New worrier - court summons, defaults, arrears and husband with no job

beckstar1975

I know very little about other than I thought you could request assessment for tax credits etc to take on this year's predicted income if it is substantively different than last years - and given your husband's redundancy I think that may count.

pauletruth

^^^^^^^^^
wise advice speak to the tax credits they will adjust them.

gettingbackontrack

OP,

Sorry you're having such a rough time. You've had some good advice from those knowledgeable about council tax.

What I would say is, do get some debt advice from a charity. You sound as if you've been prioritising credit card companies over the CT, which is easy to do because these companies bully and pressure you into it.

But you must pay the priority debts - mortgage, council tax - before credits cards and loans. A debt charity will help you get this in order - even though I haven't used StepChange, its Debt Remedy is so useful for putting things in order.

Lots of luck.

sourcrates

Hi,
I have to echo what the above moneysaver has said, the creditcards and/or loans etc can wait, make sure you pay your essential council tax/mortgage etc first, unsecured creditors will spout a lot of hot air, but will do little else, personally id pay the council tax arrears first and stuff the creditcards until you have spare money available, sometimes in life you cant please everyone, clear the council tax first and youll probebley breathe a lot easier, i would not normally recommend ignoring debts but in your case it might be a good idea, if you dont respond to a cretitor after they send a few letters they tend to put you at the "bottom of the pile" and concentrate on those who do contact them, may just give you some breathing space.

matttye

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,
I have to echo what the above moneysaver has said, the creditcards and/or loans etc can wait, make sure you pay your essential council tax/mortgage etc first, unsecured creditors will spout a lot of hot air, but will do little else, personally id pay the council tax arrears first and stuff the creditcards until you have spare money available, sometimes in life you cant please everyone, clear the council tax first and youll probebley breathe a lot easier, i would not normally recommend ignoring debts but in your case it might be a good idea, if you dont respond to a cretitor after they send a few letters they tend to put you at the "bottom of the pile" and concentrate on those who do contact them, may just give you some breathing space.

It's never a good idea to ignore creditors (unless a debt has been ignored for years and its nearly statute barred but that's another matter). The OFT's guidance on debt collection states creditors should not pressure debtors into paying more than they can afford, so while there are council tax arrears to be paid, clearly every spare penny needs to go on those and the creditors will have no choice but to accept token payments until the arrears are up to date.

Worst case scenario is that the OP gets taken to court and tells the judge she fell behind with council tax because her other creditors were pressuring her into paying more, so she has offered token payments until the council tax is sorted out. Who's side do you think the judge will take?

kaah

Thanks for all the messages everybody

I phoned the council tax office on my lunch break today, told the lady I was calling about the 2 letters I had receives re court summons/arrears and before I said anything else she offered me a payment plan of 133 a month from June til the end of the tax year and said that this would stop the summons. Of course I agreed and set up a direct debit. What a relief! My origianl plan had been to pay 250 on pay day at the end of the week so I will still do this and ask for the direct debits to be ammended to bring the monthly bill down


Now time to tackle the rest of my money problems!!

Again. Thanks for all your help

kaah

Also, thanks to those who have mentioned tax credits. I had sent an application off (even though the online calculator said we were entitled to a big fat nothing). I haven't heard anything back yet but when I do I will give them a call and ask them to base it on this years predicted income. Fingers crossed they can!

pauletruth

thats good news.

kaah

Just phoned tax credits. They have received my application but haven't been able to process it yet as there is a problem with data matching. I stupidly didn't change my name with the tax office when i got married last year so as far as hmrc are concerned I still have my old surname. Silly me. The man on the phone made a note on the system to let whoever is looking at my claim know. In the mean time i need to change my name with the tax office

kaah

Right, time to knuckle down on clearing the debts now.

Am I right in thinking that a default will stay on my credit report for 6 years after I finish paying off the debt? So if it takes me 1 year to pay it off the default will drop off the report in 7 years?