SOA help

robert542

When filling out the expenses part of the SOA, do I need to put exact figures? It says in the guidance to write to the nearest £ rather than use pence, but I was wondering, if, our example, our household gas and electric are £84 per month, can I write £90 in order to help cover other expenses which are not considered 'essential' in bankruptcy?

Or will I be required to show copies of all utility bills and put the exact figures of recent bills?

Also, the household bills are all in my partner's name and I live in her home. We each contribute 50% towards essential household bills (mortgage, gas and electricity, water, council tax, tv license, housekeeping, phone and broadband, building and contents insurance). This works out to be £650 each, so for question 6.7 I have put £650. So for question 6.8 (total household income, do I put my monthly take home plus £650? And I don't need to declare my partner's income anywhere, just her monthly contributions?

All my other bills are paid separately from my partner (e.g. the car is mine which I use for work so I pay all car expenses, and I pay my son's (from a previous relationship) school £45 per month for his dinner money), so my partner pays 50% of the house bills rather than total household outgoings. We pay for everything else (clothes, haircuts, etc) separately. Is this an acceptable arrangement to put on the form? On the form, would I just put the cost of my clothing, for example, rather than the clothing budget for the whole household?

I have put £350 for housekeeping (my partner's £175 50% is included in her £650 contribution). This is for 2 adults and my son from a previous relationship, who stays with us on weekends and sometimes in the week during school holidays. It includes the cost of food, toiletries and household/cleaning products e.g. laundry products. Is this reasonable, do you think?

My petrol budget is also £250. I use my car daily for essential journeys. My place of work is 22 miles from my home and each weekend I collect my son from his mother's home which is 16 miles from my home, and return him to his mother. My partner does not drive, so my car is used for all other journeys (e.g. grocery shops). Would £250 petrol be reasonable in my situation?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Rob.

robert542

Just thought of another question - we currently have a home phone and broadband package with Virgin Media for £20.99 per month. I also spend £20 per month on PAYG for my mobile phone (SIM only). Do I add these charges together and put them in telephone charges or list my mobile phone in the other essential expenses box?

Thanks for reading - any help anyone could give would be much appreciated.

Rob.

HappyMJ

Round income figures down to the pound. Round expenses up to the next pound.

I would use the figure estimated on a comparison site for paying cash quarterly using your local electricity supplier and British Gas. i.e the most expensive tariff. I would allow the comparison site to suggest usage figures.

By paying the mortgage you may have a beneficial interest in the home so I would just put half of the monthly interest charged on the mortgage so it doesn't look that you might have a beneficial interest.

The car being used for grocery shops makes it a household expense so your partner should contribute a very small amount towards the petrol expense. Maybe an extra £10 or so.

You haven't mentioned CSA. Is the £45 you pay each month the only amount you pay towards your son's expenses?

£250 a month petrol would get you at the very least 14,000 miles in a year in a large 2 litre plus petrol engined car. That's quite a large figure. I'd use the difference of the figures on your MOT adding 20% and multiplying by the HMRC fuel advisory rates on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advisory-fuel-rates/advisory-fuel-rates-from-1-september-2015

robert542 wrote: »

Just thought of another question - we currently have a home phone and broadband package with Virgin Media for £20.99 per month. I also spend £20 per month on PAYG for my mobile phone (SIM only). Do I add these charges together and put them in telephone charges or list my mobile phone in the other essential expenses box?

Thanks for reading - any help anyone could give would be much appreciated.

Rob.

Add them together and add £5 for additional usage to non inclusive calls. If the contract has a discount put the figure before the discount has been applied down.

robert542

OK - so we won't have to show our actual utility bills, we can put a reasonable figure then?

I don't think that we need to worry about beneficial interest in the property - she only purchased the house 6 months ago as an overpriced new build with Help to Buy - we haven't been there long and there isn't any equity in the home, she paid the full deposit and costs of buying and everything is in her name.

I don't pay anything via CSA. I am self employed and they deemed that I could not afford to contribute anything in terms of maintenance payments to his mother. The £45 for his dinner money is the only 'formal' arrangement in place (as in it can be shown as an expense as I pay it directly to the school). Otherwise I pay towards for uniform, school trips etc as and when, and of course clothing, food etc for the time that he spends in our home.

