Urgent- DRO REVOKED from personal injury settlement ?

Blouseortrousers

Hey guys...

Thanks in advance- any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

My debt relief order is nearly finished (moratorium period ends really soon).

Issue is I made a personal injury claim for a car crash that wasn't my fault. Claim process began before my DRO was done. I tried to 'slow down' my solicitor but court proceedings were already filed so we couldn't.

From nowhere the claim has now settled out of court, the cheque will be sent to me within a couple of weeks.

If I don't tell the DRO unit, do they actively look for these things? Will anyone inform them of it? The payout is tiny (a few thousand) in comparison to my £15000 of debt and honestly my anxiety about this is through the roof.

I'm not a liar or a fraud and I don't want to lie, but having my DRO revoked so close to the end seems so unfair when it won't even cover half of my debt.

Without judgement or prejudice what I'm asking is: will they find out about this ? Would the settlement be publicly available to them? Could I simply pay the cheque in in 4 months time to avoid a revocation ?

Please don't judge me:(

alltaken

Once you are aware of funds heading your way I believe the possession of the cleared funds is irrelevant, it's awarded money.

You say it ends really soon, but then mention 4 months?

I would say phone the DRO unit and explain that your circumstances are not likely to improve and see what happens. Perhaps you need to purchase a 'new' car (under £1000) leaving the total at a more reasonable figure of under £1700? You can't keep this a secret and will have to inform them, the sooner the better, timescales are taken into account when letting the IS know.

Blouseortrousers

It ends in just over a month. But what I meant was if I don't clear the funds for say 4 months would that make a difference.

I just don't understand how they would find out.

If I were to need to buy a new car would I need to show proof of this to the IS?

Also, I've genuinely been off sick from work due to medical reasons and 3 of my recent paychecks have been half what my income usually is due to receiving statutory sick pay instead of company sick pay. Perhaps they would take this into consideration also ?

alltaken

It's a criminal offence to withhold the information. I'm holding out every hope that one of the more experienced forum members will have a solution for you but I can say with certainty that trying to keep quiet is a terrible idea with large ramifications.

Your point about reduced pay is very valid, have you spoken to your intermediary about the money? They would be able to advise you regarding the under budget for the last 3 months.

CKhalvashi

alltaken wrote: »

It's a criminal offence to withhold the information. I'm holding out every hope that one of the more experienced forum members will have a solution for you but I can say with certainty that trying to keep quiet is a terrible idea with large ramifications.

Your point about reduced pay is very valid, have you spoken to your intermediary about the money? They would be able to advise you regarding the under budget for the last 3 months.

The issue with that is that any benefits OP may have received (if this is the case) would have been deemed to have made up the difference.

If course if OP had borrowed anything instead of claiming for the 3 months, then it would be valid to pay that back, however as far as I'm aware, further borrowing isn't allowed under the DRO.

The best thing to do is to declare it, state your point and see what is said, however how this is dealt with ordinarily, I don't know.

fusionx212

if it's a cheque and you don't cash it.. don't cheques last for 6 months. just a thought but I maybe wrong.

alltaken

Once you are aware of the award it becomes an asset afaik.

If the IS find out in 4 weeks it would look worse than volunteered information now. The amount that a DRO is more likely to be withdrawn at is £1750, with a view that any mitigating circumstances are taken into account. (You're on statutory sick pay right now and is your situation likely to improve soon? This would be taken into account along with the time your DRO has remaining)

http://debtcamel.co.uk/dro-income-up/

You should not hide the cheque and wait. If you manage to overt the IS and your DRO is seen through what happens if thay find out further down the line? I wouldn't like to be dealing with that anxiety.

Worse case, your DRO is revoked and you then look at bankruptcy? I might be wrong but you could apply pretty much straight away after having the DRO revoked. You would have the money for the fees.

Seriously, call the DRO unit, you would likely be given an answer on the call, come back with the answer and get further guidance if needed.

debt_doctor

Hi,
You have a duty to inform the DRO Unit immediately.


If you do not disclose then you commit a criminal offence, and if found out, may well be prosecuted.


No one can skirt around those conditions I'm afraid.


However, personal injury claims (payouts) are looked upon favourably by the DRO Unit (in bankruptcy you would be allowed to keep the money) - I will look further at the guidance.
DD

[Deleted User]

Please do not worry, I was 2 weeks away from the end when I got what one might consider a "well paid" job, well at that time, I remember wanting to die

3 months later when made redundant, yep see cos you can never honestly tell when luck is going to change - I was glad I wasn't then staring bankruptcy or worse in the face, if that had been an option.

I got declined for a job during DRO the moratorium period, it came up then from a financial institution that to get out of a DRO was simply very difficult and not as easy as we think. For exactly the kind of issue above.

4 years on, my worst offence is I have my own home (whether or not entirely through my own means) as I couldn't stop a loved one dying and nobody has ever queried me, so please don't be scared.

Get that money saved, hold head up and look forward to the future

I had also been in a non fault car accident and spookily it was ensured I only got the cost of a car value to enter a DRO which also went unchased - though I'm not one to generally go after compo there are some things you need to accept will just happen during the next 5 years, all the best to you.

HappyMJ

How much is supposed to be declared? A few thousand to compensate someone for the losses incurred from an accident doesn't to me sound like very much. Wouldn't the mitigating circumstances of the accident be taken into account when considering whether to revoke the DRO or not? And the OP is also on sick pay. This money would just go towards living costs instead of to creditors.

All you've got to do is get your capital back under the limits of £1,000 as soon as possible by spending it on essential expenditure. Keep the receipts for everything to prove it was all essential.

fatbelly

Here's the guidance

Personal injury payments received during the moratorium period will be dealt with depending on the composition of the payments (special and general damages). If the compensation relates solely to general damages and is received during the moratorium period, this will not adversely affect the DRO so long as the funds are used only for living expenses and not converted into tangible assets. Should the funds be used to make a large purchase, rather than on living expenses, the OR will consider revocation should the collective value of the debtor’s assets should exceed £1,000.