DCA not accepting repayment plan due to childs activities costs

abi-em-mum83

Hi I have a debt for £347, offered to pay them £30 a month and included my SOA to prove this is the max I can afford. However they have come back demandng £80 a month, and in the letter it says there are unesscesary spending in my SOA that could be spent towards this debt. I called asking what exactly they class as unesscesary as this SOA had been put together with the help of Citizens Advice Bureau so I know there wasnt any. They have said that the £80 they are demanding is made up of the £30 I have offered, £28 a month I pay for childrens activities and £20 childcare costs. I explained the £20 is £2.50 per child,per week for snack within their school nursery. And the £28 is for dancing class @ £14 per child per month. Now within our budget we have no costs for drinking or smoking, we do not go on holidays (last summer was our first in 7 years), there are no leisure activities (I dont buy magazines, we dont eat out etc) all these things that CAB had said I could include in our budget but we go without so that my 2 children can have 45 minutes dance class a week! There is nothing else on our budget that is non essential (rent,food,heat etc) and I refuse to make my children give up their class, which provides exercise, and possibly a future as they are doing brilliantly! At £14 a month its a very cheap class, right on our doorstep so no travel costs, and since they are in preschool class they arent required to wear any specific shoes or clothing!
Do I carry on with my offer of £30? I am calling every month and paying that amount while we debate how much they will actually accept.

tallyhoh

carry on paying them £30 a month, its normal for them to pressure you for more

tinkandspud

I would write to them again asking them to reconsider there demand. speak to debt advice line they have a great leaflet about how to deal with creditors who wont accept your offer of payment. Stick to you guns on the amount as it proves your serious about paying the debt off. Have you been back to the CAB and asked their advice x

barbiedoll

DCA's have no right to see your SOA, only a court can demand to see the details of your expenditure. Your children are entitled to attend a cheap activity such as a dance class, it's hardly up there with flying lessons and foreign holidays!

Keep sending your monthly payment, don't call them, set up a standing order (NOT a direct debit!) and leave it at that. If they take you to court, the judge will take a very dim view of their refusing payment so there's no chance that they won't accept your £30. As you have sought advice on dealing with your debts and CAB are happy that your SOA is reasonable, they really don't have much choice, do they?

Don't worry too much, it's their job to hassle you to try to get more money, just don't rise to the bait!

heatherks

for the amount of debt you owe they have NO right to go through your SoA .. I&E ( esp as you went through CAB) with a fine toothcomb... id pay them £1 and tell them thats all i can now affoard for their cheek lol

carry on paying the £30 or contact CAB again with the letter they sent you

thechippy

This is a good example of why you never send a soa to a dca.

If you MUST tell them something, then keep it simple.

Income = £x
Outgoings = £x

You get this £x.......and TUFF..........;)

saltnvinegar

Hi

You may have heard of something called the common financial statement.

This is an income/expenditure industry format this "should" be accepted by all creditors when dealing with debtors payment proposals.

If you have used CAB to draw up your I/E sheet that you have sent to your creditors then it is almost certain that they would have used the CFS format.

Within the CFS are values called 'trigger figures' which are the minimum agreed costs of living and you should NOT be asked to pay less than these trigger figures.

Childcare costs are considered part of the 'essential costs' of the CFS. I don't have the trigger figures to hand (and they're not publicly available but google search them and you 'may' find them on a couple of websites) but the amounts you've stated certainly don't sound unreasonable.

You may also be interested to know that the OFT are revising their guidelines on debt collection. Although the revised guidelines aren't actually 'live' yet the current consultation document actually states that it is an unfair business practice to "not having regard for the principles of the Common Financial Statement (or equivalent)" and amounts to psychological harrassment.

You need to stop contacting these muppets by telephone, you now have them by the short and curlies!!

1) You have a CFS drawn up by a recognised agency (CAB) which the debtor has ignored.

2) The creditor has refused your offer of payment and demanded more than you have shown you can afford (a breach of current OFT guidelines).

Although some people suggest not to provide DCA's with I/E information (and they are correct in that DCA's have no legal right to this information), the fact that you have done, and they have abused it and breached OFT guidelines in doing so, would only add to your arguement if (read highly unlikely) things ever got to court.

They have now shown themselves to be unreasonable, however you have shown you are making every effort to resolve this situation.

They have ignored an industry accepted format of I/E in breach of OFT guidelines.

Stick to your guns, keep offering and making payments by standing order of £30/month and they should back off.

If they don't they are going to look very stupid taking this to court and would be severely frowned upon by a DJ.

Best

SnV

saltnvinegar

Ps, just out of interest who is the DCA? Different DCA's have different tactics so may be able to tell you if their behaviour is 'normal' or not.

SnV

DVardysShadow

abi-em-mum83 wrote: »

Now within our budget we have no costs for drinking or smoking, we do not go on holidays (last summer was our first in 7 years), there are no leisure activities (I dont buy magazines, we dont eat out etc) all these things that CAB had said I could include in our budget but we go without so that my 2 children can have 45 minutes dance class a week! There is nothing else on our budget that is non essential (rent,food,heat etc) and I refuse to make my children give up their class, which provides exercise, and possibly a future as they are doing brilliantly! At £14 a month its a very cheap class, right on our doorstep so no travel costs, and since they are in preschool class they arent required to wear any specific shoes or clothing!
Do I carry on with my offer of £30? I am calling every month and paying that amount while we debate how much they will actually accept.

saltnvinegar's post is probably the definitve advice.

Personally, I would feel inclined to redo the SOA with the kids classes taken off and put another £40/month on for smoking. You could send this with a covering letter and say 'As suggested by yourselves, we have taken the children's classes off our expenditure statement, which we now resubmit. In the process, we have realised that we have omitted to include anything for smoking. As a consequence, we are reducing our payments to £20/month. We trust that this meets with your approval.'

abi-em-mum83

Thanks everyone for your advice! I have told them basically they can like it or lump it, £30 is my limit and if they don't like it then I urge them to take me to court. The DCA is Robinson Way, who out of the numerous DCA's Ive dealt with are the worst! They have previously attempted to collect on accounts that were either way past the 6 years, or that have been never been in debt, and when asked to provide the proof they've stopped collections. They are bunch of crooks. This time there is no denying I owe this debt, and I know not to cave in to their bullying tactics, but I needed to double check Im within my rights to keep the money back for childrens dancing classes. I do feel like saying we need so much for holidays,smoking,drinking,leisure activities etc, and then offer them whats left, and maybe have a night out with my fiance (be it 2 for 1 at the cinema) who I havent been out with for so long!

vax2002

If you can, trick them in to a letter rejecting the offer of £30 a month, then if they do try court, the basic rule of justice is you can not sue for payment you have refused to accept .