Help needed with income & expenditure sheet

creditcrunchcharlotte

Hi all,

I posted a few weeks back explaining that a lot of my inputs on my BR forms had been reduced by the OR and it was leaving me in a worse financial position than before I went BR. Someone suggested asking for a copy of the form and posting on here for comments so I am now doing this. Please see below:

rent 650
council tax 97
Electricity 120
Water 41
Telephone 45
Housekeeping 300
Travelling 550
Clothing 41
TV License 13
Insurance 62
Dry cleaning 10
Dentist 20
Prescriptions 10
Opticians 13
Pet food 20
Internet 35
Hairdressers 15
Holidays 20
Car tax 20
Car Maintenance 20
Vehicle Breakdown 27
Emergency 10


Total 2139
Income 2263
Remaining 124

I have been allowed the internet as I am doing a part time degree. I have got them to accept the £550 travelling as I commute over 100 miles a day. They have allowed the housekeeping as it is but it is in fact more than that - they are accepting a justification if I keep receipts which I am doing - I explained that I often work 12 - 15 hours a day and then have to study 2 hours a night so have very little time to do things like make packed lunches. I also often dont know that I will need to work late and so then need to buy dinner at work.

I also have a mother who is registered as disabled and lives 150 miles away. My sister and I take it in turn to go to Devon and get her food shopping, do the odd jobs that she needs doing etc. I didn't include anything in for this before as I am not her registered carer but I'm wondering now if they might let me have an allowance for this as I've struggled this month.

They want me to pay £200 per month contributions but even their sums didn't show me having this much spare! I've changed my OR now and the new one seems much better hence asking me to re-do my income and expenditure.

I really need to send this off on Tuesday so any comments or suggestions people have would really be appreciated!

Charlotte

GordonSadler

creditcrunchcharlotte wrote: »

Hi all,

I posted a few weeks back explaining that a lot of my inputs on my BR forms had been reduced by the OR and it was leaving me in a worse financial position than before I went BR. Someone suggested asking for a copy of the form and posting on here for comments so I am now doing this. Please see below:

rent 650
council tax 97
Electricity 120
Water 41
Telephone 45
Housekeeping 300
Travelling 550
Clothing 41
TV License 13
Insurance 62
Dry cleaning 10
Dentist 20
Prescriptions 10
Opticians 13
Pet food 20
Internet 35
Hairdressers 15
Holidays 20
Car tax 20
Car Maintenance 20
Vehicle Breakdown 27
Emergency 10


Total 2139
Income 2263
Remaining 124



Charlotte

Charlotte

Just quickly looking at your list, some of the figures are absolute figures - i.e. you can't get out of paying them and you have documentary proof of their existence - so rent, council tax, heat and power and water should be unquestioned.
Housekeeping jumps out at me - what does it include? Is this food? If so, say so.
Travelling also jumps out at me. I take it this is the cost of running a car. 100 miles commute per day is a lot of miles. Your current cost at £1.35 per ltr is c£445 for commuting (at av 30 mpg). I would list separately the cost of visiting your mum. The OR shouldn't be heartless enough to totally disallow this, but he might ask the question why doesn't your mum contribute to the costs. You have £27 breakdown - thats very high.
The rest look reasonable to me.
Remember, the OR will be looking to arrive at a figure that you can reasonably live on, so the more information/justification they have for the non absolute figures the better. But the OR has a responsiblity to creditors - hence their looking reasonable closely at your figures and, unlike many people you do have a reasonable salary coming in each month.
I hope this helps - I'll check in again this evening to see if you have any more queries.

debt_doctor

Hi,

How much do you think is reasonable to pay (if anything) whilst having enough money to support your reasonable domestic needs?

DD

creditcrunchcharlotte

Hi,

Many thanks for your replies. I know my salary is higher than most and my expenses probably seem a little high in places but they seem ok with the justification. Thanks for the tip, I will make sure to put the justification on each line. The titles for each line are as per the OR calculations so guess they are standard ones.

I will put something in for Mum separately. If they allow it they allow it and if they dont well ... they dont. I was hoping to get to about £100 per month contribution. This was what I was making before BR and although it was always tight at the end of each month I could always just about make it. I want to make sure that I am paying back everything that I can but also make sure that I can get through each month.

Thanks for your help.

Charlotte

lilybankrupt

Re the housekeeping one, this does always seem to cause people the biggest problems!

My understanding is it includes food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, loo roll and (sorry gents) Tampax, essentials such as lightbulbs, and also things like a new kettle if yours breaks! As well as those 'incidentals' such as a pack of Nurofen or blister plasters.

I've seen quite a few posts on here challenging £250+ per month figures for a single person, but the challenges seem to revolve around being able to eat for less than this. Which of course you can. But when you add up all the extras that 'housekeeping' has to cover, £300 a month doesn't seem excessive.

As a single person myself, it's also worth saying that whilst some things vary according to the number of people in the house eg food, other things don't vary or at least don't vary very much, yet still have to be paid for (lightbulbs, kettle etc).

debt_doctor

Hi,

If it were me I would say no thanks I'm not prepared to enter in to any IPA, that £120 pm can stay in my pocket.
But it would seem that you would be ok with £100 pm, if so then tell them that - it's £100 or no signature.

DD

creditcrunchcharlotte

Thanks for your replies. I agree £250 - 300 sounds a lot at first but when you add all the other bits in that its supposed to include it does add up!!!

Thanks for your comment on not signing up to an IPA. I wasn't aware that you could refuse to sign. I thought that it was compulsory?!?

JCS1

Its an agreement between you and the OR, so negotiate to a figure you are happy with.

The OR can take you to court for an Income Payments Order (so figure set by Judge) but these are rare - and for the sake of £20 per month I suspect they would back down.