Debt Free Direct Over Calculate Income!!

MUMZ2BEE

Firstly thank you for the replies above.

I am not a home owner, its in my partner's name.

Secondly he is not named on any of my debts.

Thirdly, when I went through April and May's income from the DWP its adds up to the same as £888.20p.

My overall total debt is just slightly over £10,000.

I am begining to wonder if I may qualify for a Debt Relief Order, but to be honest I think I maybe over the £50 threshold of left over income spare each month.

I didnt want to go for bankruptcy because I couldnt afford the fees upfront.

Debt Free Direct dont do bankruptcies.

I have already told DFD that my main creditor Halifax who irresponsibly lent me credit, I will not be held to ransom and I will refuse point blank any increase in the terms because I simply feel its grossly unfair to force me to pay for longer.

I have offered to increase payments to £150 and thats all I can afford.

Anondebtadvisor

Are you calculating your income as £222 per week x 4 = £888 which is the 4 weekly figure?

If so this is not the correct monthly figure, it is £222 x 52 divided by 12 = £962 per month

MUMZ2BEE

Anondebtadvisor wrote: »

Are you calculating your income as £222 per week x 4 = £888 which is the 4 weekly figure?

If so this is not the correct monthly figure, it is £222 x 52 divided by 12 = £962 per month

Its what is clearly being paid into my account every month NOT £962!!

UpToMyNeckInIt

Might be worth a visit to your local CAB.

If your income is made up solely of means tested benefits, then it is unlikely that you will have more than £50 each month on paper (even if you do in reality).

As you suggest a DRO may be worth looking into. However, if you fail the iva, be careful. It may be that with DFD's fee, your debt may be over £15k.

You don't need DFD to go BR / DRO either. This can be done yourself, with CAB's assistance, and the required fee saved up by stopping iva repayments IF this is the route you decide.

Based on the information provided, it would appear that an iva was not the best option for you. Iva's are usually better suited for people with larger debts (typically over £20k), a reasonable level of disposable income (c£200pcm or more), and who have assets like property to protect. You do not appear to meet any of these criteria.

Some debt advice from someone other than a private firm, (whose primary objective is to make money after all), is probably therefore in order.

There is a great website called 'debt camel' which gives a good jargon-free comparison of your debt options.

longtermplanner

Good advice from UPMNII. From what you have said, a DRO or bankruptcy would have been better options for you, but of course we don't don't know the full circumstances.

If your income is made up solely of benefits, you will automatically pass the "less than £50 spare income" test for a DRO and if you go bankrupt you will not have to pay an IPA.

Opting for an IVA because you can't afford bankruptcy fees just shows what a mess the UK insolvency system is in. There are charities that can help with bankruptcy fees if it would have taken you too long to save them up.

If your IVA does fail, IMO you should put in a "mis-selling" complaint to your IP's authorising body and also to the Financial Ombudsman as per that link I gave before about complaining. (I said above you can't complain to the FO about an IVA, but you can complain about the actions of your IP and IVA firm before the IVA was set up.) You may not gain anything financially from these but you will have the satisfaction of helping to stop DFD from doing this sort of thing to other vulnerable people.

bloolagoon

MUMZ2BEE wrote: »

You are incorrect in this matter.

When going through my bank statement for the month of may, adding up the benefit payments being received for that month does indeed total to £888.

You are incorrect you have posted enough times in the benefits section that you get

ESA Cont based SG, HRM and MRC. Your weekly rates are approx £222 but your monthly are higher. 1 month of the year you receive 2 payments as there are 52 weeks.

diceydeb

BLOOLAGOON is right at some point in a year you will get extra payment for eg. my OH dla is payed every 4 wks on a Tuesday so on occasional month there will be 2 paydays one say might fall on 2nd of month and so another will be on 30th of same month . family allowance falls the same 4 wkly .

222 a week is 11544 a year which is thus 962 a month that's an extra 74 a month you are in fact getting.

Giggles_Fairy

I agree with everyone else, this does seem to be an occasion where there is confusion over the difference between weekly/fortnightly/4 weekly benefit payments and the monthly amount.


If you want a precise answer then post the date you received each payment in the last couple of months and the amount.


If you get paid monthly, e.g. ALWAYS on 26th of each month, then yes they have calculated it wrong.


However if you get paid either weekly, fortnightly or 4 weekly then you need to look at the WHOLE year. The easiest way to do this is:


weekly = amount x 52 weeks in the year divided by 12 months in the year


fortnightly= amount x 26 fortnights in the year divided by 12 month in the year


4 weekly = amount x 13 four-weekly periods in the year divided by 12 months in the year


I suspect if you did the above you will see the amount they have put is correct.


If it really is unaffordable then you need to check the rest of the your income and expenditure. If you do your costs weekly too, e.g. £50 per week for food, then you need to change this to a monthly figure in the same way the income is done. So £50 per week for food is 50 x 52 / 12 = £217 (rounded off), NOT £200.

MUMZ2BEE

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

I might go into the Citizens Advice Bureau this week and seek some advice about a Debt Relief Order.

According to DFD, my total overall debt is indeed just slightly over £10K, and yes its includes their fees as I asked the question.

I simply and quite clearly do not receive £962!! If I did I'd be laughing!!

By the time I have paid out for everything I am left with, some weeks I dont get a penny to myself.

I have been accepted for a complaint by the Financial Ombudsman Service, I will also add and ask them to investigate that the IVA was missold to me in the first place.

Its not only that but DFD keep increasing the terms and conditions of the IVA a usual IVA is 5 years and mine is around 6. They are threatening to increase it to more then this and I have refused.

UpToMyNeckInIt

... Not a lot DFD can do about it if you go the DRO route is there. So you can get a little satisfaction from that.

It is a shame that you were not correctly advised initially, as you would have been able to move on from this by now.

Hope you find a good way forward after your meeting with CAB.