LILA ..need a lot of help and advice.

Janey51

What a truly lovely man. He was from the Money Advice Service
I was a nervous wreck but he was so understanding.
Luckily I had 99% of the information he needed but had managed to leave 2 weeks of a bank statement at home.
He did say he sees 4-5 people a day with stories very similar to mine.
I kept beating myself up but each time he just said " We are here to help you move on. We are where we are"
I thought that was such a great thing to keep reminding myself.
I have an appt with the Money Advisor on March 19th.

Janey51

And now I am pooping myself as I go back to the CAB on Tuesday to see the Money Advisor and find out if I can go down the LILA route or just bankruptcy...if you know what I mean as I appreciate they are the same thing. I have written to my pension providers and asked them to pay future payments into my Cashminder Account. And I have changed most SOs and DDs over now.
I am really finding sleep difficult and scared of what the outcome will be. I have read the AiB wants a timeline of how the debt arose but the beginning is so long ago I don't know where to start.

sleepless_saver

CAB may be able to help you with the power of attorney issue you mentioned in your first post, or you could speak to the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) to get their advice. I guess the local social work department would have to take on some of the responsibilities if there is not a family member in a position to do it.

sleepless_saver

Janey51 wrote: »

I am really finding sleep difficult and scared of what the outcome will be. I have read the AiB wants a timeline of how the debt arose but the beginning is so long ago I don't know where to start.

There's nothing on the LILA application form that asks about timelines. Did CAB ask you to do one? If not, ask them at your next appointment on Tuesday just what is required and try not to stress about it meantime - easier said than done I know.

Janey51

I saw the Money Advisor yesterday and I am confused and stressed again.
I have her email address and will contact her to clarify what I think she said as my brain froze half way through:D
LILA is not an option because of my car which is valued at £3000 ish

She said:

1.I can stay with Stepchange if I can cope with the annual reviews which I worry about for days before and it means I will be paying for 36 yrs

2. She can take over my case and drop my payments to a token offer while I think about bankruptcy but I will have to set up all standing orders for this and pay my creditors direct. Again, it sounds a small thing but to me is monumental.

3. I can try and claim PPI and live on it for a few months and then go bankrupt if I want. This would enable me to replace any items I really needed. AiB would be ok with this as long as I kept receipts.

4. I can go bankrupt now and she will arrange for me to meet with an IP at the CAB office. She says I will NOT lose my car. However, She thinks I will have to pay something which seems crazy given my income is only leaving me £50 pm spare and I am pared to the bone and could do with increasing some allowances. I need to tell her that Scottish Power have increased my DD by £30/pm because I switched to them in winter so the computer obviously thinks I use a lot of fuel.

But first I need to sort out a debt to HMRC which would take too long to explain. Suffice to say that the Pension Protection Fund from whom I get a pension from my late husband have been paying it with a tax code which belonged to my husband and not to mine. Even though they are paying another correctly. So no tax has been paid for 5 yrs...about £20/m due to HMRC I did identify this 2 yrs ago and informed the PPF but.....
The Money Advisor is going to try and sort this out for me as it is so difficult to get people to understand

I am in a spin.

Last night I wanted to crawl into a hole or run away

Arwen

Janey are you on benefits? If so there should be no contribution. LILA is a route into bankruptcy to stop all the people who were sitting waiting for someone to take them into court. Due to your car, advisor is right as you cannot have a single asset over £1000.

Are you sure that your car is actually worth £3k-I would check, or have I missed where you have done this.

Why on earth is your advisor not signing a Certificate of Sequestration....?

coolcait

Arwen wrote: »

Janey are you on benefits? If so there should be no contribution. LILA is a route into bankruptcy to stop all the people who were sitting waiting for someone to take them into court. Due to your car, advisor is right as you cannot have a single asset over £1000.

Are you sure that your car is actually worth £3k-I would check, or have I missed where you have done this.

Why on earth is your advisor not signing a Certificate of Sequestration....?[/QUOTE]

^^^ This!

First of all, check how much your car is really worth. I believe that the AIB go by the value in Glass's guide.

If the value of the car is less than 3,000 you could still apply under the LILA route, if you "reasonably require" the vehicle. It's the one exception to the rule that you can't have any single asset which is worth more than 1,000 pounds.

Otherwise, as Arwen says, why on earth doesn't your adviser sign a Certificate for Sequestration - or send you to an adviser who can do this for you.

As soon as you have the Certificate, you can apply for bankruptcy. You DON'T have to nominate a trustee if you don't want to. You won't have to send in wage slips, bank statements or anything else that you'd need to supply for a LILA application.

Once you're bankrupt, your trustee would have to deal with HMRC about the debt owed to them.

Janey51

I did get my value from Glass's Guide so I know it is right although the Money Advisor said they usually use Parkers. Values went from £2750 to £3250.
She did say she could sign a Certificate of Sequestration but after 3 yrs. Wasn't quite sure about this.
As for the HMRC debt, she said that unless you have what amounts to a a Pay Up or Else from them, you can't include in debts.
I did say I thought that ALL debts were included prior to bankruptcy but she said all apart from HMRC.
She is contacting friendly IPs they have to see what sort of contribution they would expect.
I am not on benefits. When my pension provider starts finally taxing one of my pensions I will qualify for a small amount of Housing Benefit but not not until then I think. I did do a calculator online to find out.

coolcait

Oh dear, Janey.:(

It sounds like your money adviser could do with some 'training'.

She - or one of her colleagues - should be an 'authorised person' for signing Certificates for Sequestration. And that 'authorised person' can sign one right now.

I have no idea where she's getting the "after three years" bit from. In your position, I'd be asking her to explain why she feels she has to wait for three years...

HMRC don't get special treatment as a creditor in bankruptcy.

Have HMRC told you that you owe unpaid tax? Or is that just something that you've worked out for yourself?

If you haven't already seen the AiB's Debtor's Guide, have a read through it and see if it helps make things clearer - http://www.aib.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Debtor's%20Guide.pdf

Janey51

Thanks again. I had thought the tax problem had been sorted out 18 months ago. I don't get monthly payslips like I used to, just the end of year P60. I didn't open last years as I thought there was nothing to see. But when I told them a month ago I wanted the payments made to my Co-op Cashminder, I got 2 letters back confirming the changes. Both addressed to me from the same person but one had my NI number and the other had my late husband's. What a mess