No pennies left...

SarahPennySaver

The time has come and I've run out of lightbulbs due to to many lightbulb moments! I've tried and failed in the past to sort out my debt and just ended up leaving it to get worse while I buried my head in the sand (actually our beach here is mostly pebbles).

My brief history: in 2006 I bought a flat with 50% loan from my parents and 50% mortgage. I had a full-time job, not a big salary as I worked in a public library but enough to pay the bills. However I never quite managed to live overdraft fee and relied on the rather large overdraft that I had been given as a student. Then from 2007-2010 my health started to deteriorate due to a long-term condition that affects my back & most of my joints. By the beginning of 2010 I was also suffering from depression due to the stress of trying to work full-time with ill-health and no nearby family/friends support. After being unwell for several months I chose to listen to my body and moved back to Kent to live near my family and try to live a simpler lifestyle and get my health back. For a while things went well and I took over the family business and started working for myself. Unfortunately the business was then hit with several problems and when our biggest customer went under owing us over £10,000 I had to close it down. This then left me with £25,000 in debt as I had guaranteed a business loan when things were going well :eek: I had also built up credit card debt by this time due to living on credit card while looking for work (didn't think I could get JSA as chose to resign my job and then to close the business). I had tried to sell my flat as soon as I decided to move out but of course prices had dropped significantly and I couldn't get enough to cover the mortgage/loan. Then I became a landlord renting out the flat with all the accompanying problems such as repairs/tenants not paying rent/tenants not reporting a huge leak and moving out instead! So for just under 5 years I was paying mortgage and rent, often with not a lot coming in. I did get full-time work pretty quickly but last year was made redundant due to frequently being off sick. As my health has continued to go downhill I am now going to be made redundant from my current job for the same reason. Currently I am working a couple of days a week at best and getting paid SSP for the rest of the time which is averaging out at £800 per month. I expect to lose my job by the end of September (going through due process).

I have spoken to CAB and Debtline (with Debtline being by far the most helpful!) and advised to go bankrupt. However I do not have the £705 it costs to apply for bankruptcy. So now I have pulled my head out of the sand only to find dust in my piggybank.

So this is my diary of going bankrupt without any pennies! I'm in a slightly difficult position at the moment as I am not on any benefits but my salary for the past two months has been low. I'm looking at applying for housing benefit & council tax reduction but not sure if they will look at my annual salary rather than what I am actually getting paid. I'm also applying to the EDF energy trust (& the British Gas one too although they seem to be the same charity) to see if they will give me grant towards my bankruptcy fee. I'm not sure what I'll be able to do if I don't get a grant as I don't have anything to sell (I'm typing this on a laptop held together with sellotape!) and as my SOA shows below I don't have any extra pennies to save towards the fee.

On top of this, I have recently received a 'Notice of Issue of Warrant of Control' from one of my creditors as apparently they had taken me to court although I had not received any notice until getting the warrant. This is really my own fault for not notifying my creditors when I moved house a couple of years ago (due to the head in the sand thing, not clever!!) This rather scary court notice was my final LBM and I called Debtline with shaky hands. Thankfully the chap on the other end of the phone was great and very reassuring although he could only really advise bankruptcy. I have now failed to pay the total amount to the county court so am awaiting the first visit from the bailiffs. I will be sending them away as advised by Debtline but it will keep my noisy neighbour downstairs entertained for a while.

I'm trying very hard not to let this bring me down again, it's not easy looking at the future and seeing only tins of value beans for dinner, possibly losing my home if my landlord gives me notice due to no longer having a job etc I'm starting this diary because I've always found reading the forum to be reassuring and I hope that my story will help someone else the way other people's stories have helped me come to terms with the way forward.

SOA below, any and all help and advice very much welcomed!!


