DRO and household income

abandonallhope_2

Hi,

I am wondering if household income is taken into account when an DRO is applied for as I am working full time and we have always kept our bills seperate.

My wife has debts of around £6500 (catalogues, doorstep loan, mobile, credit card) we use the same bank account (mine) for all our bills and working tax credit/child benefit etc, she left work as we were unable to pay the nursery bill and she had been signed off work for a while with depression.

I am wondering if she would qualify for an DRO as her income (she claims child benefit, no jobseekers etc) is quite low after her contribution to the household bills.

I have my own bills to pay (mobile, car - she is named on the hp agreement but as we dont own it i dont think its an problem) but I don't want to pay for her debts as that has always been our arrangement.

Any advice would be appreciated

AAH

fatbelly

Intermediaries have been explicitly told that they must use individual income/expenditure but have not been given explicit instructions about how to do that calculation where the debtor is part of a couple!

So there is some flexibility there and, as long as your wife meets the other criteria, it may well be that she would qualify for a DRO. She should have a chat with an Intermediary.

She would have to list the hp debt if that is joint

abandonallhope_2

Thanks for the reply fatbelly, she seems to meet all the other criteria so the wife is going to speak to someone at the local CAB this week and see what they say.

fatbelly

CABs are still doing the majority of DROs, and most bureaus have access to intermediaries. So that sounds like a good plan. If you hit problems let me know.