DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

wood_for_the_trees

Hi,

Apologies for the novel, but I could do with some advice and a dose of sanity. TL:DR My DMP is at risk of being cancelled because I'm an idiot, but trying to fix the situation isn't working. 

Thanks to this forum, I started dealing with my £9,000-odd worth of debts 18 months ago, first by withholding payment from my creditors and forcing defaults, and then by setting up a DMP with Stepchange in August-ish 2020. 

Since then, I've moved house twice (thanks COVID) and my income has been all over the place due to furlough and unpaid sick leave. I've not managed to maintain an emergency fund. I have mental health conditions which make me especially prone to avoiding overwhelming tasks and which have been especially disruptive this past year, and so when the time came for my 2021 review, I just... put it off. And kept putting it off, because my income and expenses were in flux and because I was scared they wouldn't give permission for me keep going with the private therapy that I could now just about afford post-furlough. I couldn't see a line for anything like that in the OnlineDMP portal. (The fact that they no longer showed guideline amounts for expenses was nervewracking, too). I'll admit I tried to make the problem go away by just clicking through the online review without changing much of anything, but that got met with an auto-rejection screen and an instruction to call them, which led to more anxiety and avoidance. 

 In October I was "brave" enough to email the review team and explain the situation, and got reassurance that a) therapy was an allowable expense and b) I could contact them in the New Year once my I&E was more stable, so, in January, I did just that. I emailed my budget to the review team I had the agreement with, with justifications for the parts of it that I thought might need them or that wouldn't fit in the OnlineDMP template. However, the email bounced and the address (the team itself?) no longer existed. I resent it to "client services" as per the "contact us" webpage, with the email chain attached for context, but just got a terse reply saying that they couldn't make changes to reviews by email. I tried to use the OnlineDMP again, fudging the numbers to make my therapy fees fit in where there wasn't space for them and to make sure I was only paying what I could genuinely spare. Auto-rejection screen again. And again. More avoidance. Another round of mental health stuff that meant I forgot about it for a few weeks...

So now it's late March, and I'm getting letters and emails telling me that if I don't do my review now then my DMP will be cancelled in April. I've just tried to re-fudge my OnlineDMP budget and got four rejections in a row. I know the obvious answer is to call them, but a) their phone hours ARE my work hours and getting any time off will be quite difficult and b) my mental health makes phones the absolute worst way to communicate about stuff like this. I will probably cry and get very muddled. The appeal of Stepchange was how automated everything could be once it was set up, but that's just been so far from my experience these past few months. 

So... I guess my question is where I go (quite quickly!) from here? Does anyone know what the allowable limits are that Stepchange uses now? The budget I'm putting into the portal isn't excessive or implausible, so why does it keep rejecting? I've tried adjusting figures to no avail - is my account flagged somehow?  Can they see a history of the budgets I've tried to submit? Can I do a review over text-based communication at all, that doesn't require me to invent electricity bills I don't have in order to include everything? If I email again and re-explain the mental health/work hours angle, will they accept or will I just be wasting limited time? Will I be in the !!!!!! for fudging figures to try and get round their inflexible online form? Would it be easier to go self-managed, and if so, how do I make that transition in these circumstances?

Thanks for anyone who reads this - I'm just wobbling a bit. I know I've !!!!!! up but I have honestly tried to sort things, within my limitations, and it's got me nowhere....

sourcrates

wood_for_the_trees said:

Hi,

Apologies for the novel, but I could do with some advice and a dose of sanity. TL:DR My DMP is at risk of being cancelled because I'm an idiot, but trying to fix the situation isn't working. 

Thanks to this forum, I started dealing with my £9,000-odd worth of debts 18 months ago, first by withholding payment from my creditors and forcing defaults, and then by setting up a DMP with Stepchange in August-ish 2020. 

