you has a worse rating that the other you don't want them to bring down the others credit history.

Looking at your figures....

ceejaydee23 wrote: »

As you can see things are starting to look a little tricky! I hope someone can help. I know there is a little scope for cutting back further, but i will discuss my situation and how it materialised.

We were managing perfectly fine when i was on maternity leave and receiving SMP BUT i left work and started applying for CTB and HB all seemed to be fine, received decition noticed and was thrilled to think i was getting nearly full HB and CTB and even claimed the rebate they told us we were due. After then thinking great in a better posission then we thought we upgraded on things like the TV package which i know we will have to try and down grade again. And due to switching mobile packages because of free gifts we thought in the long run were a good deal.

BUT after 3 months of keep trying to chase my council of a !!!! up of my HB payments being paid into a dormant OLD rent account for my previous address, i wasnt sure how much actual rent to pay my landlords so worked some figures out and i was making some payemtns, this wasnt quite enough, BUT now we get told I hadnt suplied them with info of my CTC and WTC but i did they OMITTED them from the original claim, so consequently we now have OVERPAYMENTS, which we have to pay back, aswell as paying almost full rent and CT again.

We are now in a situation thats pretty much biting us on the bum now, I'm hoping it may only take a few months to try to sort out. BUT i got advised by my bank that consolidation wasnt an option due to my income not being sufficient (we hold seperate accounts) I asked about the chance of the account becoming joint and my other half paying his salary into it, he said possible but would require 3 months of salary payments before concideration.

I checked with Moneysupermarket.com for posible other loan providers but then clicked on the so called debt advice centre thing, kinda wish i hadnt as i got passed to a company called Pink Money trying to sell me a Debt Management Plan, I'm not sure if this is really what we want, as i had hoped we could just try and release some extra cash from the debts we had as repaying minimum repayements on the credit cards are gonna take us years, and one of the Debt companies my other half pays would take us to 2020 to repay! At the moment im unsure which way to turn!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0 are you hoping to go back to work soon or hoping to stay off with the children?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1020
Benefits................................ 700 is this what you actually receive after they have clawed back some overpayments? if so how much do you owe and how much are they taking back each month?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1720

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 416
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 42
Gas..................................... 36
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55 are you in contracts? have you tried dropping a tariff each?
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 95 phone and see if you can reduce this or cancel it. You need to be on no more than the basic package. Better still would be to use freeview and get your telephone& internet from a cheap provider
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 hopefully should be able to reduce this a bit, maybe to £200, with some careful meal planning etc and shopping around in different supermarkets. If your baby still has nappies and wipes shop around for these in the £stores and bargains stores and the discount supermarkets etc
Clothing................................ 0 might not be realistic with young kids?
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 12.91
Car Insurance........................... 42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 30
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 do you not have this?
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 3.99
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 need to budget for this
Haircuts................................ 0 and probably something here
Entertainment........................... 0 and a small something here
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1269.02


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1400


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0<
Council Tax....................570......(0)........0< what stage is this at? is this for the current year? have you set up a plan to repay?
Rent...........................400......(0)........0 have you set up an agreement as to how to repay this?
Total secured & HP debts...... 970.......-.........-

You need to be paying the above 2 debts before you pay any of the unsecured debts below as they are priority costs.
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Personal Loan.............6480......232.......14.9
HSBC Credit Card...............2250......60........23.9
Barclaycard....................3300......74........9.9
SRJ Debt Recov.................480.......5.........0
Aktiv Kapital (debt r..........2500......15........0
HMRC...........................648.......20........0 are the revenue happy with this repayment?
CapitalOne.....................900.......45........33.9
Total unsecured debts..........16558.....451.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,720
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,269.02
Available for debt repayments........... 450.98
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 451
Amount short for making debt repayments. -0.02

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -970
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,558
Net Assets.............................. -16,128

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

As you already have debts with SJ & activ then your credit rating will already be pretty bad/have defaults etc. I would therefore seriously consider a DMP or whatever other options the charity suggests.
You havent allowed for all the outgoings you are likely to need and you have nothing in towards you priority debts, so its unlikey you are going to be able to keep up with your unsecured repayments.
Remember a DMP does not have to be forever, once your circumstances change and you are earning again you may be able to get on top of your debts and start paying more off so they are repaid quicker.

