Maternity leave and debt

janerobinson55

Hi I am desperate for advice. I am due to start maternity leave in 4 weeks and will have a £900 per month deficit in our monthly income and we r on a DMP and have been for,the last 6 years.
We have looked at many ways to,reduce our outgoings and reduce our debt with remortgaging and taking mortgage repayment holidays or paying interest only but nobody is willing to help us.
We have never missed a priority debt even we were at our worst financially.
I feel that however hard we try to pay our debt we get nowhere and nobody will help us.
Does anybody have any advice I feel so upset that we could end up bankrupt which we have fought so hard to avoid.
I know I could go back to work before the 9 months but selfishly I want to stay at home. Even then would have to go back part time which again would have financial implications
Does anybody have any advice
Thanks Jane

TBagpuss

It sounds as though you need to review your DMP in light of your changed circumatances. I would recommend that you contact Stepchange ( http://www.stepchange.org/ ) who can offer you free advice, and may be able to help with drafting letters to explain the situation.

If you have not already done so, also check out http://www.entitledto.co.uk/ and make sure that you are claiming any benefits you are entitled to.

Remember that you will be entitled to free dental care during your pregnancy and for the first 12 months, so if you've been unable to afford checkups etc not is a good time to get them!

Good luck

FireWyrm

Unfortunately, I think you will have to re-assess what you can and cannot realistically do. I know you want to stay at home with the baby for 9 months, but from what you have said, this realistically speaking, simply isnt possible. Is there any particular reason why it has to be 9 months? Six would be sufficient and is what most people do.

In the meantime, I suggest that your outgoings could possibly be trimmed, so I think you should post an SOA and take it from there. I'm sure you can manage if you are frugal. The baby doesnt need all sort of things, just to be warm and fed. There are ways to supply those requirements without breaking the bank and I think you might be panicking slightly and therefore cannot see the wood for the trees.

janerobinson55

Thanks for the replies. we are already very frugal and really do not spend anything on ourselves. I could have 6 months off and probably this is what will happen if not less. BUT I have budgeted and budgeted and still cannot get the outgoings down by much more. I am aware the baby will not need much and again we haven't even bought any baby items we have borrowed or had given to us items we may need. This is our 3rd child so we did have some things all ready (This wasn't a planned pregnancy as knew we would struggle).
Maybe u r right and I should have the minimum time off e.g. 6 weeks and go back to work
Thanks

sourcrates

Hi,
All you need to do is inform your creditors of your situation, and say you will be suspending payments for 6 weeks (or however long you choose) until you are back at work again, not sure who your DMP provider is, but I suggest you tell them that also.
Its a no brainer that you cant afford to keep up the level of payments you have been making, so just write and tell them.
I would expect them to respond positively, they cant have what you haven't got can they ?.
If the DMP provider does not play ball, ditch them and do it your self, you can be fairly sure no further action will be taken in such a short period, you just need to take control and tell them what's going to happen, not the other way around.

On_my_way

The first thing that you must do, as per Sourcrates is to ring your DMP and tell them the situation - you will be able to suspend your payments.

Recently I have been looking out for more yellow/orange labels in shops for decent discounts on food then freezing it when I get home. We are very careful anyway (due to my debt and my bf's allround good attitude towards money) but if you do this you could probably cut your food bills in half. Obviously I don't know what you currently spend, it's just an idea.

Try not to worry, reach out first and talk to your creditors.

National_Debtline

Hi Jane

Please remember that however unlikely it may seem, the creditors in your DMP cannot dictate what you pay them. It is as plain as the light of day from your post that you will have to suspend payments altogether until further notice. It is just a matter of you telling them this - note I said tell, not "ask" or "request".

Sound advice above from omw and sourcrates. If you are using one of the free DMP providers, get in touch and let them know your situation. If you're paying someone a fee, cancel it ASAP and get some free advice.

Good luck

Dennis
Twitter: @natdebtline

janerobinson55

Thanks everyone. We are with a free company on our DMP I have phoned them but they wont discuss it with me until I actually start maternity leave which I do understand I just wanted to be all sorted before baby arrives so not stressing too close to due date
We can deffo cut down on food bills and this month before mat leave kicks in we are going to pay all bills and then try and manage on what is left. I do know that our outgoings will basically be what we have coming in and that is after debt and priority bills all that is left is approx. £200 to pay for shopping, petrol and other monthly expenditure which as most people will be aware will be difficult to stick too

longtermplanner

hi Jane,

can I raise another problem you may not be thinking about? Is your mortgage fixed rate, if not, how will you manage when interest rates go up?

Also is your house big enough for this unplanned arrival?

Do you currently have any equity in your house?

This may be a good time to rethink your DMP. 6 years is already a long while. An indefinite DMP is not a good thing to be stuck in. If hard decisions are going to have to happen in a year or two, it may be better to take them now and be able to have all the time off you want with baby. 6 weeks is def too short, I think you would find that so hard.

Larac

longtermplanner wrote: »

hi Jane,

can I raise another problem you may not be thinking about? Is your mortgage fixed rate, if not, how will you manage when interest rates go up?
.

You raise an interesting point - in the event that interest rates go up, lots of us on DMP's will need to review our budgets, but as a mortgage payment is a priority payment, it will be the CC's that will get less and the DMP will take longer as consequence

janerobinson55

We r not on a fixed rate mortgage and has always been in our minds about what we would do if the rates went up. I have discussed with bank and stepchange about our house and we do have about £30,000 in equity in our home. so have looked at remortgaging to try and cover the debt but no one will touch us
We r lucky in that our house is big enough for another child with a juggle of bedrooms so that isn't so much of an issue. I have looked at selling and renting but then am worried about uncertainty of a rented property and would anyone rent to us with our credit rating.
Am happy if anyone has any insight into this for their opinion/advice