Weekend Dad worried about allowances

Deadbroke

I have my interview with the Stepchange this evening and I'm terrified that my allowances will be rejected and I will have to give up my time with my son.

I am a weekend Dad an my son lives about 30 miles away with his mother. I have to pick him up Fridays take him back Sundays and then go over to pick him up again on Mondays. His mother has signed him up for football over there (she pays) but on my weekends I have to take him for training on Saturday and matches on Sunday.

All this driving plus getting to work means I burn up about £250-300 a month in petrol. I'm worried it will not be allowed and I will have to tell him he cant do football the weekends he's with me. That will probably get him dropped from the team.

I have a good salary and expect to be able to make DMP payments of around £400 a month after my back of a fag packet calculations. Presumably if I go BR the IPA allowances will be even more strict.

Does anyone have any experience of how they handle weekend Dads. Everything just seems to be set up for single people and traditional families.

blisteringblue

Hi and Welcome,

I wouldn't worry, while they have quite strict allowances for various things, what you spend on petrol isn't fixed. If that is what it costs you to have access to your son then it goes down in your expenses. There is no way a DMP will prevent you from doing this. You can also get creative with your figures anyway (ie claim the full amount for smoking even if you don't smoke).

At the end of the day if Stepchange cannot accommodate a budget that works for you then you can always do a "self managed" DMP with the help of Citizens Advice https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp

Don't worry, you've made the first step in the right direction.

sourcrates

Hi OP,
A DMP is not a regulated agreement, no one can force you to pay out more or less, you decide when and how much, it will not be a problem, just stick to your guns.

On_my_way

I would say that you should not aim to pay too much monthly into your DMP. Make certain that you have enough to do what you need to do for work, your son etc first.

Ideally, while on the DMP, you need to save an emergency fund too which you can use to help you pay debt off once it gets above what you may need.

Other than that, there are lots of tips regarding how to cut back on things on this forum.