Sturggling bigtime now :(

Stuffed23

Well the time has come for me to finally bite the bullet and see if anybody can see anything I've missed :embarasse

We had really bad couple of years and were finally getting things sorted a bit when my partners Incapacity Benefit was stopped middle of December and now I don't think we have enough money to live on, can you fine people have a quick look and see if theres anything else I can cut back on or have any ideas on what we can do?


I earn £1400 a month so not a great deal but stops us getting most help. My partner has been on IB for the past two years for depression and following an interview in December the agency have decided that she is fit for work (news to the GP and Psychiatrist) so we have just lost £190 per two weeks.

She worked at home doing bows and tags for a local company and that paid £30 per week, this also has stopped now, I assume they don't need as many after xmas so by my reckonings, since the 15th of December we have lost £500 per month of our income.

We have debts of £16,000 which we are currently paying CCCS £55 a month for, not a lot but it was all we could afford, and since all this we now owe two months council tax at £147 per month.

Our current outgoings are:-

• Rent - £650
• Council Tax - £147
• House Insurance - £18
• Car insurance - £46
• Gas/Elec/Water - £210
• Fuel for car - £140
• Internet - £29.99
• Tivo - £10
• Food - £180
• Phone - £15
• TV (Can't get out of contract) - £96

I'm sure theres some things I've missed but that alone comes to £1541, £141 more than I earn, I have two children hence the high £45 a week shopping figure.

I'm at a loss now, we aren't entitled to anything as apparently I earn too much and allthough we can appeal to for the incapacity benefit, it's obviously going to take time, we haven't even managed to get their letter yet Oh I forgot child allowance of £116 a month but it still doesn't cover our outgoings

livinginhope

Hi stuffed,welcome to DFW,well done on facing things,it's a big step.You are obviously already on a DMP with CCCS,so have you phoned them to warn them of the new situation? they may be able to lower your payment until you get things sorted.
Your outgoings are quite high,the gas/electric/water is well over the top,are you paying arrears? the TV contract can be reduced,I am assuming it is with sky? if you phone them and tell them of the situation,they will help.
The food budget isn't that bad,but could be reduced with lots of planning.The internet is double what most people pay,could you change suppliers?
These are just a few of my thoughts,will look in again later
LIH

iceicebaby

Hiya and welcome

You have taken the first step of posting on here to get help which is good.

From your SAO, I can suggest the following

29.99 internet - there are cheaper providers out there.
210.00 water /gas/elec - are you on the cheapest tariffs for you? try Uswitch to see if there are any cheaper for you.
46.00 Car insurance/18.00 house insurance - have you shopped around for the cheapest quote?
10 Tivo - what is Tivo????

Also it would be useful for you to list your debts and the balnaces and APR rates.

Someone with far more experience than me will be along shortly.

Stuffed23

Thanks for the welcome all, I was really scared to put this here, just feal so useless at the moment, as the only one who looks after money here it's kinda all my fault.....

The TV contract is in hindsite a stupid move that we did ages ago before my partner got ill, it's on HP and so if we stop it or anything, it would get repossed and we'll end up owing them it anyway

Water is £70 a month, weve had it checked by the water company and checked the RV of the house with the council and it all matches, Water is just really expensive here we can't get a water meter as it's a rented house.
Electric is £15 a week on a meter that they wont remove for some reason possibly the gas thing, Gas works out at £20 a week, again on a meter but £5 a week on that is past debt, actually that must be close to payed off.

Tivo is a TV recorder a bit like Sky+ but it works on Freeview, it's one of the few luxury's we have (we don't have Sky), I know there are ones out there that don't cost each month but we wouldn't have the money to buy one LOL

Car insurance is the cheapest we could find, we are both fairly young drivers.

House insurance used to be £12 but went up to that when I added accidental damage on (we lost my old computer due to a child related spillage)

Internet I should be changing in the next few months but most deals that are cheaper seem to have low caps and as we use it a lot (I run a few sites in spare time) cannot go for those deals, I have found one for £25 a month though.

jacquij123

Hi,
Have a look at

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/

as I sure you will find you are entitled to some more money.

savememorecashmartin

Hi, haven't got any big ideas but we are with Metronet for our internet service and we pay no more than £13 / month, it's only a little saving but every little helps. Also as others have mentioned water/gas/elec looks a bit on the steep side. Hang in there folks, there's lots more experienced voices on this board than mine that'll be able to help you out.
Keep smilin' :-)

robb_2

Are you sure you are not entiltled to Child Tax credits,we are a similair income and family to you and we get £300 per month,I would give them a ring if I were you

Stuffed23

We used the entitled.to site before and whenever we applied for anything was always knocked back, although that might be different now we don't get IB.....

We were with Metronet before, they were the perfect provider at that point and then they got took over Because of the sites I look after, I sometimes hit high usage, I just looked on their site and the pacakge that would suit my needs, (2GB a month is not enough, I use more than that in backups alone) would be the PayGo opt3 but that could cost up to £38.74.... Thats why I left them.

HazelEyes_3

Hi and welcome

Don't you get Working Family Tax Credit?

There are some things that seem to be missing from your outgoings e.g. TV license, car tax and servicing, clothes - for the children if not for the adults.

Do you pay council tax for 10 months on direct debit? If so you will have 2 months without charge in Feb and Mar so try to make up the arrears as councils are very strict in collecting outstanding debts.

Stuffed23

OK, entitledto says £72.34 a week Housing benefit and £30.52 a week child benefit..... That would be a huge help

Stuffed23

HazelEyes wrote:

Hi and welcome

Don't you get Working Family Tax Credit?

There are some things that seem to be missing from your outgoings e.g. TV license, car tax and servicing, clothes - for the children if not for the adults.

Do you pay council tax for 10 months on direct debit? If so you will have 2 months without charge in Feb and Mar so try to make up the arrears as councils are very strict in collecting outstanding debts.

Yep forgot the TV License although thats up to date :rolleyes:

Car tax we have always just made do when that arrives, servicing I do as cheap as possible myself, Clothes me and partner haven't bought new ones for years, the kids we must spend about £20 a month on....