Since then, I've moved house twice (thanks COVID) and my income has been all over the place due to furlough and unpaid sick leave. I've not managed to maintain an emergency fund. I have mental health conditions which make me especially prone to avoiding overwhelming tasks and which have been especially disruptive this past year, and so when the time came for my 2021 review, I just... put it off. And kept putting it off, because my income and expenses were in flux and because I was scared they wouldn't give permission for me keep going with the private therapy that I could now just about afford post-furlough. I couldn't see a line for anything like that in the OnlineDMP portal. (The fact that they no longer showed guideline amounts for expenses was nervewracking, too). I'll admit I tried to make the problem go away by just clicking through the online review without changing much of anything, but that got met with an auto-rejection screen and an instruction to call them, which led to more anxiety and avoidance. 

 In October I was "brave" enough to email the review team and explain the situation, and got reassurance that a) therapy was an allowable expense and b) I could contact them in the New Year once my I&E was more stable, so, in January, I did just that. I emailed my budget to the review team I had the agreement with, with justifications for the parts of it that I thought might need them or that wouldn't fit in the OnlineDMP template. However, the email bounced and the address (the team itself?) no longer existed. I resent it to "client services" as per the "contact us" webpage, with the email chain attached for context, but just got a terse reply saying that they couldn't make changes to reviews by email. I tried to use the OnlineDMP again, fudging the numbers to make my therapy fees fit in where there wasn't space for them and to make sure I was only paying what I could genuinely spare. Auto-rejection screen again. And again. More avoidance. Another round of mental health stuff that meant I forgot about it for a few weeks...

So now it's late March, and I'm getting letters and emails telling me that if I don't do my review now then my DMP will be cancelled in April. I've just tried to re-fudge my OnlineDMP budget and got four rejections in a row. I know the obvious answer is to call them, but a) their phone hours ARE my work hours and getting any time off will be quite difficult and b) my mental health makes phones the absolute worst way to communicate about stuff like this. I will probably cry and get very muddled. The appeal of Stepchange was how automated everything could be once it was set up, but that's just been so far from my experience these past few months. 

So... I guess my question is where I go (quite quickly!) from here? Does anyone know what the allowable limits are that Stepchange uses now? The budget I'm putting into the portal isn't excessive or implausible, so why does it keep rejecting? I've tried adjusting figures to no avail - is my account flagged somehow?  Can they see a history of the budgets I've tried to submit? Can I do a review over text-based communication at all, that doesn't require me to invent electricity bills I don't have in order to include everything? If I email again and re-explain the mental health/work hours angle, will they accept or will I just be wasting limited time? Will I be in the !!!!!! for fudging figures to try and get round their inflexible online form? Would it be easier to go self-managed, and if so, how do I make that transition in these circumstances?

Thanks for anyone who reads this - I'm just wobbling a bit. I know I've !!!!!! up but I have honestly tried to sort things, within my limitations, and it's got me nowhere....

Well the obvious answer would be to speak to them.

When all is said and done, your DMP is just an informal way of paying your debts at a more affordable rate than your contracted payments would be.

Try not to make it any more complicated than that, Stepchange make there own rules about budgets etc, as they are creditor funded, fairness to all is there main priority, and yes, there online system is not that flexible.

If you find this is causing you issues, then self management may be an option for you, its very, very simple, you re-do your budget so you are not short of what you need, you then write to your creditors telling them you are going to be self managed from now on, ask for there payment details, tell them what they will be getting, and when, input there payment details to online banking, so all you do every month is click "pay" to each creditor, nothing could be easier.

By doing it this way, you get more flexibility, more control, and no one telling you what to do.

Newmum92

Well it seems I may have got too far ahead on myself in contacting creditors pro-actively!! As I am in the governments breathing space until 06/04 almost all of my creditors have simply responded to say that they wont consider my payment offer due to the breathing space, as they are not allowed to. I imagine as soon as 06/04 comes I’ll have a flurry of emails that they have been holding off sending for the past 60 days while being in the scheme so I imagine I’ll have to wait until then…. That means being patient, something I am very bad at, oh the joys! 

Hols2021

Hi,   

I received a letter from Newday today after my 3rd missed payment. It says we are sending you this Default Notice pursuant to section 87 of the consumer credit act. If you don’t pay we may sell your debt to a third party which may bring legal action against you. I don’t think this is the actual default notice is it? Would appreciate some help thanks. I had my breathing space with them but it’s over now and I’ve not made any contact since. 

sourcrates

Hols2021 said:

Hi,   

I received a letter from Newday today after my 3rd missed payment. It says we are sending you this Default Notice pursuant to section 87 of the consumer credit act. If you don’t pay we may sell your debt to a third party which may bring legal action against you. I don’t think this is the actual default notice is it? Would appreciate some help thanks. I had my breathing space with them but it’s over now and I’ve not made any contact since. 

If it says its a default notice, then it usually is, I assume it gives you a date to pay by ?

Wait until that date has passed, then next update check your credit files.

Hols2021

sourcrates said:

Hols2021 said:

Hi,   

I received a letter from Newday today after my 3rd missed payment. It says we are sending you this Default Notice pursuant to section 87 of the consumer credit act. If you don’t pay we may sell your debt to a third party which may bring legal action against you. I don’t think this is the actual default notice is it? Would appreciate some help thanks. I had my breathing space with them but it’s over now and I’ve not made any contact since. 

If it says its a default notice, then it usually is, I assume it gives you a date to pay by ?

Wait until that date has passed, then next update check your credit files.

It says you must pay by x date 

if you don’t we’ll send you a letter terminating your credit agreement and the further action set out below may be taken against you. 

If we terminate your agreement we may sell your account to a third party. 

sourcrates

Hols2021 said:

sourcrates said:

Hols2021 said:

Hi,   

I received a letter from Newday today after my 3rd missed payment. It says we are sending you this Default Notice pursuant to section 87 of the consumer credit act. If you don’t pay we may sell your debt to a third party which may bring legal action against you. I don’t think this is the actual default notice is it? Would appreciate some help thanks. I had my breathing space with them but it’s over now and I’ve not made any contact since. 

If it says its a default notice, then it usually is, I assume it gives you a date to pay by ?

Wait until that date has passed, then next update check your credit files.

It says you must pay by x date 

if you don’t we’ll send you a letter terminating your credit agreement and the further action set out below may be taken against you. 

If we terminate your agreement we may sell your account to a third party. 

Just let the dice roll, they will go through the process and your account will either be sold or go to collections.

These things usually take time, once the default is confirmed on your credit file, the ball is in your corner.

Newmum92

Hi - sourcrates you may remember me talking about the 20k AA loan. Hope you don’t mind the direct question to you but thought it made sense as you knew my situation. 

AA loans have sent me this- is this a good thing? I can’t quite work out if they are accepting the TPP for now or not. 

 Hi

I am confirming that we have received notification of the Debt Respite Scheme and it is due to end 07/04/2022. I have applied your income and expenditure form to your account and I can see you are offering a payment of £9.41 towards your loan which does then leave you in a deficit of £00.86. We are happy to accept a payment of £8.55 towards the loan to prevent you having the deficit. If this is an agreeable amount then please could you let us know when you would like the arrangement to start from, bearing in mind your account will be falling into arrears on 28/04/2022. The arrangement in place will be a token plan which means if you pay £8.55 every month then £345.68 will fall into the arrears each month.

Token Payment Plan (payments to arrears and not paying CI)

Whilst you are paying lower than the contractual payment amount, your Credit file will be updated to reflect this and could reflect you to be in arrears whilst showing you’re in a paying Arrangement. If you miss a payment for your arrears, we will be in contact to understand why. If future contractual instalments are missed, the instalment amount will be added to the arrears with the possibility of additional fees. If a Direct Debit fails, you may also get a charge from your bank account provider.

