PLEASE help been looking for hours

BrightonBell

Hello everyone

I have been looking on the net for hours and still havent been able to find the information i need. My husband and i have around £11,000 of debts that are unsecured and our whole income is from benefits.

My husband is in reciept of dla and is long term sick and i am not working as i am a carer to our son who has multiple disabilities. The debts in question are from around 5 years ago, we have been with payplan but defaulted a very long time ago and mamanged to pay jyst 4,000 off of the debts, if i stay with them i wont be debt free for another 40 years.

I have been looking into a debt relief order and seem to fit the criteria, but i do wonder if your whole income is made from benefits are they allowed to count them in? Dla and incapacity benefit and in my tax credits i receiev a enhanced disability premium which again is related to my son who is under 16? Has anyone got advice to share with me, has anyone got one of these and been on benefits?

curly04

im on dla and BR but i have the motability car as i need this to get to work. my OR was (in the end ok with this)

have you taken advice?

NeverAgain_2

According to the Insolvency Service, and they should know, it looks like you qualify for a Debt Relief Order (DRO).

It does not appear to be relevant where your income comes from, only that you have little spare after monthly expenses.

You cannot be the subject of any other order, you say you have 'been with Payplan', which is almost certainly an IVA - Individual Voluntary Arrangement.

An active IVA would bar you from a DRO, so you need to make sure the IVA is lapsed, formally closed, or whatever happens when these things fail.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/dro-debtors#3

Ineedaname

Anything relating to your son I think they can ignore, everything else seems to be taken into account these days, even DLA unfortunately, although it's still not counted as income for some things it does appear to be for formal debt arrangements.

If you would also like to post on the IVA & DRO Board, they should be able to help you more with regards to DRO rules and regs.

Curly - I'm surprised you had to argue for a motability car!

curly04

The OR told me he was going to allow me a bus pass as my £200 per month on petrol was to much, and I worked about 15 miles from home at that time (further now) , so i asked would he be coming pushing me in my wheel chair to the bus stop and carrying my nebuliser.
Also asked would he be there to help me change to the tram and to get into the office, then the reverse journey.
I also asked him would he be doing my shopping when required and taking me to visit my family and to hospital and doctors appointments.

Emmm he never spoke to me again it go passed to someone else in the office to deal with

debt_doctor

Hi,
Firstly you may well just be in a failed debt management (DMP) plan with Payplan as an IVA, but you need to find out. A failed DMP will cause no issues with a DRO.
Also DROs are individual, so you will both need to split your income and your expenses. DLA goes in as income and the same amount comes out as 'care needs'. Your tax credit income would be apportioned half each and the child benefit would be placed with the claimant.
With expenditure, £600 pm for housekeeping for 3 people would be quite reasonable as well as £250 pm for expenditure classed as 'other' which can be anything really.

You would probably best to place your SOA / income - expenditure on here to look at.

DD