Various questions about pending bankruptcy

Treadstone009

Hi

I have been issued some defaults on my accounts and i would imagine these have been passed on to various debt collection agencys who will be in touch shortly, i have also received a card within an envelope from a bank that says a representative will be arriving at my home address on a specific date, is this likely to be a debt collection agency?

If a debt has been passed on should i still include the debt on the insolvency forms as being from the original bank/lender as per the card details etc?

I have a personal pension plan with a creditor could this be liquidated, the T&C's are vague stating that if fraud is suspected that monies could be taken although on the insolvency website it does state that a policy backed by the inland revenue stays with the BR unless contributions are excessive.

I currently work for one of my creditors (possibly about to default on the account) as a telephone advisor on a temporary contract (although this could be extended to cover holidays etc whilst a student of 23), i am concerned that my monthly pay could be liquidated to cover an outstanding debt to one of their product offerings, given that i plan to petition before the actual pay date (perhaps several days) is this a ligitimate concern?, whats to stop my employer being informed by the OR should i provide this info on my forms and them asking me to leave the company due to T&C's and some other nonsense. Infact there is a question on the forms which specifically asks if the BR is employed by the creditor.

I know that every OR is different and every Judge, Creditor, legal person etc is allways going to take a differing view but it does seem from reading the forums that i would be given a BRO/BRU on the basis that i lied on applications to obtain credit, why did i lie?, it was to consolidate existing debt, i assumed that a lender would carry out checks as to my income etc but apparantly they do take a risk on appplicants, and i have read that the data protection act means that lenders cannot actually approach an employer to gain income details, but then i had been refused from some lenders etc, when i actually applied for credit i did not intend to default as per many on these boards, i am considering BR as i feel that is the only option for me given my circumstances.

Whats to stop a creditor from taking me to court and claiming fraud and me being forced to disclose not only a BR on an application (for anything really) but also fraud as an unspent conviction for upto 7 years.

I suppose i feel that petitioning is really a step into the abyss for me and would appreciate some reassurance from members here that have come out the otherside:beer:

Conor_3

You would kiss the pension plan goodbye regardless as it becomes the property of the OR - basically anything you have up to the point of bankruptcy such as pensions, savings, equity in property and goods of any decent value becomes the ORs.

You say you're employed by one of your creditors. Well I'm sorry to say this but if you bank, you can kiss goodbye to the job because AFAIK, working for financial institutions as a bankrupt is generally a no-no. It's one of the jobs you're not allowed to do once you've banked. As for the fraud thing, I've no idea how that will pan out. You're not the first to lie and won't be the last but you don't see a long line of people being taken to court for it.

Treadstone009

Hey Conor,

I do plan to raise the issue with the appropriate department of the creditor in due course although this may be annonymously, is it really that straight forward that i cannnot ever work within a financial institution with a BR on my credit report as they'd be employing people with all kinds of skills from tea boy, IT technician, to stock Trader etc, anything i do within the company and be very easily tracked since i'm at the bottom of the ladder right now.

As for the pension well that was a simple attempt to be responsible and set some money asside for the future although i guess its only right that i should lose it since i've been reckless with my finances, it only represents about 10% of my total debt so isn't really a reason to put BR off any longer.

cinnabar

I work for my biggest creditor, a large bank. My employer's policy re. BR is that I have to inform my manager who then has to carry out an assessment into whether I can still be employed, but my HR dept. have told me that as long as I follow the correct procedures and tell them up front, it won't be a matter of automatic dismissal (Although if I didn't tell them about going BR it might be gross misconduct). CAB said it shouldn't make a difference to my employer with regard to who I owe money to. So have a word with your HR dept. I was told by a debt counsellor who works on behalf of my employer (and others) that he's advised plenty of people who work for financial institutions to go BR including senior managers, and they haven't all lost their jobs. I think it depends on whether your job is FSA regulated - mine isn't but people like mortgage advisors etc would be.