I do have a very high mileage - I have done approximately 50,000 miles in my car since I purchased it in April 2014. It's a 1.8. I work in an office Monday-Friday (premises owned by my father) and also drive around the UK delivering to events. Technically, my petrol for deliveries are a 'business expense' so I guess I only count costs for petrol to work and not for the deliveries themselves....I'm trying to figure out how to do this currently. I am not the director of the business, my father is (I have a bad credit rating and we thought it best for me to not be a registered director). So technically I work as a self-employed contractor for my father's business....the employment is a whole other issue I think I need to seek advice on!

robert542

How does this sound for the SOA, bearing in mind the information about my situation above?

6.3 (my average take home pay) = £1200.
6.7 (how much other members of the household contribute each month to the household expenses) = £650
6.8 (total household income) = £1850. (£1200 + £650).
7.1 (how much spent each month on each of the following)

Mortgage - £605 (actual current billed amount = £604.64)
Housekeeping - £350
Gas and electricity - £90 (actual current billed amount = £84)
Water - £30 (actual current billed amount = £25.41)
Telephone charges - £55 (actual current billed amount for phone and broadband - £20.99 Virgin Media package. However, this is an introductory offer for first 12 months and will then go up to £34.49, so have allowed for this. Have also included £20 for mobile phone).
Transport to and from work and other essential journeys - £250 (petrol)
Clothing - £25
Maintenance payments and fines - £0
Council tax - £130 (actual current billed amount = £127).

Other essential payments –
Buildings and contents insurance - £10. (actual current billed amount = £9.87)
TV licence - £13. (actual current billed amount = £12.12)
Car tax - £18. (actual current billed amount = £17.93)
Car insurance - £43. (actual current billed amount = £42.15)
Car maintenance - £35.
RAC membership - £5. (actual current billed amount = £27.99 for the year - approx £2.30 per month)
Child’s dinner money - £45.
Other child costs - £10.
Emergency expenditure - £20.
Holiday - £25.
Personal care (medical, eye care, dental care, haircuts) - £20.
Total = £1779
So the total household income of £1850 – the total expenditure of £1779 = £71.
My partner’s contribution above would include household bills (50% of mortgage, council tax, gas and electric, housekeeping, water, TV license, buildings and contents insurance, home phone and broadband, and £10 towards petrol for general household journeys).
The other figures are based on my needs only (clothing - £25 for my clothing only, £25 is my contribution towards the family holiday (partner saves her own £25), personal care is for me only (partner’s hair, dental and medical money not included). She pays for this out of her own disposable income, which is separate to our household bills and therefore none of my business. She earns £1600 take home each month, but has her own loans and credit cards and commitments to pay out of her income as well as the 50% contribution to our house bills, and I don't want my debts and bankruptcy to affect her income.

Does this look acceptable?

Would a family holiday allowance be permitted?

I haven’t included an amount towards gifts (e.g. Christmas and birthdays), because I’ve read that this is not permitted.

emmsie123

Your car insurance seems very low for business insurance, as your using it to deliver to events.
You might loose the car.

robert542

I was expecting to be able to keep the car as it is definitely needed, there is no outstanding finance and it is not an extravagant purchase (it's almost ten years old, was £1800 when I purchased it and has now done around 135,000 miles so will be worth quite a lot less). Is it likely that they would try to take the car considering these factors?

I can prove that over the last 12 months I have spent an average of £250 per month on petrol, so could they claim that this is too high when I have proof that I need this?

HappyMJ

Why do you not have child maintenance to pay?

If you can prove the petrol figure then use it.

robert542

Based on my income, when my ex partner and I submitted all of our information to the the CSA, they deemed that I could not afford to pay any additional maintenance (I was already paying the £45 per month dinner money (as well as uniform and school trip costs as and when needed) and this covered my maintenance amount. My ex partner was happy for me to continue paying the school directly for his meals).

HappyMJ

robert542 wrote: »

Based on my income, when my ex partner and I submitted all of our information to the the CSA, they deemed that I could not afford to pay any additional maintenance (I was already paying the £45 per month dinner money (as well as uniform and school trip costs as and when needed) and this covered my maintenance amount. My ex partner was happy for me to continue paying the school directly for his meals).

I would put down £120 under child maintenance which is around about the amount you are supposed to pay based on a new case today and I'd put down nothing for school meals and school trips.

robert542

Does anyone have any further insight regarding the amounts listed above? Is a holiday amount usually allowed? And will they query the amount that my partner contributes towards household bills? Can they demand that she pays more in order to allow me to pay more to my creditors?