daughters debts

poppasmurf_bewdley

If there is one full time wage earner in the household at the moment, then they have probably been overspending.

They need to urgently do an SOA (statement of accounts) of their income and expenditure to see where their money is going.

It's a common enough occurrence when one earner goes on maternity leave not to trim spending to match the new situation. But with speedy action the couple should be able to get back into control but they must not be bullied into agreeing to pay more than they can afford.

Whoknows

Have they checked if they're receiving all benefits they might be entitled to such as council tax benefit, housing benefit and tax credits? Might be able to get it back dated as well.

Is your daughter ready to go back to work? They might be able to get tax credits to helming with childcare costs.

Potbellypig

Windofchange wrote: »

The I must have a car because I live miles away from work comes up on here a lot. It's not an argument I buy in to. I used to bike 10 miles each way to work on a push bike, and it wasn't down lovely tree lined streets - it was up and down some fast roads and urban rat runs. There is always a bus or a train that can be caught unless they are in the outer hebrides, and even then...
.

Totally agree. It's the first thing that stuck out to me when I read this thread. Ask around for lifts (paying the petrol), push bike, buses etc. Even getting rid of the car and buying a scooter. The latter is what I done for the best part of 7 years.

OP - I'm not judging, just giving you what I believe is the best advice regarding the car.

thriftylass

Fibromacc wrote: »

He works 12.5 hours shifts it's not a road you would want to cycle down narrow no streetlights but a busy main road plus it's quite a long way from their house. Not sure about lifts its a bit of a funny place to get too and quite a lot of people who work there live in the oposit direction. But if they get rid of the car they will still have to pay for it. They are not allowed to sell it privately they were told that they are only allowed to sell it to certain garages? And they certainly wouldn't get top dollar for it. And also the finance company said that they don't do repayment plans so they would then have to pay the remaining outstanding balance minus whatever the sale price. And they don't have that sort of money.

How far is quite far.
Yes they still need to pay it off but at the moment they can't afford to keep it either. They would save all the associated cost - fuel, tax, MOT, service, tyres etc etc

Fibromacc

”
Ignore what the council are asking for, just pay what they can afford to, and keep paying until the debt is satisfied, dont engage in pointless tooing and froing, if bailiffs call, keep doors locked, and dont let them in, they will only visit 3 times, then they pass the debt back to the council.

Someone told my daughter that the balifs would drill out the locks and gain access to the property.!
This obviously alarmed her but I don't think that they can do that unless they are repossessing the property.
Having spoken to my daughter today they are adamant the car stays. Which is apprently why step change etc won't help them.
They are keeping up with the current finance payments -just but not paying off the arrears as they will only accept a double payment or nothing.
There is no public transport that would get her partner to or from work. It's in a fairly rural location and the bus service is very limited.
The trouble with getting rid of the car is it then leaves them without any means of transport which is hard with his work commitments and a 7 month old baby and no money to replace it with a cheaper alternative. So it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
I will try to push them to sort things out but there is only so much I can do.
Any child care will be done within the family at the moment. So no costs. Unless I loose my esa I will more than likely provide the bulk of the childcare for the forseable future.
Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I will pass on as much as I can but at the end of the day they are both adults and it's up to them how they deal or not deal with the situation.

Sparx

Very true OP can only echo your last sentence. Only so much you can do, if they aren't willing then what can you do?!

Get your daughter to sign up here, come on this thread and post up a SOA showing their income and outgoings. Doing this in itself may then stand out to her where they are going wrong. If it doesn't, then others can outline where they should be prioritising payments and what's left for unsecured creditors.

Link for SOA: http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Potbellypig

Fibromacc wrote: »

”
Ignore what the council are asking for, just pay what they can afford to, and keep paying until the debt is satisfied, dont engage in pointless tooing and froing, if bailiffs call, keep doors locked, and dont let them in, they will only visit 3 times, then they pass the debt back to the council.

Someone told my daughter that the balifs would drill out the locks and gain access to the property.!
This obviously alarmed her but I don't think that they can do that unless they are repossessing the property.
Having spoken to my daughter today they are adamant the car stays. Which is apprently why step change etc won't help them.
They are keeping up with the current finance payments -just but not paying off the arrears as they will only accept a double payment or nothing.
There is no public transport that would get her partner to or from work. It's in a fairly rural location and the bus service is very limited.
The trouble with getting rid of the car is it then leaves them without any means of transport which is hard with his work commitments and a 7 month old baby and no money to replace it with a cheaper alternative. So it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
I will try to push them to sort things out but there is only so much I can do.
Any child care will be done within the family at the moment. So no costs. Unless I loose my esa I will more than likely provide the bulk of the childcare for the forseable future.
Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I will pass on as much as I can but at the end of the day they are both adults and it's up to them how they deal or not deal with the situation.

A young family without enough money - millions and millions of people have been and are still currently in the same boat. Can't fault StepChange for not helping them if they're not prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of their future. Having a car for the convenience of taking their daughter around is not a necessity.

Anyway, good luck and hopefully they make the right choices for their future.

enthusiasticsaver

At the moment it sounds like they are prioritising a car they cannot afford over council tax, energy bills and maybe even rent. Life is certainly more difficult without a car especially with a young child but not impossible. Yes your daughters partner may have to walk a way to get to public transport or change buses but it can be done. Failing that they may have to move nearer his work or get a job closer to home.

If they are adamant they will not give the car up they need to prioritise and make sure council tax, energy bills and rent are paid too. If not the court may award attachment of earnings or send bailiffs round as you say is already the case.

Westminster

It is likely the car will be removed fairly soon anyway.

From the sound of it, your daughter & partner are not likely to fully appreciate they can't keep the car until its taken from them.

In the meantime they will have thrown away valuable money chasing the dream of affording that car that would be much better spent keeping a roof over their heads and servicing priority debts.

Fibromacc

They are not keeping the car just for the sake of the child! He needs it to get to work as there is no public transport that would get him there or back.
And moving house is not exactly a sensible option. Where are they supposed to find a couplevels of thousand to start a new tenancy? And if they move closer to his job they will be further from her job and again no suitable public transport to get her to work which is in the oposit direction. And only having been in the job a few months after a period of unemployment and a spate of temporary jobs he really needs to stay where he is unless a dream job comes up closer to home which is unlikely. The job is full time and above minimum wage and such jobs especially in the care industry are hard to come by.
It is not an easy situation. Also if they move out of town there would then be higher transport costs. Anyone who has a small child knows that they don't get sick at a convenient time to catch a bus to the drs and if I'm not around it would be the cost of a taxi.