I can't find a question on the online BR forms at least that asks if the BR is employed by a creditor (though I could easily have missed it - so many questions!) but it does ask if the creditor is an employee of the person petitioning for BR - this is something to do with dissolving businesses and employees being able to claim for wages I assume?

As far as your employer taking money you owe them from your pay, I was worried about the exact same thing. They can't take it direct from your wages, I don't think, as there are only certain things an employer can withhold money for - there's some info on the DirectGov website http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Pay/DG_10027228 although I don't know how this applies to people on temporary contracts. If you have your wages paid into an account with your employer then obviously they could use the right to offset - could you get your wages paid in somewhere else? I'm having mine paid into my mum's account for the time being.

I wish I could offer you more reassurance or advice but I haven't yet gone BR - still waiting to talk to CAB's debt counsellor to confirm it's my best option, though I'm pretty certain it is. If I do it and come out the other side more or less intact before you get there I'll let you know!

user55

Re the pensions - my OR told me my pension is safe. But I have kissed goodbye to my life insurance policy.

Treadstone009

cinnabar wrote: »

I work for my biggest creditor, a large bank. My employer's policy re. BR is that I have to inform my manager who then has to carry out an assessment into whether I can still be employed, but my HR dept. have told me that as long as I follow the correct procedures and tell them up front, it won't be a matter of automatic dismissal (Although if I didn't tell them about going BR it might be gross misconduct). CAB said it shouldn't make a difference to my employer with regard to who I owe money to. So have a word with your HR dept. I was told by a debt counsellor who works on behalf of my employer (and others) that he's advised plenty of people who work for financial institutions to go BR including senior managers, and they haven't all lost their jobs. I think it depends on whether your job is FSA regulated - mine isn't but people like mortgage advisors etc would be.

I can't find a question on the online BR forms at least that asks if the BR is employed by a creditor (though I could easily have missed it - so many questions!) but it does ask if the creditor is an employee of the person petitioning for BR - this is something to do with dissolving businesses and employees being able to claim for wages I assume?

As far as your employer taking money you owe them from your pay, I was worried about the exact same thing. They can't take it direct from your wages, I don't think, as there are only certain things an employer can withhold money for - there's some info on the DirectGov website http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Pay/DG_10027228 although I don't know how this applies to people on temporary contracts. If you have your wages paid into an account with your employer then obviously they could use the right to offset - could you get your wages paid in somewhere else? I'm having mine paid into my mum's account for the time being.

I wish I could offer you more reassurance or advice but I haven't yet gone BR - still waiting to talk to CAB's debt counsellor to confirm it's my best option, though I'm pretty certain it is. If I do it and come out the other side more or less intact before you get there I'll let you know!

Hi Cinnabar, i have changed the bank account over to my parents account also but one of the conditions of the job is that eventually i open an account with the company and i could be pulled up on it if i dont have one after a certain period although HR assured me that the first pay packet would certainly make it into the nominated account.

The FSA issue seems to have been brought up alot in training but not too sure if thats only the insuance and mortgage side of the business that applies too also we in our role are given instructions to provide warm sales leads to regualted handlers etc.

You were right about the BR forms it does simply ask if the creditor is an employee not employer:money:

Treadstone009

user55 wrote: »

Re the pensions - my OR told me my pension is safe. But I have kissed goodbye to my life insurance policy.

Any reason you have lost the insurance policy? one would assume that your family or nominated beneficiary would need to be taken care of should the worst happen during your employment, were you able to apply successfully for insurance elsewhere but paying a little more.

user55

I haven't applied for anything yet, I need to get onto that actually so thanks for reminding me!

I assume it was taken because there was a reasonable cash in value - it was actually an endowment policy originally and lapsed payments meant it had reverted to a life policy as long as there was cash in the fund - if any of that makes sense! As joint policy holder, my other half will actually recieve his share of the surrender value from the OR.