The unthinkable has happened...redundancy

midnight_express

You can claim JSA (conts) £71 A WEEK FOR 26 WEEKS.

jobdone1

well in a nut shell £1200 wages from dh is close to you needing a bankrupt option or at the very least an iva unless you can salvage something from your payout and fast if anything is left and you need to stop spending i know i sound harsh but you soa is very very bad and as for the mobile when can you terminate the contract if now do it you need to prioritize and fast the council arrears need sorting before you end up in court pay this with your payout sort out your gas and electric pay the debt with your payout then switch to a cheaper supplier all the while your in debt you can't switch its the small things that will make a big diffrance don't hide behind your payout because once thats gone what will you do next you need to deal with it now hope my advice helps but cetainly speek to cccs they will advise what course of action you need to take against your creditors stay calm remain focused::D

RAS

Play off the Council tax debt immediately as bailiffs are not far behind the warning letter.

Have you claimed contribution based JSA? You need to promptly.

I am not sure you will get anything but your partner needs to go through www.turn2us.org and find out whether you (plural) can get WTC, LHA, CTB, or any other help. having £10K worth of "savings" will complicate things.

Check the rental amount for Local Housing Allowance for a couple and see how far adrift you are from that. When does your tenancy end? Any break clauses?

NeverAgain_2

Your income barely covers your rent and council tax, let alone all other living expenses and about £50K unsecured debt.

If anyone is insolvent, it's you.

On the plus side, you can eke out your pay-off for a few months which gives you time to search for work.

If no well-paid job is forthcoming, I reckon you are heading for bankruptcy.

With this is mind, I would keep back about £2K of the pay-off so you have the fees immediately to hand when you need them.

Angry_Bear

Just my 0.02, and this isn’t going to be pleasant to hear.

Even factoring in JSA and cutting a lot of fat off your SOA I can only just see you being able to make ends meet … WITHOUT paying anything back on your debt!

So in my opinion, you have no choice except to default on your debt. I doubt that CCCS would even see you being able to manage a DMP with that SOA. Pay token payments to your creditors (£1 per month) for a few months and learn to live within your means – make that 10k redundancy completely off limits – learn to live on 1200+JSA this will not be easy. After about 6 months you can make F&F offers to your creditors using the 10k – you may even be able to settle all your debts this way.

Your credit report will be completely shot for 6 years at least but I can’t see any way round this. The alternative is an IVA or bankruptcy as I see it.

Quite bluntly, if you use your redundancy money to keep your head above water in about 3 months you’ll find yourself in exactly the same position, and it will feel like the 10k just dribbled away.

Sorry to be quite so blunt about it, I really do hope you can find a solution!

findingmyownway

Ooof, this is a tough one. But first - a massive well done for posting and please please don't bury your head back in the sand now you've had some harsh replies. Its not going to get any better without a LOT of effort.

Is your hubby aware of all of this? That needs to be your first step - get him fully on board the frugal train.

Secondly - what industries do you both work in? I ask this because there are some where bankrupcy is unacceptable. You need to decide if it is for you or not, and this may have an affect. Have a look at the bankrupy board on here if you think this is something you should consider.

The rest of my advice is going to be based on an ultra-strict money saving mission to get you out of this whole without bankrupcy. Neither is going to be a very nice option, but thats the situation i'm afraid. The short answer is you can't afford either the car or your current house on your partners income alone. An appointment with Citizens Advice might help you out with accepting this. A few other comments are below:


Number of cars owned.................... 1 How would hubby get to work without the car?
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0 What are the chances of getting another job? Right now anything would do, but I see your previous salary was reasonable so do you have contacts you can make use of? A lot of effort needs to go into this - not online shopping i'm afraid.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1200 Can he do overtime / get a second job?
Benefits................................ 0 Check what you're entitled to

Total monthly income.................... 1200

Monthly Expense Details
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0 Are none of the loans below secured on anything?
Rent.................................... 795 Can you move somewhere cheaper / back in with parents? Drastic times call for drastic measures... you can't afford to stay where you are on current income.
Telephone (land line)................... 43 Cancel this
Mobile phone............................ 80 Cancel this, or reduce to lowest tarif (£20?)
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 See the pther boards for feeding the family for £30/week etc. This needs to come right down.
Clothing................................ 100 No more, sell what you do't wear on ebay
Petrol/diesel........................... 280
Road tax................................ 17
Car Insurance........................... 35 280+17+35 = £332/month you don't have. The car needs to go.
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25 Who is this for? You may get it free when not working? Or a pre-payment cert should be less anyway
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 23 What pet do you have? You can't afford it. Can you rehome?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40 No more. Its going to have to be obvious to people who know you that there is a big problem.
Haircuts................................ 15 No more (unless critical to you getting a new job!)
Entertainment........................... 100 No more


Assets

Total Assets............................ 16500

All of the assets need to go towards paying off debt in the non-bancrupcy option

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
hsbc loan 1 ...................3731......267.......0
hsbc loan 2 ...................11731.....213.......0
co-op loan ....................7932......209.......0
OH's parents...................2500......0.........0
mbna...........................8808......313.......30
hsbc cc........................2067......52........29.9
halifax cc.....................5860......117.......25.95
mint cc........................5000......111.......0
student o/d....................1500......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........49129.....1282......

What have all these been spent on? Anything you can sell?-

findingmyownway

Angry_Bear wrote: »

Just my 0.02, and this isn’t going to be pleasant to hear.

Even factoring in JSA and cutting a lot of fat off your SOA I can only just see you being able to make ends meet … WITHOUT paying anything back on your debt!

So in my opinion, you have no choice except to default on your debt. I doubt that CCCS would even see you being able to manage a DMP with that SOA. Pay token payments to your creditors (£1 per month) for a few months and learn to live within your means – make that 10k redundancy completely off limits – learn to live on 1200+JSA this will not be easy. After about 6 months you can make F&F offers to your creditors using the 10k – you may even be able to settle all your debts this way.

Your credit report will be completely shot for 6 years at least but I can’t see any way round this. The alternative is an IVA or bankruptcy as I see it.

Quite bluntly, if you use your redundancy money to keep your head above water in about 3 months you’ll find yourself in exactly the same position, and it will feel like the 10k just dribbled away.

Sorry to be quite so blunt about it, I really do hope you can find a solution!

Very good advice

squidgychesspiece

Thank you all so much for your replies. It has really opened my eyes, I can't believe that even last week I was joyously spending away still!!! As much as I feel like hiding under the duvet reading these replies I really needed this to get motivated to get out of this mess!

My only hope now is that we can cut back enough to eeek out the redundancy money until I find work. I work in financial services and so am really going to try and avoid bankruptcy and even an IVA if I can. It would just mean that I couldn't work in my profession anymore and I don't know how to do anything else? :embarasse

Even with a new job it will be tight. DH is fully aware of the problems and on board so that is a start. I wish I knew where the money went, we don't have a lot to show for it - flash car etc but will have a think.

Midnight Express - thank you. I have phoned up this morning and have an appointment on wednesday about claiming JSA. I had no idea I could be entitled!

Findingmyownway - thank you for your post. I am going to look into DH getting the bus to work to see if that is an option? Tenancy has 9 months left to run so no chance of getting out of it unfortunately. Similarly, we are not technically allowed to switch provider but surely it is always worth asking? We are currently with British Gas.

We will cut back in all other areas but I just havent got the heart to re-home dog. No one might want him and the thought of him languishing in some kennel somewhere until he is put down is just too much.

However, positive things I have done this morning:
1. paid the council tax arrears to get them off our back
2. inquired re JSA as above
3. phoned around my contacts to try and arrange some meetings. I have two interviews this week (tuesday and friday) and a potential meeting to be confirmed. Pleeeeaaaase keep your fingers crossed!

I have shopping in for the week and so shouldnt need to spend any money today. It's pouring with rain here and so am going to spend the afternoon clearing out the cupboards and see if I can find anything worth selling.

Again thank you. You have made me realise I can't bury my head in the sand any longer.

SCP

Johnhowell

At your Wednesday appointment ask about claiming for Council Tax benefit - it should reduce to less than half. Ours did.

Go on www.entitledto.co.uk and see what you can claim for.

Good luck.

findingmyownway

Good news that DH is on board with things. Is the 'flash car' new? Only you said that your dad put your old banger through MOT in an earlier post?

You say you "have shopping in for the week". I bet with some time on here putting a proper meal plan together you could make that food last 3 weeks (with a token spend on fresh milk and bread). See it as a challenge :money: