Desperate for help

Wyke

Hi Martin, and guys.

I'm at my the end of my tether and don't know where to go next.

First I would like to appologise now for what may well turn out to be a long post. But if I'm asking for help I guess I should tell the whole story.

I'm emplyed as a staff nurse with the NHS, after stoppages my take home pay is about £1550 per month. Up until about this time last year it was in the region of £1850

Like most folks I have a lot of outgoings, mainly a mortgage, a big bank loan and a car loan. Along with my other regular bills my out goings were, and still are approx £1250 per month.

Things were plodding along nice until November last year when I was taken ill and spent almost seven months on sick. I have an arthritic condition which caused my right ankle to crumble and colapse. I now have to wear a calliper to walk.

At the end of january my wages dropped to basic, the £1550 I am on now. Unfortunatly this caught me out. My fault I had missunderstood the new pay conditions just implemented by my trust.

I went overdrawn, and starte dto get hit with big charges, big enough to stop me recovering even after I had pulled my belt in tight. I went to the bank to discuss things before the problem became unmanagable. Unfortunatly, because the arthritic condition is something I have had problems with for about three years, neither the loan, nor the car loan would pay out as it was classed as a pre-existing condition.

In short, the bank offered no help. Because the loan I had with them was so big they would not extend any credit, even on a temp basis.
Well I struggled on, just about keeping my head above water.

I returned to work in may this year. But because of the caliper I have to wear, and the branch of nursing I work in it has been deemed dangerous for me to return to ward based work, so I am now working Monday to Fridays, nine to five. So was still about £300 per month down in my wages.

But it was also agreed, that because it was them imposing this on me, I would go onto protected pay for a year. That would have sorted things out, had it worked. I could have recovered everything and get my finances in order for when I dropped perminantly.

But due to the ineptitude of my NHS managers and administrators, that never happened. When I was still on the basic wage at the end of August I started screaming at my wages department. But with people on summer holiday, then moving to new offices and other things I was not able to get things sorted until the middle of September.

Then I discovered that they had never got the paperwork from my manager. Once I knew what the problem was, I was able to chase things up and get my managers to do their job properly. I was assured that everything would be sorted by the end of October, when I would not only get protect pay, but also all the back pay due.

By this time my account was in a mess, simply due to all the bank charges I was beinghit with. I have been paying upto £200 per month. But I didnot panic too much. The back pay would sort everything out.

I again contacted the bank and this time they grudgingly granted me a £500 overdraught for one month. That got me through October.

Then today, I get a phone call from the bank, to inform me that they have refused the car payment standing order. As I'm talking to the person on the phone I discover that my wage, which is due to go into my account is only £1650, a good £1000 less then I had expected.

I again contacted my wages department and they confirmed that I had been granted the protected pay, and had been paid the back pay due, this was a one off payment of £250.
After struggling to stay calm and discussing the matter with them it turns out that they have calculated my protected wage on my last six months wage before it should have started in May. Which of course was when I was on sick, an dnot on my last six months working average.

So between the ineptitude of my managers and wages department, and teh bank constantly screwing me into the ground on Monday, my finances melt down. I'll be about £200 short of paying all my bills, let alone having any cash to live on.

The real annoying thing is though. If I could only just get everything sorted out I can still live with the new lower wage. Yes I will have to pull my belt in for a couple of years,but I've got ride of a lot of stuff and would have about £200-250 for living expenses each month.

I've lost control of everything. If I can just stop everything I can recoup all this. I just don't know what to do next, and that is where I am now asking for help with suggestions about what I should do?

Thankyou fr your time if you have read this far

Debt_Free_Chick

Let me see if I can summarise the position.

Your take home pay fell. You didn't cut back your spending to match your lower pay, so you've run up an overdraft and bank charges.

You thought you would get some back pay to cover this, but the back pay is less than you thought it would be.

You can manage for the future on your new pay, but you still have an overdraft to pay off - is that right?

If so, you might be better off on the Debt Free Wannabe Board, but you need to post up your normal monthly budget and then, separately, list all your debts. This might simply be a matter of managing your finances to ensure you can meet your debt repayments and pay off the overdraft - but we'll need some figures to help.

The pay is a separate issue - are you still owed some money? Have you raised this with work?