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 800

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 94
Electricity............................. 15
Gas..................................... 15
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 15
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 5
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 80
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 829


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................23000.....0.........0
Credit Card....................8300......0.........0
Overdraft (Old)................1250......0.........0
Credit card....................160.......0.........0
Utility Bill arrears...........200.......0.........0
Loan...........................447.......0.........0
Old Utility Bill...............186.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........33543.....0.........-




Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 800
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 829
Available for debt repayments........... -29
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount short for making debt repayments. -29

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,543
Net Assets.............................. -33,543

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Bobarella

Sarah - Good morning. I hope you got some rest last night after your late post?
I really felt for you reading your story. It does sound like there have been several things outside your own control that have led you here as well as your illness.
I am afraid I don't know much about bankruptcy but I'm sure the charity you have spoken to already have advised on that? How do you go about it without the fee out of interest?

I know it seems dark now. But often life seems to need to go pear shaped before it comes back around again.

Subscribing now.

Bob

in_need_of_direction

You need to claim housing benefit.

SarahPennySaver

Thanks Bob & inod. My sleep pattern is a bit erratic at the moment as I tend to sleep when I can due to pain and I sleep much more than I would like!

I am in the process of submitting a claim for housing benefit, just needed latest pay slip to try to prove income is consistently low. I've just had a letter from work saying that I've not completed my probationary period satisfactorily due to sickness so it's being extended by 4 weeks and I've got a meeting with my manager on 21st Aug for her to 'assess my performance' and then I've got until 11st Sep to get back up to scratch otherwise she will recommend my contract is terminated. Since there is no magic cure for my condition it's a bit frustrating having this just hanging over me. Also not looking forward to the meeting as manager has already told me she wants me gone despite apparently being very good at my job. I completely understand the position as I've had to manage staff with long term sickness before but she has been completely unsupportive from the moment she realised I had health problems, even simple things like taking 5 months to replace a broken chair. Overall she's the worst manager I've ever worked for and part of me will be quite glad to say goodbye! Sadly though I have enjoyed the job and really get on well with rest of staff and the consultant I work for (I'm a medical secretary).

Regarding the bankruptcy fee, there are a couple of charities which give grants to help people pay the £525 part of the fee so I'm applying to them with fingers crossed. If they can't help then I'm stumped. I am also writing to my creditors to outline the situation, get up to date balances and ask if there's any chance they will write off the debt. Can't imagine they will but it's one of the suggestions I've been given so might as well try!

No visit from the bailiffs yet, I also cancelled my TV licence last month so waiting to see who visits first, bailiffs or TVL people. Either way they're not coming in!

Thanks for the support, Sarah

SarahPennySaver

Have just re-read the information on applying for housing benefit and realised that step 1 is ring the office & make an appt, which I haven't done! So will need to ring them from work tomorrow along with the PIP office to get that claim going as well. Will hopefully tick these jobs off the list later - feel free to slap my hand if I haven't done them!

I've had a fun evening tidying up and trying to organise all the paperwork that I have ignored for the past few months. At the moment I don't even know if my debts are still with the creditors I last heard from or if they've been sold on so will be interesting to see who I hear from. I've used a letter from the National Debtline website sample letters basically informing them of my situation, that I have no money and am going to be out of work by end of next month. I've used the letter that asks the creditor to consider writing off the debt. No idea if this ever works - anyone had a debt written off due to their inability to pay?

If nothing else hopefully they will reply so I know who owns the debt and how much the balance is and have the correct information to put on my bankruptcy grant application! Not a big fan of having to ask for charity but I guess you can't be proud and broke unless you don't mind ending up on a park bench. Still think the bankruptcy fees are crazy, anyone know if this has ever been raised with a MP/parliament? Not sure my local MP would be much good but would be interested to know if anyone else has tried.

Goodnight all!

Dansmam

Hi Sarah, well done you for getting your head out of the sand and dealing with the debt. I was a bit worried to read about how horrid boss is dealing with your health issues. She has to make reasonable adjustments to help you manage it even in your probationary period. I understand you don't want to work for her long term, but if you want to stay in the job, you can ask e.g. for different hours so you can work when you're well enough.
I'm subscribing to be with you on your journey onwards and upwards

