Creditors asking for SOA, does this look ok

looby75

Just got off the phone from Egg, and have been told I have to send my SOA in so they can see what options are open to me, I'm missing something somewhere I know I must be because I am always in the red every month but on paper it looks as though I should have JUST enough to cover everything.

Any advice

Income

£48.47 Income Support (paying off a social fund loan till Feb 07)
£78.57 Child tax Credits
£29.15 Child benefit
£10 CSA (166.19 a week)

=£715 a month (if you work a month out as being 4.3 weeks)

Out goings.

Rent/water rates- £25

Gas/electric - £69

Sky - £13.50 (tied into contract until june)

Egg cc - £20 (slightly above minimum payment)

Egg loan - 45.60

phone - £35 (landline rental and calls and mobile)

Halifax cc - £35 (about the min payment)

MBNA cc - £75 (always the min payment)

Evans - £17.50 (min payment)

Kays - 16.00

Xmas savings - £40

general rainy day saving - £20 (for things like birthdays, school trips uniform)

grocery stuff- £225 but that usually includes bit of clothes etc for my kids as I get most of their stuff from asda and tesco clothes ranges.

Bus fares £40

Tv licence 12

Home contents insurance 6.50

=£695.00


Halifax cc balance - £1,404.55 18.9%
Egg loan balance - £1056.15 10.4% due to end sep 08
Egg cc balance - 467.14 179%
Mbna balance - 4,400.50 19.9%
Kays= 340 (0% catalogue)
Evans - £340 19.9%

chevalier

Hi there are no car costs on here. You have home contents insurance listed, but not buildings insurance, but if you are renting does your landlord pay this? You also don't have council tax listed. Nor do you have anything down for your iternet connection.
hope this helps
chev

Storm

Um, you haven't listed rent or mortgage?

looby75

chevalier wrote:

Hi there are no car costs on here. I don't have a car

You have home contents insurance listed, but not buildings insurance, but if you are renting does your landlord pay this? We live in a council house, so buildings is covered by the council

You also don't have council tax listed. I get council tax benefit, due to being on IS

Nor do you have anything down for your iternet connection. Kids dad pays for that as part of his CSA agreement, he used to pay for some other things too such as sky and the tv licence but he had to stop those when he lost his overtime 6 months ago
hope this help

chev

Thank you for trying

looby75

Storm wrote:

Um, you haven't listed rent or mortgage?

I get housing benefit that pays it, all I have to pay is my water rates to the council (who I presume pass it on to the water people)

looby75

I think I know what I've missed out my DD's pocket money, £5 a week, (is this allowed in a SOA, she's 13 so too young to work yet but old enough IMO to need a small amount of personal money) and the window cleaner is £6 a month, which as we live next door to a building site is a necessity.

Also I've worked my income out at a calendar month (4.3 weeks) but only worked some of my outgoings as weekly so that might explain it, ie busfare are actually about £43 a month, same with xmas savings.

Can you include a miscellaneous category for things like when I run out of milk mid way through the week or should I just up my grocery budget a bit? I'm trying to be as honest as I can but I don't want to make it look as though I have more spare budget than I really have.

I was starting to think I had a hole in my bank account!

CLAPTON

you're on state benefits only so they are not entitled to any of your income. state benefits only cover basic living costs and aren't counted for debt repayments...if they take you to court the court will not order you to pay anything

in any event you need to allow explicitly for kids
clothes £10 per child
school meals 5 per child
school trip/activities 5 per child
your grocery bill is too low, allow 150 for you and say 60 per child.


remember if you agree on anything you may have to live for a long time on the budget

i would suggest you phone CCCS or Payplan and seek their advice before replying to EGG.

looby75

Thanks Clapton, that's what I was worried about, the long term. I'm worried that I might underestimate the amount I need to live on and then be stuck in even worse a mess than I am in now.

I'll contact CCCS/Payplan immediately.

looby75

Wow I've just done the cccs online thingy and they say I need Loads more a month to live on than I've been budgeting

I'm never going to get out of this mess

Sinkingindebt_2

Hiya, why is your child benfit so low? is that because of your benefits?

Rather than contacting egg directly with your SOA, why dont you go with CCCS or Payplan now and get them to deal with your creditors? Less stressful, and they will contact them on your behalf.

Also why dont you start a spending diary, with everything in, then you will see where the odd £10 here and there goes. I havej ust started mine, its a real eye opener!

Good Luck xxxx

looby75

I get £116 a month child benefit, that's 29 a week for 2 children, that's the same as what everyone gets I think.

I've been to the CCCS site, they said I could only afford to pay £60 a month using their calculations and recommended I went bankrupt! I only (lol) owe £8,080 so that seems really drastic and I am hoping to go back to work once my ds has his tonsils out and stops getting ill all the time.

I thought some of the living expenses they were giving were a little high, pets etc (I only have fish and a budgie so £20 a month is far too much! and I get all prescriptions ect paid for) so I adjusted them to reflect my circumstances more accurately and they now say I can afford £93 a month which is still a lot less than I am currently expected to pay so I've signed up.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel