DMP and Self-employed earnings

piglet22

We have recently decided to go down the route of a DMP after deciding that my current job is too stressful and having found another that I know I will love, will involve a 50% pay reduction.

All criticals are covered (only just) and the amount we can offer our creditors is very low. To try and increase this figure, I have looked into a 2nd job. I am considering Avon or something similar but would need to be self-employed and there are obviously tax and business expenses to take into consideration. Can I keep some of the earnings to one side as overheads, I was thinking a savings account associated to the main account that would allow me to cover my tax and NI. My concern is that I don't want creditors coming after me for the full earnings when I need to genuinely put money aside for this reason. Is it just a case of if/when the DMP comes up for review that I provide a full breakdown of what the money is intended for.

On top of this my husband and I have a dormant ltd company that we intended to set up a website from. There is no major cost involved and another option is that any earnings I make on top of my salaried role would go into the ltd company. That way all monies related to the business could be covered by the earnings and I could draw down a dividend to put towards the DMP, once all other expenses have been taken into consideration.

We are just trying to get the debt issue resolved as quickly as possible.

On another issue, we have a Santander account for our son, who is 7 and disabled and paid direct payments.

I have a card that was GE Money but taken over by Santander. We do not have enough money to clear the card and it is currently showing on the payment plan. However, we are aware Santander could withdraw the funds in the account to clear the card. It isn't our money but our sons with payments for respite provided by the local councils. Ideally we do not want to be changing the account. If we went into Santander and explained the situation, is there any possibility they will leave the direct payments account alone. We have asked for the card in question to be kept off the DMP but pay plan have advised it would be frowned upon by other creditors (we owe the least on the card, minimum payment is about £30 per month).

Sorry for the ramble but any advice gratefully received.

Tixy

In terms of running a business - such as avon - you would only declare your net income after business expenses and after tax & ni as income on your DMP.

Putting it through the limited company could be an option - speak to your DMP provider about this treatment. If you paying yourself as a dividend I don't know how creditors tend to react to this (from their point the risk is that you pay low dividends and keep the value in the company when the company might actually be in a position to pay you more).

In terms of your son's account - ideally you would want to move his account to someone you don't owe money to. Whilst they may give you reassurances in branch sometimes offsetting happens automatically by computer, its probably not worth the risk of losing the money and having to fight to get it back.