Partner earning less than 8k but has debts of 18k - please help.

lacoste1985_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

Is he paying self employed national insurance contributions?

£2.80 a week £12 a month and gets him a year credit towards his pension when the time comes to claim.

He won't be credited with them from the 16 hour a week job as the lower earnings limit is £112 per week. He's £5 a week short.

no he is not paying self employed NI conts because the cleaning job is NOT self employed. He is employed on a part time basis by a cleaning company.

lacoste1985_2

sweetpeas wrote: »

i'd be defensive too if i was working my backside off to pay for someone to live for free cos they decided a job they needed to pay their own debts 'wasnt for them'

I am not "working my backside off" to pay for someone to live for free, I have always had more than one job since I was 16, I am now 30. Please refer to my earlier replies this evening for reason why he left FT job. We used to live together in a different flat where the rent was higher...OH used to pay me £250 a month towards rent and bills as rent was too much for me to pay on my own....this was only 9 months ago, he still had a lot of debt back then but he made sure he gave me something every month. Its only been since he lost his job in June that he hasnt been able to pay me this much. We are now living in a cheaper flat with cheaper rent where I am in a fortunate enough position to be able to afford everything on my wage [from my full time job]. I dont ask him for anything because we are a partnership, I have always been the breadwinner out of both of us in the 7 years we have been together. Its called give and take. I would rather he puts all his earnings towards his debts than ask him to give me "board" etc and prolong his debts even more.

[Deleted User]

lacoste1985 wrote: »

We looked into purchasing breakdown cover separately before and the level of cover that we would need to buy to match the one provided by Lloyds was a lot more than £30. It was more along the line of £100+

Is that £100 in total, or £100 per month?

lacoste1985_2

Grumpelstiltskin wrote: »

I have to agree with CTE he is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land, and why should he bother to change when you are supporting him. What jumped out at me was you saying he has never worked full time, why on earth not?

Ok he started working for Royal Mail as a post sorter when he was 19 part time, he did this for 4 years, he also spent some time working as a postman. The Royal Mail did not offer full time contracts when he was there.

He then decided to study to become a fitness instructor/Personal Trainer because he didnt want to spend the rest of his life working for royal mail. He went back to college for 3 years to achieve this qualification and kept his part time job at the same time in royal mail.

When he qualified as a PT, he got a job in a leisure centre that had just opened, that gave him 10 hrs to start up with. He had to build himself up to 31 hours which is where he stayed "with the constant promise of full time hours" which would of taken him up to 40 hrs a week. In the 6 years he was there this never happened but he stuck the job out because he enjoyed it,

In March 2014 his friend, a personal trainer that rented out space at the leisure centre he worked at said he was going to open his own premises and offered OH a job, less hours but more pay. Again he promised him a pay rise after 6 months and the "world" with the promise of training courses etc but this never happened. In June last year he had a disagreement with his boss and was put in a position where he had to resign or be dismissed. He accepted dismissal.

So in the last 7 years all he has done is Fitness. He has no other qualifications other than fitness related. This is why he has decided to go back to what he originally started studying at the age of 16 in college.

lacoste1985_2

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Is that £100 in total, or £100 per month?

a 100+ a year for brakedown cover

lacoste1985_2

sugarcube84 wrote: »

Unfortunately I going to be a bit harsh, not like me, but he could work full time and study. 18 hrs works out at just over 2.5 hrs per day which is definitely manageable. My dh works 2 full time jobs one from 2pm-10pm and another from 10.30pm-6.30am so I'm sure your bf could find 2.5 hrs per day to study around a full time job.