Do seek some advice from one of the charities listed here - IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.

ceejaydee23

Just in quick reply, basically i havent even had a hair cut since Aug neither has my daughter, we havent been out in over a year, and we had been going ok, and only factor in the odd take away if we had the spare cash. But since the fiasco of the HB and CTB going wrong we had been perfectly managing the debts we had. HMRC are fine with the £5 a week they are taking the day after my Tax Credits are paid in. I havent tried calling the Council regarding the Council Tax yet But i'm sure from my knowledge before i think the minimum they will except is £25 a month for the overpayment but will try again on monday as their lines are always engaged. Thing is do i want to start defaulting on all the debts? As i havent been in this situation until the last few months, At present i dont want to start going bk to work my son is only just a year old. So thankfully eating what we are and no longer on any formula so we have saved there, Nappies i buy what doesnt irritate which are tesco own big carry packs 2 packs usually last about a month. I also buy tesco or morrisons own wipes roughly about a 90p a pack. More then anything the panic has arose because of the time of year its happened!

But generally i would like more info of these DMP things, as i have heard bad stories esp those that charge fees like the company i was referred to. They said my money payment could be 262 a month, BUT they charge 15% on a PAYG month to month basis, so i naturally said i wouldnt commit to anything there and then. But wanted to seek help else where, and nope at the moment have no contents insurance!

Katie-Kat-Kins

I'm not sure you need a DMP just yet, if you can save some money you should be able to make ends meet until you go back to work.

It would be worth considering getting some sort of work to help out, something like avon or delivering free newspapers would give you a bit of pocket money without taking you away from the children - but check it doesn't affect your benefits and make your worse off.

It is possible to manage without clothes and haircuts for a few months while you get yourself on track - I never pay for a hair cut, one length hair is easily cut at home a couple of times a year.

I would start by talking to your phone provider and see whether you can reduce the contract a bit, often they will let you drop down to a lower tarriff even during your contract. Explain that you have had problems with your benefits and have financial difficulties and see what they say. Same with your tv, see if you can drop a package to save some cash.

Check your other expenses on comparison sites and see if you can save any money.

If you are careful and plan you might be able to make some savings on your food shop and your petrol. Meal planning and down shifting on brands for the food shop. Planning your routes, walking more, using the cheapest petrol station, driving carefully can all cut your fuel costs.

I'm sure that with a bit of thought and planning you can get through without a DMP, try the O/S board for advice on cutting your grocery spend.

RAS

Hi

A few things to get straight.

1. if you do not get that Council Tax sorted urgently, you will get visits from the bailiffs soon. Make sure all the doors and windows are locked and neither of you open the door unless you know who is the other side. Much better to make reduced paymwents to one of the other creditors and sort that out urgently.

2. What are the limits on those cards, particulalry barclays?

3. In your current situation your mobile and Satellite payments are ludicrious. You have got to negoitiate those down now and then get rid of the satellite TV and go PAYG on the phone ASAP. if the bailiff levies on the TV because the CT is not paid, that Satellite package is going to look a bit silly.

EssexHebridean

Hi Hun - rotten time of year for you to be thrown into a panic like this eh - not though there is ever really a good time for it I guess.

