no idea where to start!

CH27

So the £450 rent is the reduced amount?

_evenstar_

no thats the rent as normal, i included the housing benefit in the monthly income section so it all works itself out.

CH27

_evenstar_ wrote: »

no thats the rent as normal, i included the housing benefit in the monthly income section so it all works itself out.

Thankyou

snookey

Hi if you dont mind me asking but is your disability physical or mental. Only asking as severe mental illness can make you excempt from council tax. Have you had advise on the tax credits situation. Did they make a mistake or you.
Presents although this is low Id stop buying gifts until your better off . Do you have any skills such as knitting,fixing computers if so maybe you could earn a few pounds. Haircuts try a local hairdressing collage as it should work out cheaper.

_evenstar_

snookey wrote: »

Hi if you dont mind me asking but is your disability physical or mental. Only asking as severe mental illness can make you excempt from council tax. Have you had advise on the tax credits situation. Did they make a mistake or you.
Presents although this is low Id stop buying gifts until your better off . Do you have any skills such as knitting,fixing computers if so maybe you could earn a few pounds. Haircuts try a local hairdressing collage as it should work out cheaper.

Hi, its physical and its with my hands/wrists so this limits me alot. The tax credits repayments is from when i was with my ex and we did dispute it but still have to pay it. As ive said i have stopped buying gifts etc

Can anyone suggest anything to do other than contact my credit card companies?

Tixy

Hi

Regarding the banks - this form shows you which banks are in the same groups in terms of being able to offset money, so you want to avoid those in the same lists as yours. http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/20/right-to-offset/

As to a new bank account, if you are going for a basic bank account (no credit check, no overdraft) then co-op cashminder and barclays basic account are both popular (although in your case you wouldn't want barclays because of your credit card.

I cannot honestly see anywhere you could cut back by the £80odd shortfall you have each month, so as it sounds like you cannot increase your income then I think that contacing your creditors and offering reduced payments may be the best option.

_evenstar_

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Regarding the banks - this form shows you which banks are in the same groups in terms of being able to offset money, so you want to avoid those in the same lists as yours.
As to a new bank account, if you are going for a basic bank account (no credit check, no overdraft) then co-op cashminder and barclays basic account are both popular (although in your case you wouldn't want barclays because of your credit card.

I cannot honestly see anywhere you could cut back by the £80odd shortfall you have each month, so as it sounds like you cannot increase your income then I think that contacing your creditors and offering reduced payments may be the best option.

thank you for your input. Ive come to the same conclusion. the thought of contacting th em really scares me and even with the letter template linked above i still dont really know what to put and what reduced payment would be acceptable. Do i need to include a SOA for them?

Tixy

You could consider getting some advice from one of the debt charities first. If you did that they would help you work out the payments and help you with the letters (for free).

If you prefer to do it yourself then I would say that it is usual that they will ask for a statement of affairs (and whilst you don't have to provide it you have nothing to hide and if you do include it it would increase the chances they'll freeze interest). If you do send it I would exclude the assets bit and I would just put all your debts as a total rather than seperate them out or at least anonymise them, just debt 1, debt 2 etc.

Formally how you calculate a reduced payments is to take the amount you have available for debt repayments and then allocate it pro-rata based on the balances you owe (so if you could afford £60 and had one creditor of £1000 and one for £2000 then the first would get £20 and the second £40).

However as you are showing as only having £37 spare and that includes the tax credit payment of £15, then you only really have £22 for your consumer credit debts. I would suggest with the figures that low you might be better going for token payments and splitting your payment equally between the 3.

In addition to that template above there are lots of other templates on the national debtline website which might be useful to you.

One thing I would say is check that your SoA is sustainable first, make sure you haven't missed anything out that will mean you cannot make the token payments you offer.

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1 Would public transport work out cheaper? are there good transport links in your area?

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 560 Any way to increase this? Second job? Over-time? Better paying job?
Benefits................................ 440 you mentioned that this is what you are currently recieving, and that you will be affected by the changes - do you know what this will be? And when any change will begin to affect you?
Total monthly income.................... 1000

Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 450 Is this good value for your area?
Council tax............................. 73 Are you claiming the single persons allowance of 25% discount? Are you currently paying over 10 months? Ask your council if you can spread this over 12?
Electricity............................. 20 Although neither are high regularly check that you are on the cheapest tariff for your area (every 6-12 months) eg. USwitch, and if switching is cheaper then see if you can get cashback (quidco, onepoll cashback, topcash back etc)
Gas..................................... 28 as above
Water rates............................. 9
Telephone (land line)................... 10 when you are out of contract shop around - Talktalk id approx £20-£25 pm for internet and home phone
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Internet Services....................... 21 as above
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 perhapse could cut a little, but again this isn't really high or anything - batch cook, meal plan, drop brands etc
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 are all journeys essential? Would public transport be a viable alternative?
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Contents insurance...................... 8
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 20
Emergency fund.......................... 22
Total monthly expenses.................. 963

Assets
Cash.................................... 0 Where's the emergency fund?
Car(s).................................. 3500 if getting rid of the car was a viable option, you could pay down a lot of debts and save a lot in running costs and maintenance
Total Assets............................ 3500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
tesco cc.......................3973......79........20
barclaycard....................1647.14...27.17.....15.9
overdraft......................500.......0.........0
tax credits....................960.......15........0
Total unsecured debts..........7080.14...121.17....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 963
Available for debt repayments........... 37
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 121.17
Amount short for making debt repayments. -84.17

Hi,

I have made some comments above.

HTH

D9

_evenstar_

so much to concider but thank you so much. i think i will contact one of the debt charities as it really does seem over whelming right now, although once ive got things straight in my head i'll be able to deal with everything just fine.