SarahPennySaver

Hi Dan, thank you for your kind support. My manager hasn't been very supportive or friendly compared to other people I've worked with but she has just about done enough to count as reasonable adjustments. I've been offered flexible start/finish times to enable me to get a later bus, a new chair (eventually), a headset for the phone (again eventually and several months after occ health recommended it) so on paper she has made all of the adjustments recommended by occ health. Financially I've looked at reduced hours but with travel costs and my basic salary (another issue with the manager that I won't rant about here!) it doesn't work out. I've tried various options with online benefits calculator and discussed with CAB advisor but advice from CAB and backed up by GP and occ health is that I probably would benefit most by stopping work for a little while and concentrating on improving my health as much as possible. Ideally I'd like to do some voluntary work and then look at part-time paid working back up to full-time when I can and hopefully find a job which doesn't make my condition worse again.

For my diary update: I've made the appt with the housing benefit assessor for next Tuesday so I'll find out whether my fluctuating salary qualifies me for support at the moment or if I have to wait and reapply once I'm solely reliant on SSP. Just really hope that I can get things sorted so I don't end up late paying rent because I'm waiting for benefits process as I like my home and don't want to get kicked out any time soon. :eek: I also started the PIP application process although I had to wait on hold for 40 minutes to get through to someone so glad it was a 0800 number! I've heard/read a lot of horror stories about claiming PIP so will have to see how it goes.

Next goal is to get the first batch of creditor letters sent out. This letter is going to advise them of my total brokeness, ask for up-to-date balances/interest rate etc and includes a cheeky request to write off the debt since they won't get any money either way. Will be interesting to see if balances have changed and if debts have been sold on to different companies while I've had my head in the sand time. Once I've got the balances I'll update them here.

Finally, still no sign of bailiffs or any further paperwork following the scary 'Notice of Issue of Warrant' document although I've failed to pay them by the deadline of last Friday. I did try to practice my strict voice on the cat earlier but he completely ignored me so hope I do better if the bailiffs do turn up and I have to tell them to go away!

Off to try and have an early night now and hopefully make it into work again tomorrow...

SarahPennySaver

Had a very helpful appointment with the housing officer today. Unfortunately I failed to prepare as far in advance as I should have and therefore ended up wrestling with my printer and swearing at 9.45 this morning (for a 10.00 appt). For future reference, when making an appointment which involves filling out a form check the length of said form BEFORE blithely telling the advisor that you will print it out so don't need to have a copy sent in the post. I had planned to print it out at work but either I forgot or it's sitting on my desk at work because it certainly didn't come home with me. When I went to print the form out last night I discovered that it is 36 pages long and the size of the file caused my tablet to crash twice! Anyway, I have no complaints about the appointment, only had to wait a couple of minutes, the advisor/officer (not sure what his job title was) was very helpful and friendly and it took about 25 minutes to go through the form including time it took for him to photocopy my documents. Unfortunately I couldn't find my tenancy agreement last night so had to get a 'proof of rent' form completed by my landlord's lettings agency. I was a bit concerned that they would take a while to complete this and envisaged having to ring and chase it a few times but they were obviously having a quiet day as the form was whisked away and completed in a couple of minutes.

During the appointment I did start to get concerned that maybe my income wasn't quite low enough to qualify especially as everything is a bit uncertain at the moment. The advisor wasn't 100% sure either as I was on the borderline so he offered to ring me as soon as he had put the claim through. Sure enough he rang me about an hour later and despite my worries the claim was successful! I don't know yet how much I will get but it's a relief to know there should be enough between the SSP and this benefit to at least pay the rent on time.

Still haven't received the PIP application form in the post so must buckle down now and get the creditor letters sorted. Once I've got the cat off the paperwork that is...

belleandthebudget

Hi Sarah, sorry to hear about all your troubles with illness and work. You really just don't know how certain managers are going to handle the situation.

Glad everything went well with your appointment. Sounds like a great step in the right direction.

crazy_cat_lady

Oh, you've had some rotten luck.
Good on you for facing up to everything. Pleased you've gotten some help with housing benefit too.

I wish you lots of luck - you're due some positive stuff

SarahPennySaver

Thanks crazy_cat_lady - love your name, my aim in life is to have lots of cats
Actually I only have one at the moment and he's pretty crazy all on his own...