Irregular earnings and DRO

david_m4

Looks like I won't be able to achieve a steady monthly salary anytime soon, which makes it tricky (read impossible) to do a DRO budget. Does anyone know if I'm allowed to average out my pay over the year, saving a bit in fat months, when I know in advance roughly what I'll get each month? And what about overtime on top of that, is it allowed and can those earnings be saved for the lean months?

As I understand it, in any month where I survive on less than my initial budget, it would be assumed someone else was covering my costs (which would be true). Then if my income went back up a month or two later (which it will) the difference would be treated as a surplus and I'd no longer qualify for a DRO. If I quit my job in advance of the DRO, I'd look like a waster to the intermediary and the OR (would they care?) and more importantly I'd be sponging off my wife for the next 12 months. She isn't very happy about that.

If there's no way to make a DRO work with irregular income, would I be able to get one and leave the country for a year? There's a possibility I could do a European Voluntary Service placement, with my living expenses covered by an EU grant. I wouldn't have to handle the money, it would go directly from Brussels to the placement provider, except for "pocket money" which I think is only about £50/month. So my earnings would be nil, or very near it, but so would my costs.

Blatant skiving at taxpayers expense, I know.... but if my pay pattern makes a DRO impossible, I will have to quit my job anyway :-/

Davey

wba31

Most advice agencies will take your total pay over a period (12 months is a fair time period) and divide it into 12 months, so giving the mean average.

When budgets are drawn up it is impossible for someone to live exactly by that month to month, so the advisor will understand that some months you'll have bits left over that will fill in the months your income falls short