going bankrupt .

fatbelly

It could be that your CTC is 'deferred' meaning that it's still within your income support. For a single parent, 2 kids, no disabilities, the figure is £140.28, so if your social fund repayments are £18 per week, that would add up.

You could ask the CAB for help with your debts or do it yourself: with a Provi loan and catalogue debts it should be straightforward. Provi will acccept £1 per month through their solictitors using a payment book. Catalogue debts are almost always unenforceable because there is no signed agreement.

But if any of the idiots do try a court claim you would still have the option of letting them get a CCJ and rolling all your debts into an Admin Order at something like £10 per month/10p in the pound.

goldy

Hi Luckymum,

What happened with the child tax credit was that at one time if you were a single parent, you would get income support for yourself and your kids and when they changed the system (think it was 2003/4? when I was in your position) they made it so the parent got the social security and the kids got the child tax credit but the amount stayed the same, just the way they paid it was different!!!!


I got out of that cycle of poverty by getting a part time job which gave me working tax credit as well. That year was tough financially as I think I was worse off as I was paying my rent and council tax.

It did lead to a full time job though and I had a buffer year where I still got working tax credit but also got 70% of my childcare paid and was working full time.

The final thing I have had to do this year was to go bankrupt as I have no excess money to pay what I owed but even so I am better off than I was on benefits, I am paying towards a pension and when my childcare costs fall and my wage goes up more, I have a chance of getting a better standard of living.

Hang in there!There is some hope at the end of the very,very,very long tunnel.

Bakeybadoo

Looking at the DWP site, what about a Budgeting Loan?

Reading into it:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/sf500_print.pdf

'The amount of Budgeting Loan you can have depends on whether you have any other Budgeting Loans from the Social Fund. The amount of any Budgeting Loan we can pay you together with the amount you still owe the Social Fund cannot be more than £1500

Now, I know from earlier that you owe them less than that amount so it might be worth looking in to it. You can claim for clothing/footwear and also it interestingly says:

To repay HP or other debts that have been taken out

So you could either get a loan and pay some of your debts off, make it more manageable, apply to pay for your daughters shoes or apply and use it for BR fees.

luckymum_3

hi,child tax would be what i receive now.will consider a loan ,i think my problem comes down to the fact i am paying provident £30 a week...i wondered if anyone has had dealings with them as i could just get in touch with them about not affording payments ,rather than filing for bankruptcy ,then the money i am paying them £120 a month would go on the smaller debts...with that money saved i could clear £145 to great universal for a start.

Bakeybadoo

I already mentioned that we were with Provident and we stopped paying for about 2 weeks, then I wrote a letter to my local office (the address is on the back of your payment book) and said we could offer less (I said half of what we were supposed to be paying) and they accepted readily.

After that, we made the decision to go BR and so just told our agent over the phone and she said she'd tell her boss in the office and that was that, we've had no contact since.

Trouble is, you are struggling to live or so it appeared to me. So if you stop paying one, to pay another - you are simply 'robbing Peter to pay Paul', it's not going to free up any money for you monthly which is what I thought was troubling you the most? Having no spare money for things just like your daughters shoes and such.

Good luck with whatever you decide though. We tried the paying smaller ones off route but it didn't work out for us but our debts were all larger than yours.

luckymum_3

you put it so clearly,
i am going to phone national debt line NOW and see what they suggest regarding this.wish me luck and will let you no asap what is said.

silkglade

luckymum wrote: »

,i think my problem comes down to the fact i am paying provident £30 a week...i wondered if anyone has had dealings with them as i could just get in touch with them about not affording payments

Hi Lucky

Just about to post 3 pairs of boots and 1 pair of sandals to you for your little girl.

Right, I Used to work fro provident (ashamed to admit it) But they will accept whatever you offer to pay them - just tell them tough you can't afford the original payments every week. They will even accept £1 per week if that is all you can afford. They might try to be pushy but will accept ANYTHING as payment each week

hmmthinking

Hi luckymum,

Please phone up your local jobcentre and ask to see their lone parent advisor. The advisor can check your benefits and see that you are getting everything that you are entitled to. You are entitled to IS and child benefit depending on how old your IS claim is. Older claims include money for the children. New claims to IS do not and your get money for your children through child tax credits. If you have not been claiming it can be backdated for several months which could well help you out enormously. Even if your claim is old you may be able to reclaim and be better off through the new arrangements. Also perhaps consider taking on a small part time job, you can earn up to a certain amount per week without your IS being affected. A lone parent advisor could steer you in the right direction in terms of conditions. But you need someone to check you are receiving everything you are entitled to thoroughly before you consider BR for relatively small amount.

Hope that steers you in the direction of some help.

luckymum_3

hi,i have just phoned the national debt line .what a lovely person i spoke to.
basically he is sending out their pack and sample letters to me .i am not to pay and debts at the moment as they are not important.i have to send them all letters offering a token payment with a full budget plan,he said i should be spending atleast £50 per week on food etc.i was shocked.i spend maximum £30.and if they dont like it basically tough luck.they can then issue a ccj against me ,all done through post (i thought i had to go to court )and i can then apply for an administration order.so i feel so much better, i cant believe he said that my income support is for living purposes ,and he was soooo nice.
also i am to send catalogues letter asking for my original credit agreement as if they havent got one or cant find it they cant enforce a ccj......

Bakeybadoo

Well done lm for taking that step! I'm so pleased to hear you got helpful advice and can start to move forwards in whatever way you decide is best for you.

Keep us posted!