DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Alice_in_Welfareland

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Am back after an absence for a while. Things have been ticking over since I started my DMP back in Nov 11. Well apart from DH being made redundant, luckily the DMP is just in my name.

Just got off the phone with Stepchange for my annual review (which was a bit late). Not a lot has changed with my income and expenditure as my salary is permanently frozen and luckily our mortgage has only increased by a little.

I informed Stepchange that I am pregnant (very, very unexpectedly having suffered had fertility issues for a number of years and in fact had given up trying altogether). The baby is due in July. I thought they would discuss reducing my DMP payments with me. I currently pay £805 a month. I thought I would be able to negotiate a reduction to half payments as I will need to save up some money to get me through mat leave. Am I being naive here? The advisor said I should just call them when I have had the baby, or in his words 2-3 months after when I know what the expenses are. I tried to explain to him that my mat leave is 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90% and the remainder is half pay plus SMP.

I have worked out that to enable me to stay off 6 months, I will be down by £2.5k (my calculations include reduced payments to Stepchange at £400 as opposed to current figure of £805). I thought I would be able to save up the money from now to cover that shortfall.

Has anyone been in this position? Or am I asking too much?!

I would not be accepting this and sorry if this may seem to be the sexism but especially from a man. You need money to buy baby items before baby is born not two to three months after baby arrives and I think you should make the call back to Step Change to discuss but I like Hopelessly Hopeful idea to make the question on the advisor thread where they do not like me. Congratulations on your miracle baby who will bring you much happiness.

Alice

dad2one

Yes I would have thought maternity is an obvious case for reviewing and reducing a DMP, and some time before the great day itself. Plus as you say Mooglet71 you already do know what your shortfall is going to be...
I would guess further words to be had..
Anyway, Congrats!:)


Well in my own case, I've just signed up with SC for a dmp, no start date yet. I've only notified two of my creditors, the other three are connected to my bank account.

Getting a new bank account is taking longer than I expected. I am watching my current one very closely. Timing is everything here as I wait for the right moment to bail out...
If I haven't got a new account upon that moment I'm just going to pull all the cash out after the final utility DD is gone.
Then I'll tell them I can't pay their overdraft. etc

Good Luck all

Mooglet71

Alice_in_Welfareland wrote: »

I would not be accepting this and sorry if this may seem to be the sexism but especially from a man. You need money to buy baby items before baby is born not two to three months after baby arrives and I think you should make the call back to Step Change to discuss but I like Hopelessly Hopeful idea to make the question on the advisor thread where they do not like me. Congratulations on your miracle baby who will bring you much happiness.

Alice

Aw I'm sure they do like you Will do, thanks

Mooglet71

dad2one wrote: »

Yes I would have thought maternity is an obvious case for reviewing and reducing a DMP, and some time before the great day itself. Plus as you say Mooglet71 you already do know what your shortfall is going to be...
I would guess further words to be had..
Anyway, Congrats!:)


Well in my own case, I've just signed up with SC for a dmp, no start date yet. I've only notified two of my creditors, the other three are connected to my bank account.

Getting a new bank account is taking longer than I expected. I am watching my current one very closely. Timing is everything here as I wait for the right moment to bail out...
If I haven't got a new account upon that moment I'm just going to pull all the cash out after the final utility DD is gone.
Then I'll tell them I can't pay their overdraft. etc

Good Luck all

Who are you getting your new bank account with? I did mine over the phone with the Co-op and they were pretty quick. I do agree about getting your money out once your commitments are paid. It is a difficult time, a bit like doing a moonlight flit! Good luck

Hopelessly_Hopeful

dad2one wrote: »

Yes I would have thought maternity is an obvious case for reviewing and reducing a DMP, and some time before the great day itself. Plus as you say Mooglet71 you already do know what your shortfall is going to be...
I would guess further words to be had..
Anyway, Congrats!:)


Well in my own case, I've just signed up with SC for a dmp, no start date yet. I've only notified two of my creditors, the other three are connected to my bank account.

Getting a new bank account is taking longer than I expected. I am watching my current one very closely. Timing is everything here as I wait for the right moment to bail out...
If I haven't got a new account upon that moment I'm just going to pull all the cash out after the final utility DD is gone.
Then I'll tell them I can't pay their overdraft. etc

Good Luck all

Welcome

Good strategy but Id start withdrawing now until it's empty as SC may inform them accidentally. You can always pay the bills with cash.

HHx

Allypops

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Thanks so much for your reply Hopelessly Hopeful. I am really pleased about the pregnancy, it's like a miracle. Obviously when I entered my DMP I had no idea that this would happen. Ironically it was the depression caused by the infertility which helped me spend money and get into this mess in the first place.

I have been looking on eBay for stuff. so yes I could make a list. We already have an 8 year old so I am pretty aware of what is a necessity and what isn't.

We are on a mortgage, I could check with them and see.

Thanks again for your help, it is much appreciated

I loved reading about your miracle and thought I'd share my "baby" story with you.

I had my first baby through IVF (1 cycle) and then 18 months later we decided to try IVF again. We paid the fees, got accepted to start and waited for Day 1 of the cycle which never came as I was already pregnant! We were so lucky, firstly to conceive on our first cycle of IVF and then to have our little miracle (who was a not so little 10lb miracle)!