Some comments below on your SOA - apologies if I have duplicated anything already suggested....

ceejaydee23 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0 Could you do anything to boost this - something like Avon, or Kleeneze maybe? Won't bring in much, but would at least help give you some breathing space.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1020
Benefits................................ 700
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1720

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 416
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 42 Have you checked you're on the cheapest deal?
Gas..................................... 36 As electric...
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 Should there be a figure in here or is it included with your rent?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 95 Presumably this is an all in one package with internet & phone too - as suggested above can you either cut back to basic package or if you're not in your opening contract ditch altogether and go for freeview. If you're with Sky you may find they will dramatically cut the costs just by you calling them to cancel in any case....
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 Old Style board is going to be your friend here - as this can certainly be trimmed. see below.
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 90 Is all this on essential journeys? At the moment you really need to think about how and when you are using the car, particularly with the price of fuel as it is now.
Road tax................................ 12.91
Car Insurance........................... 42 Have you looked to see if you can get this down as it seems quite high.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 30
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 PLEASE tell me that this is an oversight - you really must have insurance!
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 3.99
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50 Nice idea, butg probably a luxury you can't affordat the moment. Have you been putting this amount away regularly? If so are there savings you can use against debts?
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1269.02


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1400


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0<
Council Tax....................570......(0)........0<
Rent...........................400......(0)........0
Total secured & HP debts...... 970.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC Personal Loan.............6480......232.......14.9
HSBC Credit Card...............2250......60........23.9
Barclaycard....................3300......74........9.9
SRJ Debt Recov.................480.......5.........0
Aktiv Kapital (debt r..........2500......15........0
HMRC...........................648.......20........0
CapitalOne.....................900.......45........33.9
Total unsecured debts..........16558.....451.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,720
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,269.02
Available for debt repayments........... 450.98
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 451
Amount short for making debt repayments. -0.02

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -970
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,558
Net Assets.............................. -16,128

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Re Grocery shopping: Try getting your last few supermarket receipts out and work out what is actually food, and what is other things. Then you know what your "real" figure is for stuff you can potentially buy reduced. Get to know your local supermarkets patterns for reducing items on short date - for example I know I can pick up really cheap veggies at our local Tesco an hour before they close on a Sunday afternoon, and Asda seem to have a policy of reducing stuff to 5p at around 8pm. The Co-op also have a "reduce it to sell" policy.
Audit your freezer and cupboards - list what you have in terms of "main" ingredients, then write your shopping list for the next few weeks based on using up the stuff you already have.
Sainsburys periodically do a deal where they cut the price of all baby care goods by about a third - keep your eye on the grabbit board as this is usually on there.

Quick thought - do you pay the council tax over ten months? If so, you have two months without payments coming up - could you perhaps agree to continue paying for those two months, thus knocking £260 straight off the top of the money owed? As said above, this is a priority to get this cleared or at least some form of payment plan in place for it.

Do try to avoid consolidation if at all possible - as many others will tell you, in the long term there are many reasons why it's not a good idea!

Above all, don't panic. Sure your situation isn't great right now, but it is still rescuable, because you have reacted by facing things rather than burying your head in the sand. Good luck!

ceejaydee23

Right as this wasnt a completely accurate SOA at the time, as i have since checked the new car insurance as it now has breakdown included its actually £37 a month so we have infact saved £11 a month by combining as we were paying £32 a month for insurance and £16 AA cover. I'm not the driver my other half is, and he only uses it back and forth from work, and the occational trips to go see his parents. we have a 1.25 fiesta petrol(not entirely practicle with 2 growing kids but gotta suffer it) and it takes roughly £40 to £45 each time we refill which is roughly every 2 weeks so in fact i think thats rather good concidering.

Me n the baby walk as much as possible. Water rates are included in my Rent. and yes we had only just upgraded the cable package when we thought we had more money then we thought after the mix up with the benefits. So i will be contacting them again to reduce it.

£25 and £30 a month for 2 different mobile phones that had freebie TV's with the package over the long term has saved us money BUT as i only upgraded in Nov i can see about a tarriff change, but i'm not pinning my hopes up tbh!

