Question about partners debts and DRO

fat-pudding

Me and my partner have some debt between us (none of it shared, it's all in our own names and we have no shared accounts, assets or liabilities), I'm the breadwinner in the family as my partner can't work due to health reasons.

Every month I pay some money into my partners account for housekeeping and rent and some extra to make minimum payments against her cards. With the cost of everything going up we're starting to struggle to pay her debts and mine too.

What I want to know is if she was to apply for a DRO how would her income be considered? Currently she has more than £50 left over every month because I like her to have a minimum balance of £100 available for emergencies.

Currently I don't want to do a DRO for myself as if I can stop paying for my partners debts then I can put that money into mine and clear them in the next couple of years. If we don't do something in the next year we're going to end up in a situation where we can't pay either her debts or mine!

Can anyone advise what we can do? Basically I don't want to be responsible for her debts any more as it's affecting my ability to pay my debts although I know this will cause arguments if I raise the idea to her as some of the money that makes up her debts was spent on me (but then the reverse is true too!).

I just want to know if this is possible before I try to discuss it with her. Can anyone help?

fatbelly

It shouldn't be a problem if the other criteria are also met (not a property owner etc). You need to talk to an intermediary at CAB, Step Change/CCCS, Payplan, National Debtline...

The guidance on calculating income in a joint household is vague, which gives flexibility. Nevertheless the principle is that it is the debtor's income, assets liabilities that are considered. If she has no income other than sharing yours then that shouldn't be a problem.

fat-pudding

Thanks for that, it's what I suspected but nobody seems to cover this situation on their websites. I need to discuss this first with my partner and don't want to do that if she then wasn't actually eligible for a DRO.

National_Debtline

Hello there. We would usually go through a joint financial statement to work out how much spare surplus income there would be for the household. We would then calculate how much of that surplus would belong to the DRO applicant - this is undertaken on a pro-rata basis. In your case, as you are the breadwinner it is likely that the lion's share of that surplus would belong to you, and not your partner.

I hope this helps!

David @ NDL