DRO help please

leanne82duke

A friend is struggling and I'm trying to help, however her husband does not know about any of the debt. She owes about £5k she lost her job in November and has now become a full time carer to her disabled son. She is in a massive state emotionally.
Firstly, does she have to include her husband in the dro at all? They have nothing financially joined at all, not even bank accounts, so does his income come into account? I get the impression he is on a reasonable wage, but he is completely anti debt hence why she does not want to involve him
Second, does she need to include her sons (11) dla as an income as the award letter clearly states that the money is his and she is basically just looking after it and spending it on things that benefit him, like specialist child care.

wba31

leanne82duke wrote: »

A friend is struggling and I'm trying to help, however her husband does not know about any of the debt. She owes about £5k she lost her job in November and has now become a full time carer to her disabled son. She is in a massive state emotionally.
Firstly, does she have to include her husband in the dro at all? They have nothing financially joined at all, not even bank accounts, so does his income come into account? I get the impression he is on a reasonable wage, but he is completely anti debt hence why she does not want to involve him
Second, does she need to include her sons (11) dla as an income as the award letter clearly states that the money is his and she is basically just looking after it and spending it on things that benefit him, like specialist child care.

In short, no and no.

National_Debtline

Hello there.

If we have a caller that wishes to set up a DRO we would generally run through a joint financial statement. We then work out how much the applicants income is a percentage of the overall income. We then apply this percentage to the amount of money that might be left over once all essential outgoings have been considered. So long as this figure is lower than £50, the applicant would be able to progress with their Debt Relief Order application.

So, as an example:

Applicant's income is £600.
Partner's income is £1200.
Applicant's income as a percentage is 33.33%.

Joint 'surplus' income is £70.
Applicants share of that surplus is £23.33 - Therefore they would meet the DRO criteria.

I hope this makes sense,

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.