Advice about DRO, getting married and oh's house

inneedofsomehelp

wba31 wrote: »

The issue is that you do need to be honest in your application, but if your food was low and the figure is high, you could suggest "stopping the activity for your child and putting the figure into your food budget..."

You need to speak to Step Change again, and do a budget based on your figures NOW. Tell them you are looking at the DRO and if they can see if you are eligible. The wedding at this stage is irrelevant. If you can do the DRO, get it in place, and then when married then tell them how things have changed, and they will heklp you make a new budget

Hi thank you for your comments and advice.

I must say i am not looking to be dishonest but beloew are some examples of my situation and why an application with 'honest figures' would not work. CCCS have told me to fill in their debt remedy using what things would cost if i could have them.

We do not have a TV. I sold it to pay off my electricity arrears and knowing i would save on electricity costs, a tv licence nad the basic Tv pacakge.
I do not have internet at home so my eldest stays behind at school everyday to complete homework. This is because i cannot afford these things due to trying to pay my minimum repayments.
Last week 4 of us lived off £34 worth of shopping.

In my DRO application i want to be able to get allowable expenses for a TV licence, internet, maybe a landline telephone as i work until late and my eldest can be home alone for an hour or so until i get back so in emergencies he would be relying on a neighbour contacting me, and i also want to spend more than £34 on shopping a week. If this is unreasonable or not i do not know?

As my figures are NOW when you take into account i havent dared to put me heating on for 4 months and my kids are going to bed in coats when cold and we are living off beans/egg/spaghetti and toast my surplus IS over £50 pcm .

When i do a spreadsheet of what i would LIKE to spend ie maybe £80 a week on food and toiletries and also an amount that allows us to have the heating on and own a TV, possibly the internet then my child can do homework from home then i have less than surplus so I do qualify.

I do not have life or pet insurance as i cannot afford it. I do wish to buy some life insurance as I know all too well the devastating consequences of not forward planning. I ended up in the debt i am struggling with when my first husband died unexpectedly and i was trying to keep us all afloat. So if i was honest i would put zero as i cannot afford them. I have gained quotes so i know how much these policies will be. In my debt remedy cccs form i am declaring these costs in the appropriate sections. My interntion is to set up the policy the week before i submit the DRO application as it takes 3 weeks for the first payment to be procesed - once the DRO is granted i will be able to afford these costs. I could simply stop all debt repayments now and take out the policies but with 15 creditors and £14,200 debt i would be unindated with calls about mising payments and i would be incurring fees and charges, maybe pushing me over the £15,000 mark

i feel the situation AFTER the wedding is very important as if i apply for the DRO now and then contact them to do a new statement of affairs if i go over the £50 the DRO will be revoked and i will be worse off by not just the application fee but all the extra interest that has been incurred? or is that not correct? So looking at expenditure when we all l ive together seems important?

Any help is welcomed with open arms. I am just trying to explain things a little clearer

The CAB did jiggle with my figures and gave some assistance in upping things to allow for other things. But they will not help with a post marriage budget until i am married.

wba31

inneedofsomehelp wrote: »

Hi thank you for your comments and advice.

I must say i am not looking to be dishonest but beloew are some examples of my situation and why an application with 'honest figures' would not work. CCCS have told me to fill in their debt remedy using what things would cost if i could have them.

We do not have a TV. I sold it to pay off my electricity arrears and knowing i would save on electricity costs, a tv licence nad the basic Tv pacakge.
I do not have internet at home so my eldest stays behind at school everyday to complete homework. This is because i cannot afford these things due to trying to pay my minimum repayments.
Last week 4 of us lived off £34 worth of shopping.

In my DRO application i want to be able to get allowable expenses for a TV licence, internet, maybe a landline telephone as i work until late and my eldest can be home alone for an hour or so until i get back so in emergencies he would be relying on a neighbour contacting me, and i also want to spend more than £34 on shopping a week. If this is unreasonable or not i do not know?

As my figures are NOW when you take into account i havent dared to put me heating on for 4 months and my kids are going to bed in coats when cold and we are living off beans/egg/spaghetti and toast my surplus IS over £50 pcm .

When i do a spreadsheet of what i would LIKE to spend ie maybe £80 a week on food and toiletries and also an amount that allows us to have the heating on and own a TV, possibly the internet then my child can do homework from home then i have less than surplus so I do qualify.

I do not have life or pet insurance as i cannot afford it. I do wish to buy some life insurance as I know all too well the devastating consequences of not forward planning. I ended up in the debt i am struggling with when my first husband died unexpectedly and i was trying to keep us all afloat. So if i was honest i would put zero as i cannot afford them. I have gained quotes so i know how much these policies will be. In my debt remedy cccs form i am declaring these costs in the appropriate sections. My interntion is to set up the policy the week before i submit the DRO application as it takes 3 weeks for the first payment to be procesed - once the DRO is granted i will be able to afford these costs. I could simply stop all debt repayments now and take out the policies but with 15 creditors and £14,200 debt i would be unindated with calls about mising payments and i would be incurring fees and charges, maybe pushing me over the £15,000 mark

i feel the situation AFTER the wedding is very important as if i apply for the DRO now and then contact them to do a new statement of affairs if i go over the £50 the DRO will be revoked and i will be worse off by not just the application fee but all the extra interest that has been incurred? or is that not correct? So looking at expenditure when we all l ive together seems important?

Any help is welcomed with open arms. I am just trying to explain things a little clearer

The CAB did jiggle with my figures and gave some assistance in upping things to allow for other things. But they will not help with a post marriage budget until i am married.

I'm sorry, what i meant is your figures today, should be as you have highlighted. you should have been told to stop paying your debts, so now you can budget for your essentials, the meals you would like to give your family, the phone line, the heating when it's cold etc. your budget needs to be drawn for you moving forward.
It will obviously change when you marry, but again, it's a case of budgeting for moving forward, ensuring it is sustainable for you to live with

StepChange_James

Hello,

Sorry I'm a little bit late to this thread.

I've had a chat with our DRO team and our current waiting times for processing DRO applications is 7-10 days.

If the balance of the debts is above £13k (and therefore getting close to the £15k limit) we will do everything we can to bring the wait time to under a week.

Kind regards

James