Help with SOA please?

adpod

Ben1984 wrote: »

Thanks Dennis - Yes £100 is just an estimate of what I would probably spend on our clothes over an average of 12 months. Perhaps £50 is a more realistic number? I have defaulted on an IVA recently and prior to that I had an unsuccessful Debt Management plan. I'm at a stage now where I its time to draw a line under it all?

My concern was that very few examples of SOA were as high as mine and that I could end up with £500-£1000 IPA!?

Even if you had an SOA for 3 years, its still an "easier" solution than paying off your debts, that could take years.

The OR will allow you enough for you to live comfortably, without being hounded by debt collectors.

One thing that everyone keeps saying on here is be 100% honest with the OR, if they believe you are being dishonest or hiding things they could keep your BR going for upto 15 years.

Ben1984

adpod wrote: »

Even if you had an SOA for 3 years, its still an "easier" solution than paying off your debts, that could take years.

The OR will allow you enough for you to live comfortably, without being hounded by debt collectors.

One thing that everyone keeps saying on here is be 100% honest with the OR, if they believe you are being dishonest or hiding things they could keep your BR going for upto 15 years.

I plan to take proof of all my expenditure before the OR asks for it. Fuel Receipts, Lease details, utility bills, grocery receipts. I'm hoping that kind of transparency will put me in a favourable position?

National_Debtline

Ben1984 wrote: »

Thanks Dennis - Yes £100 is just an estimate of what I would probably spend on our clothes over an average of 12 months. Perhaps £50 is a more realistic number? I have defaulted on an IVA recently and prior to that I had an unsuccessful Debt Management plan. I'm at a stage now where I its time to draw a line under it all?

My concern was that very few examples of SOA were as high as mine and that I could end up with £500-£1000 IPA!?

Hi again Ben

It's about putting down a figure which is reflective of your genuine needs, balanced against what the OR will allow. If they expect you to manage on a lower figure than you enter, they'll tell you.

Let's just take some of the bigger individual figures from your SOA and look at how each of them would be regarded:

Rent @£550 - nothing to discuss here. Unless you're surrounded by equivalent properties that are £200pcm cheaper, but let's not be silly!

Groceries @£380 - this is by no means totally out of the ordinary, though the OR might expect you to make efforts to round this down, shop around and get better deals etc.

Car costs - already discussed above. The car is pivotal to your ability to work and therefore to earn; that said the OR will assume control of the lease and may look at whether there is a more economical vehicle you could trade down to. (Anondebtadvisor makes a good point above re: possible automatic termination - check your Ts and Cs)

Child maintenance - this can be a sensitive one; for many ORs, their expectation would be that your arrangement is roughly equivalent to what you would be expected to pay through the CSA. I don't think your current payment is too far out from that if at all, but it would be a good idea to check using one of the maintenance calculators available online.

I struggle to believe that you'd end up with an IPA of the sort of proportions you refer to above.

Regards

Dennis @NDL

TheGardener

Hi - I'd be a bit surprised if the OR allowed such a generous clothing amount, even with a strapping teenager who goes though clothes and shoes at a scary rate of knots :eek: I wasn't allowed even half that much. Do you have a 'dirty' or outdoors type of job ? - they might allow extra for that but then I guess an employer would pay for that sort of stuff.

Ben1984

National_Debtline_representative wrote: »

Hi again Ben

It's about putting down a figure which is reflective of your genuine needs, balanced against what the OR will allow. If they expect you to manage on a lower figure than you enter, they'll tell you.

Let's just take some of the bigger individual figures from your SOA and look at how each of them would be regarded:

Rent @£550 - nothing to discuss here. Unless you're surrounded by equivalent properties that are £200pcm cheaper, but let's not be silly!

Groceries @£380 - this is by no means totally out of the ordinary, though the OR might expect you to make efforts to round this down, shop around and get better deals etc.

Car costs - already discussed above. The car is pivotal to your ability to work and therefore to earn; that said the OR will assume control of the lease and may look at whether there is a more economical vehicle you could trade down to. (Anondebtadvisor makes a good point above re: possible automatic termination - check your Ts and Cs)

Child maintenance - this can be a sensitive one; for many ORs, their expectation would be that your arrangement is roughly equivalent to what you would be expected to pay through the CSA. I don't think your current payment is too far out from that if at all, but it would be a good idea to check using one of the maintenance calculators available online.

I struggle to believe that you'd end up with an IPA of the sort of proportions you refer to above.

Regards

Dennis @NDL

Thanks again Dennis - your information has been really helpful - I agree there are places where I could make some savings - maybe £200-£300 per month but am I better to submit something along those lines for the OR to recommend some savings or try to bring the budget down myself? What if I try to make some more saving and the OR still looks for a reduction?

Cheers

Ben

National_Debtline

Hi again Ben

It's up to you, really. There are good arguments for identifying the reductions yourself and starting to live within the tighter budget before you even go BR. One is that you're then getting used to the concept of budgeting more tightly so that the OR's interventions won't then come as so much of a shock. Another is that you would be taking greater "ownership" of the situation and this would stand you in better stead in the future from a money management point of view

Either way, the OR's say on allowable figures will be final.

Regards

Dennis @NDL