Our SOA

023456789

Some points to note about this.

1. My wife is self-employed and as such her income has been averaged over the last 12 months.
2. The majority of her earnings (£678.65 per month estimated) is paid in sterling to a UK bank account. The rest £68.86 per month estimated is paid in US dollar directly to a US bank account or via paypal In reality these figures fluctuate heavily throughout the year and each month is not a guaranteed income, especially when her clients are late paying her.
3. At this moment in time she just slips under the radar when it comes to paying income tax so there isn't a provision for an income tax payment.
4. Clothing expenditure is estimated and is TBH needed as we've been silly with money and not saved for things like this when we should've and now we are in dire need of new items.
5. The same is true with dental and opticians - we both need to see a dentist urgently and also need new glasses. The rest of the medical costs are repeat prescriptions and supplements which I've been told by my GP that I need to take.
6. The self employment expenses are for ongoing subscriptions to microsoft and the professional bodies my wife needs to be part of.

The past few times I've spoken with stepchange they've recommended bankruptcy as the best way forward for me, this is what both of us are working towards at the moment.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1220.76
Partners monthly income after tax....... 745.5
Benefits................................ 153.76
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2120.02

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 560
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 100
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 16.99
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 27.14
Groceries etc. ......................... 380
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 142
Childcare/nursery....................... 18
Other child related expenses............ 25
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 50
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 25
National Insurance ..................... 12.13
Self-Employment Expenses................ 25
Pet food + flea treat + grooming........ 35
Total monthly expenses.................. 1848.26


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
HSBC credit card...............3978.94...0.........0
Virgin Mobile..................109.85....0.........0
Sheffield City Counci..........620.47....100.......0
O2.............................56.36.....0.........0
HSBC...........................1172.28...0.........0
BGL............................62.04.....0.........0
Lloyds Loan....................910.26....0.........0
Lloyds Credit Card.............1030.33...0.........0
Tesco Bank.....................41.29.....0.........0
EDF............................999.09....0.........0
Yorkshire Water................433.74....0.........0
Shop Direct....................543.02....0.........0
HSPF...........................9376.86...0.........0
Bank of Scotland...............293.66....0.........0
Ecotricity.....................108.59....0.........0
Thames Water...................136.3.....0.........0
A & A Insurance................365.68....0.........0
Vanquis Bank...................223.52....10.05.....0
Total unsecured debts..........20462.28..110.05....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,120.02
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,848.26
Available for debt repayments........... 271.76
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 110.05
Amount left after debt repayments....... 161.71

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,462.28
Net Assets.............................. -20,462.28

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

egrescrimp

Emergency fund, increase to £30.

Clothing increase to £75.

Entertainment, not usually allowed is this for your child though? If so move under child related expenses and you'd get £5 per week normally.

Presents not usually allowed either, add that £10 to haircuts as £30 is pretty reasonable if that includes a woman's haircut.

You should also take out the tax, national insurance stuff as the OR will only work on what's available after these are deducted. So your total monthly income would be £2,082.89.

023456789

Thank you for the response.

Between this board, stepchange and business debt line we are finally taking the steps and will be going to court next Friday. This has been a long time in the making - over 2 years since the idea was first mooted.

alstead

Ive looked at the above over the past hour or so and ive got to be missing the point
Why are you going BR?

Cobalt77

Check your SOA carefully - a DRO may be a better option if you can get your disposable income < £50 per month.

http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DRODebtrelieforder.aspx

DorisTrousers

Is any of the debt in your wifes name at all?

If so, a DRO could be far more attractive, as pointed out above.

023456789

All of the debt in the SOA is in my name only. My wages barely cover the outgoings and my wife's income isn't guaranteed due to her self-employed freelance work. We've fluctuated between all of the options over the last couple of years but right now feel that we are going down the right route.

We have checked this out with business debt line, they've advised us to go down this route rather than the DRO due to the unpredictable nature of our earnings.

Cobalt77

023456789 wrote: »

All of the debt in the SOA is in my name only. My wages barely cover the outgoings and my wife's income isn't guaranteed due to her self-employed freelance work. We've fluctuated between all of the options over the last couple of years but right now feel that we are going down the right route.

We have checked this out with business debt line, they've advised us to go down this route rather than the DRO due to the unpredictable nature of our earnings.

"Unpredictable nature of our earnings."?

The ONLY reason I can see why a DRO wouldn't be your best bet is if your monthly disposable income was going to be well above £50 per month.

After all, you have no assets and the debt is in YOUR name at around the £20K mark. Given the volatility of self-employment, it would be quite easy to apportion the bulk of your household expenses against you instead of your wife (remember that it is YOU who will be going down the insolvency route, NOT your wife as she has no debt against her) This also means it would be very unlikely that you would have to make repayments under an IPA.

Taking everything into consideration, it would seem like a DRO was created especially for your situation. Unless there is something fundamental which you've told Business Debtline but not included here, I would seriously question why you've been told to go BR instead of down the DRO route?

Obviously, it's totally your choice. But I would definitely recommend you get advice from a reliable and trusted expert source like DebtDoctor, Fermi et al before going down the BR route.

023456789

Just as a quick update, after all of your concerns we ran our finalised budget by stepchange one final time and decided to give a DMP a go, although we've admited that this is a last chance saloon to get our finances in order and something happening with paying off our debt.