Please be advised that if you are more than one contractual instalment in arrears, and haven’t received the letters yet, you may receive a Notice of Default and a Credit Termination letter. These letters are required by law to be issued to customers in arrears, and they will inform you that if you are unable to maintain you contractual instalments and repay your arrears, your credit agreement may be terminated and a default may be registered on your credit file  A default will impact your ability to borrow further money and will remain on your credit file for 6 years. If your situation doesn’t improve and a default is registered, we will be back in contact to assess your financial situation at that stage, to discuss repayment of the outstanding credit balance

As this is a token plan we will need you to make manual payments by SO and our bank details are below 

Thanks for your help as always! 

sourcrates

Newmum92 said:

Hi - sourcrates you may remember me talking about the 20k AA loan. Hope you don’t mind the direct question to you but thought it made sense as you knew my situation. 

AA loans have sent me this- is this a good thing? I can’t quite work out if they are accepting the TPP for now or not. 

 Hi

I am confirming that we have received notification of the Debt Respite Scheme and it is due to end 07/04/2022. I have applied your income and expenditure form to your account and I can see you are offering a payment of £9.41 towards your loan which does then leave you in a deficit of £00.86. We are happy to accept a payment of £8.55 towards the loan to prevent you having the deficit. If this is an agreeable amount then please could you let us know when you would like the arrangement to start from, bearing in mind your account will be falling into arrears on 28/04/2022. The arrangement in place will be a token plan which means if you pay £8.55 every month then £345.68 will fall into the arrears each month.

Token Payment Plan (payments to arrears and not paying CI)

Whilst you are paying lower than the contractual payment amount, your Credit file will be updated to reflect this and could reflect you to be in arrears whilst showing you’re in a paying Arrangement. If you miss a payment for your arrears, we will be in contact to understand why. If future contractual instalments are missed, the instalment amount will be added to the arrears with the possibility of additional fees. If a Direct Debit fails, you may also get a charge from your bank account provider.

Please be advised that if you are more than one contractual instalment in arrears, and haven’t received the letters yet, you may receive a Notice of Default and a Credit Termination letter. These letters are required by law to be issued to customers in arrears, and they will inform you that if you are unable to maintain you contractual instalments and repay your arrears, your credit agreement may be terminated and a default may be registered on your credit file  A default will impact your ability to borrow further money and will remain on your credit file for 6 years. If your situation doesn’t improve and a default is registered, we will be back in contact to assess your financial situation at that stage, to discuss repayment of the outstanding credit balance

As this is a token plan we will need you to make manual payments by SO and our bank details are below 

Thanks for your help as always! 

Basically they have accepted your token payment offer, but still reserve the right to default the account, as and when they see fit, which is most likely what will happen after a few months of token payments, so yep, looks ok, its a waiting game now.

debtfreeme2021

Evening all

Just wanted to come on and say thanks again for all the support and advice .I’m about 5 months into the process now 3/6 accounts defaulted . 1 AP in place that I still haven’t had the courage to cancel yet  . Small EF fund started and growing, budget still a bit of WIP but about 80% there . Out of the 3 defaults I now have 1 payment plan arranged with PRA who have been very supportive. 2 payments made to Wescot online -  I need to pluck up the courage to call and discuss a plan . The 3rd I haven’t had any follow up since the default notification , it’s on my credit file so I’m patiently waiting further communication . The remaining 3 accounts keep sending me statements and asking me to contact their arrears team so again I assume I just keep holding out ?? I’ve got from being scared to open every letter , at one point something seemed to arrive daily , to almost monthly contact and less and less calls . I’m hoping in the next couple of months I will receive all defaults and can start to look ahead and count that clock down.  Thanks to this page which I found by chance I’m starting to feel that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel , I can see a future where I’m in control . I’m eternally grateful for your valuable advice . Thank you 🙏