Anyhoo, enough of me I agree that you will need to adjust your I&E etc before the baby is born. I think you need to get back to them.

Congratulations!

Find_The_Real

Congratulations on your good news Mooglet, I hope it all goes well for you. Although I cannot praise SC for the help they have given me sometimes you need to kind of ignore their advice and negotiate what you can afford to pay them. As you need to plan for the baby I would give them another ring and reduce the payment a bit if you can afford to and then use the money for the baby.

I hope you get news of the new account soon Dad2one, although I fear that a few banks and especially the Co-op may have had a recent run on basic accounts if myself and all my fellow newbies recently joining MSE this year are anything to go by!

Bettingmad

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Am back after an absence for a while. Things have been ticking over since I started my DMP back in Nov 11. Well apart from DH being made redundant, luckily the DMP is just in my name.

Just got off the phone with Stepchange for my annual review (which was a bit late). Not a lot has changed with my income and expenditure as my salary is permanently frozen and luckily our mortgage has only increased by a little.

I informed Stepchange that I am pregnant (very, very unexpectedly having suffered had fertility issues for a number of years and in fact had given up trying altogether). The baby is due in July. I thought they would discuss reducing my DMP payments with me. I currently pay £805 a month. I thought I would be able to negotiate a reduction to half payments as I will need to save up some money to get me through mat leave. Am I being naive here? The advisor said I should just call them when I have had the baby, or in his words 2-3 months after when I know what the expenses are. I tried to explain to him that my mat leave is 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90% and the remainder is half pay plus SMP.

I have worked out that to enable me to stay off 6 months, I will be down by £2.5k (my calculations include reduced payments to Stepchange at £400 as opposed to current figure of £805). I thought I would be able to save up the money from now to cover that shortfall.

Has anyone been in this position? Or am I asking too much?!

Congratulation on the baby, to this end this is going to be a very special time for you. It should not be a time when you are stressing over your DMP, due to the inactivity of Stepchange to your proposals.

You are paying a sizeable amount into your DMP and this will still be a sizeable amount if you cut it down to half. It is one of these issues when you realise that your DMP provider, whether it is Payplan or Stepchange is actually focused on doing it's best for the creditors and not you.

I think sometimes you have to be firm with your DMP providers and tell them as it is. In a situation like this, I would be inclined to actually tell Stepchange that you will be reducing your payments by half, for the period you want and this may even be a couple of months before baby is born, to enable to you buy what you need. What is the worse they can do? They can stop your DMP,, however there is also Payplan and you may find that your living allowances may be that little bit better.

You and baby are the No.1 priority, the debt's can be delayed, hell babies are stressful enough on their own without worrying about your debts.

Congratulations again.

Time_to_face_the_music

dmp2013 wrote: »

Thanks TTFTM for your post, I would love to see some template letters if that's ok? That would be a real help. Do I contact the FOS with a letter too? Thanks sooo much, I really appreciate everyone's help x

Try something like this:

You

Date

Them


Dear Sir/Madam

Re: XXXXXXX account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter/statement concerning the above account. I am sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account.

As you are aware, I/we am/are in a DMP with XXXXXXXX, reference number XXXXXXXX. The majority of my/our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in my/our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase my/our total debt.

I/we have already paid considerable sums in interest to my/our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments I/we am/are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of my/our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

I am aware that XXXXXXXX subscribes to the Lending Code which states that lenders will consider reducing or suspending interest and charges if these would cause the debt to increase or lead to the repayment term becoming too extended. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments I/we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

If you are unable to help me with this issue, I will have no alternative but to take this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You


You can phone the FOS, they actually state that they can can work quicker that way and it's a freephone number :T

phone our consumer helpline on
0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567
Monday to Friday – 8am to 8pm
Saturday – 9am to 1pm

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

Time_to_face_the_music

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Am back after an absence for a while. Things have been ticking over since I started my DMP back in Nov 11. Well apart from DH being made redundant, luckily the DMP is just in my name.

Just got off the phone with Stepchange for my annual review (which was a bit late). Not a lot has changed with my income and expenditure as my salary is permanently frozen and luckily our mortgage has only increased by a little.

I informed Stepchange that I am pregnant (very, very unexpectedly having suffered had fertility issues for a number of years and in fact had given up trying altogether). The baby is due in July. I thought they would discuss reducing my DMP payments with me. I currently pay £805 a month. I thought I would be able to negotiate a reduction to half payments as I will need to save up some money to get me through mat leave. Am I being naive here? The advisor said I should just call them when I have had the baby, or in his words 2-3 months after when I know what the expenses are. I tried to explain to him that my mat leave is 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90% and the remainder is half pay plus SMP.

I have worked out that to enable me to stay off 6 months, I will be down by £2.5k (my calculations include reduced payments to Stepchange at £400 as opposed to current figure of £805). I thought I would be able to save up the money from now to cover that shortfall.

Has anyone been in this position? Or am I asking too much?!

Hi Mooglet and Congratulations :j

I agree with everyone else and can't believe how unsympathetic Stepchange are being. My personal take on this, I would be halving my DMP payments now and starting to save to cover maternity leave. This also gives an opportunity to buy things for the baby when you see a bargain to pounce on