Our original plan had been that once the PL was paid off in 28 months that money would then be split and pay off MORE off on the credit cards. BUT the £60 a week shopping allowance is already a cut back of sorts as my ORIGINAL budget was more like £75 a week.

No I really dont have contents insurance. its something i kept meaning to do as i know i can get it cheap enough through my Housing Association BUT its just one of those things i've never got around to. At the moment there is nothing in the Emergency fund! it was used to buy 12 months Road Tax in October. and we have been using each of the payments since for other things that seemed to have cropped up over christmas.

My other halfs brother owes us £300 still (approx) from a holiday we had 2 years ago! But trying to get the payments bk out of him isnt easy, especially as he seems to have other prioritys to pay money to!

I had been doing an avon round, since June BUT I'm now giving it up, as the time put into it, and the lack of benefit I was receiving from it. My health and my families will always come first.

Just to add, Normally the Council Tax is paid over £10 months, BUT since we thought we were not gonna be paying it, obviously the cash gets absorbed into the either somehow with excess spending especially around christmas. I just think we were unlucky that it all happened at once, and with MORE MONEY going out cos of upgrading things, as i had 2 mobile bills go out in 1 month due to my switch over, and also the extra on the initial 1st new virgin bill, (cos of installation fee)

Thing is how would i go about even trying to get things like the PL and the credit cards to either put a hold on things for a couple of months to try and sort out the other things? As until now i've not defaulted and i dont really want to.

ceejaydee23

also what doesnt help is that all of a sudden cos my son is now a year old my CTC/WTC payments have dropped £10-15 a week!

dancingfairy

Hi - your first priorities after paying you normal monthly bills are to get the council tax and rent up to date , oh and HMRC (but you have an agreement with them). You probably need to default on your unsecured debts and concentrate on the council tax and rent first and make token payments to the others - yes it will ruin your credit rating but not paying council tax or rent is going to cause a lot more problems. If you do plan to default on the HSBC loan you will need to make sure you have an alternative bank account up and running so HSBC can't take your benefits money etc to pay themselves back - they aren't allowed to take benefits money but better to be safe than sorry than have to argue with them to get the money back while bills go unpaid.
This is what I think you will need to do but have a chat with one of the debt charities Martin recommends such as CCCS or National Debtline or your local CAB. It is rubbish you are in this position not entirely of your own making.
Good Luck
df

ceejaydee23

dancing fairy thankfully I do already have an alternative bank account i can use, as I had started using it for the Avon account money so it was kept separate.

Naturally as there is less then half the original term left on the personal loan anyway I don't think that would be the greatest of debts to fault on. But I will certainly write to the credit card companies OR phone them first and get the addresses (I understand there are template letters I could use)

I'm possibly thinking that maybe my usual bills i have go from my standard account i've been using for years(HSBC) i could maybe get them paid out of my other halfs account instead. At least then all the "bills" are together so to speak but from the account that has more money going into it! omg Why the hell hadnt i thought of that before!

ceejaydee23

I have now Called my Council regarding the CT (both the benefit over payment, AND the outstanding amount for the rest of the financial year. I was told Id get a call back as no-one available in that department. I have also tried calling my landlors to set things up properly with them, but my Housing Officer wasnt available So I have her calling me tomorrow (I hope) Or i'll ring them again anyway. Have also been on phone to Credit Card Companies, and HSBC told me that as a payment was due to them tomorrow, if i cancelled that payment it would then put me into there "corrections" department so i'm to call them tomorrow to arrange a new repayment schedule.

Barclaycard kinda said the same thing to call them nearer the time when my next payment was due, and said they can arrange something for 6 months at a reduced payment of £36 a month which is half what my minimum amount would be.

Called Tax Credits to change bank account details over and they can pass details for my child benefit payment too, but also made the call to arrange my HMRC debt recovery to be taken from this new account too. next payment due 21st Jan,

So gives me an extra £5 this week to put to somewhere! I'm just glad a few things are now starting to take shape again!