PayPlan

Gemmzie

Working Tax Credit - if your "wage" is on the low side then you can claim, but if your annual figure is fairly healthy then you may not qualify.

Might be best to start a new thread with a SOA and let the clever folks here help you budget it out.

JGWT8M

@Watson, I am in exactly the same position as you and managed to setup a DMP myself without too many problems, Payplan "advise" on the DMP and it's important to put that in your proposals to creditors, they take more notice when "Payplan" is mentioned (unless they are a factoring company and then they just take you to court regardless, but that's another story).

You should be entitled to some form of Working Tax Credit if your annual income is lower than the national average (and you don't need to have kids to qualify), think it's around £20k, and it is worked out on the PREVIOUS years accounts so you know what your average monthly income is even if you only earn £1 a month for 6 months of the year and £2k a month for the other (i.e. average over year £1000 per month).

WTC is calculated on income - NOT turnover btw. I know it might be obvious to us, but you'd be amazed the amount of times my family have told me I'm not entitled to it because my income is £XXXXXX, I say no that's turnover, my income is £XXXX, I find people who are not self employed have no idea what the difference is between turnover and income.

Payplan advised me to work everything out on last years accounts (or an average of the last 6 months, whichever is "better" for you hint hint), and to then make small, but affordable offers to the creditors, make offers that you know you can afford even if you don't earn anything that month (this is where the Working Tax Credits come in useful).

To be very honest with you, your Creditors are not going to ask you to prove your income unless they are very suspicious you are trying it on.

Regarding the Bank Account, he means go and get a basic account for household expenses only, we've done this with Abbey and all household stuff goes through that, they didn't care that my wife is a FT mum and wouldn't be paying much into the account a month, the Banks are required to open Basic Accounts if the criteria is meet, they were also happy to open an account for me as long as I took two forms of photo id along.

Watson

Gemmzie,

Thanks so much for that. I just did a quick check on their website and it seems I might well be eligible for Working Tax Credit. I had no idea that it even existed. I phoned the helpline and they're sending me an application pack.

Gemmzie wrote:

Might be best to start a new thread with a SOA and let the clever folks here help you budget it out.

OK, now I'm off to look up SOA...

Edited to add:

Sorry Gemmzie, you've got me stumped; the best I can come up with is "Services Oriented Architecture" ...

JHW

Watson

JGWT8M wrote:

@Watson, I am in exactly the same position as you and managed to setup a DMP myself without too many problems...

Thanks so much for that hugely encouraging reply. It's good to know that I'm not the only one in this particular situation.

As you'll see from my reply to Gemmzie, it looks like I might well be eligible for Working Tax Credit too, which would make quite a difference to me.

I suppose my ignorance about such things is the price I'm paying for not employing a proper accountant, only someone to put in my returns each year...

JHW

dlb

Thanks you after reading this thread, i have now decided to contact payplan, i have been on a dmp with a fee charging company for a year now, and although i am completly happy with what they have done ( got all 12 of my creditors to agree to payments and freeze interest) I know it makes more sense to swap to a company that gives all my money to the creditors, i currently pay £387 a month to the dmp and £68 of this is the managment fee.
Does anyone have any experience of swaping dm companys? And how straight forward it is.
The way i look at it is that i cant see my creditors having a problem as it means they will get more money each month?Hope im right.

JGWT8M

Watson wrote:

I suppose my ignorance about such things is the price I'm paying for not employing a proper accountant, only someone to put in my returns each year...

I doubt a proper accountant would have told you about WTC, a friend of mine, self-employed as a muti-drop driver, has a proper account and he didn't tell him either, he's now £60 a week better off now.

Unfortunately WTC can't be backdated, but it's well worth going after, you could also go after Housing Benefit (if renting) and Council Tax Benefit, I'm not just yet but there is a personal reason for this.

And we are far from alone, just about everybody I talk to either employed or self-employed is in some form of debt, about the only people I don't know in Debt are my parents and I wish I'd listened to their advise years ago.

@dlb, don't know about swapping companies sorry, best to talk to Payplan about it but don't mention it to your existing one as they could if they wanted, make life very hard with your creditors if they believe they're going to be loosing the £816 you pay them a year to manage the DMP.

Watson

JGWT8M wrote:

Unfortunately WTC can't be backdated, but it's well worth going after.

That's for sure. Incidentally, the nice lady on the information line told me "Unfortunately, we can't backdate it more than three months..."

Thanks again to everyone for this. A revelation!

JHW

Gemmzie

Watson wrote:

Gemmzie,

Thanks so much for that. I just did a quick check on their website and it seems I might well be eligible for Working Tax Credit. I had no idea that it even existed. I phoned the helpline and hey're sending me an application pack.


OK, now I'm off to look up SOA...

Edited to add:

Sorry Gemmzie, you've got me stumped; the best I can come up with is "Services Oriented Architecture" ...

JHW

Try the sticky on this forum by SouthernScouser - it's a Statement of Accounts, basically a budget.

Start a new thread and post away

Watson

Gemmzie wrote:

...it's a Statement of Accounts

Good grief, of course it is. My brains seem to have gone the same way as my money.

Incidentally, I found one other meaning: Stamp Out Acronyms!

Thanks again.

JHW

gravitytolls

All teh debt help people are really nice. CCCS, Payplan, and good old CAB. They not only don't pass judgement, they are kind and comforting too.