I understand about short term pain long term gain but I worked more around a full time uni course, maybe once he has got into the studying mindset you could re visit finding a full time job?

when does your DH eat and sleep if she works 16 hours a day, let alone study????!!!

lacoste1985_2

foolofbeans wrote: »

The usual way to deal with outgoings more than your incomings is to either reduce your expenses or increase your income. It seems a no-brainer to me that your partner needs to get a full-time job and work his OU studies around that. OU designs its courses for working people and many manage to get their degree while working. If you have no caring responsibilities then there is no reason not to be able to study after work.
Has he ever worked out how much it actually costs him in petrol for his takeaway job as it looks like he is earning about £4.40 an hour and it may not be worth running a car for this amount.

he has worked out he uses about £10 petrol on average each night he delivers but this varies. His first shift working for a chinese, he actually earnt £20 in petrol so this was double what he used so IMO a bonus. : )

lacoste1985_2

Candyapple wrote: »

Added to this, does your partner have the proper car insurance to cover this job?

It is often assumed that food delivery drivers will obtain their own insurance when using their own vehicle for deliveries. However, standard private motor insurance policies do not normally cover the drivers’ business use of their vehicles — typically they will only provide cover for social, domestic and pleasure use. However, even if the driver requests a business use extension on their policy, the stated business use may not cover fast food delivery.

So on top of working for a pittance, he could very well be negating his insurance which he would be in for a shock should he be involved in an accident whilst working.

Have a read of this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3960077

I think your partner needs to re-think his situation. He has debts and needs to pay them. It's all well and good he is trying to better himself by doing an OU course, but this is at detriment to you.

Although you say you are happy funding his lifestyle now for the next 6 years minimum, as others have stated, whilst he may end up with a degree in 6 years' time, he will also be 6 years older (at a guess I'm assuming he'll be early 30s) and competing against all the 21 year olds fresh out of uni who will be applying for graduate schemes and who probably also had jobs alongside their degree/work experience in their field whilst your partner presumably will still be slaving away doing domestic cleaning/driving jobs; they will have a massive advantage over him. What happens if with his degree he only manages to get entry level IT jobs circa £11k salaries? Or he doesn't manage to find a job in his field for say a further 2 years? Or if he changes his mind/gets bored of the course a couple of years in? Or if you have kids in those 6 years?

If he wants to do an OU course he should find a full-time job and manage his time better so that he can fit in his study around it. If he can't, then perhaps he should focus on getting a better job now whether that be in personal training again or another field full-time and when his debts are more manageable or he's cleared them, then think about re-applying for the OU course.

Yes he has business insurance which was all the takeaways asked for before he took the job on.

He will be 37 by the time he graduates. I dont think this is too old for a career change, many people make career changes much later than this in their lives. Its better to have realised now than 10 yrs down the line. He is aware he will be competing against 21 yr olds for jobs but is planning on getting some voluntary work/applying for entry level IT jobs now if he can to build up experience before he starts applying properly. In comparision to the 21 yr olds he will also have a multitude of skills and experience from all his other jobs he has had since 18 years old, this I believe is 20 years experience.

If it takes him 2 years to get a job in this field then he will find a job in something else FT to tide him over until one comes up in IT. simples!! at least he will have degree though

If he changes his mind in the 6 years then he changes his mind. He knows he will have to get an ordinary run of the mill FT job if this is the case.

Re children, we do not want any and have decided this a long time ago.

lacoste1985_2

Deleted%20User wrote: »

A DMP isn't available on demand, it's actually whether it is affordable at the time.

First debt to pay is that of the highest interest.

Having duluded myself once with a 30 hour week job, when it was ill affordable it can get quite unpleasant very easily so I wish you every strength x

Thank you for this suggestion. It is one of the useful ones as you have said to pay off the debt with the highest interest first. We are going to use this advice and make a spreadsheet with a plan based on what the interest rate is for each debt and when it runs out.

lacoste1985_2

timefortea wrote: »

Is there any reason why your partner hasn't considered studying full time for a degree? The maximum Maintenance Loan available for 2016 entry is £8,200 per year, depending on household income, and he might get an additional bursary. He could supplement that with a part time job.

The reason he is not studying full time is because he would have less hours available to work and pay off debts. Right now priority is paying off debts. He already qualifies for course grant and we live in Wales so not sure how the maintenance loan situation would work. Dont think this is available for OU courses - all he has is a Tuition fee loan which goes straight to OU to cover the cost of the course and the course grant which helps towards books, travel etc.