Some advice please

BabyStepper

Even with no car costs and no tv license you will still be £22.23 short every month. Stopping your pension would reduce that to £6.23, but that is with no entertainment budget, gifts budget or any of the extras that make life enjoyable, or any way to get to work. I'm really worried for you, no wonder your mental health is being effected, this is a really difficult situation.

I just tried to do a benefits calculation but I don't have enough of your info. Have you managed to do that yet? I keep thinking you are surely entitled to something.

It would help us to know how many shifts you work per week therefore how many taxi journeys, how many hours and what your hourly wage is. Can you car share with a colleague? You seem to have odd ideas about extra work, such as that it will all be taken in tax and pension contributions. It won't. And in your situation every penny counts.

Selling your car would give you an emergency fund which you really need.

Let us know how you are getting on with it all.

fatbelly

A_new_Start wrote: »

If I went the DRO route do they have a specific place they will accept valuations from? Such as Parkers?
I've just gone through Webuyanycar and they value it at £975 :-( Would they accept them as a valuation?

Yes, think I put that on the other thread. If it can be valued on Parkers, it should be. WBAC is explicitly disregarded as they openly value below the market price. If WBAC say it's worth 975, it probably is going to be worth around 1400. It's free to check - just put your reg in.

Oh, and think about whether you should kill off your last overdraft and card tomorrow - you may need some way of paying off last year's council tax before they slap £80 on it and send it to bailiffs.

No-one's going to criticise you for putting it on a card - it's moving priority debt to non-priority. The way things are going it'll end up in a DRO but will cause fewer problems in the short term while you get your budgets sorted.

redux

I don't think a taxi is feasible. I paid £13 plus £2 tip for 4 miles at 2.30 am, and that was about 13 years ago. I doubt that 6 or 7 am would be much cheaper.

Is it possible to split the trip between cycle and bus or train? Secondhand bike for £50 to £100.

arnoldy

As suggested. 12 mile round trip = Bicycle? 30 minutes each way.

redux

arnoldy wrote: »

As suggested. 12 mile round trip = Bicycle? 30 minutes each way.

Ah, I first read the thread last night, then misremembered it this morning as 12 miles each way, hence the part bus or train suggestion to start with.

Six miles each way should be fairly feasible from scratch.

Try to avoid a mountain bike style, with fat tyres soaking up too much energy.

A_new_Start_2

fatbelly wrote: »

Yes, think I put that on the other thread. If it can be valued on Parkers, it should be. WBAC is explicitly disregarded as they openly value below the market price. If WBAC say it's worth 975, it probably is going to be worth around 1400. It's free to check - just put your reg in.

Oh, and think about whether you should kill off your last overdraft and card tomorrow - you may need some way of paying off last year's council tax before they slap £80 on it and send it to bailiffs.

No-one's going to criticise you for putting it on a card - it's moving priority debt to non-priority. The way things are going it'll end up in a DRO but will cause fewer problems in the short term while you get your budgets sorted.

I checked on parkers and it suggested my car could be worth 2500....i didn't pay for the advanced search but it will be less than that as it has some minor damage and higher mileage than they allow for. I think selling it will be the answer. If I sold it now, then applied for the DRO would they look at that like I was being dishonest? And if I sold it and couldn't get a suitable car right away would they then not allow the DRO because I had a pot of money spare?

A_new_Start_2

fatbelly wrote: »

Yes, think I put that on the other thread. If it can be valued on Parkers, it should be. WBAC is explicitly disregarded as they openly value below the market price. If WBAC say it's worth 975, it probably is going to be worth around 1400. It's free to check - just put your reg in.

Oh, and think about whether you should kill off your last overdraft and card tomorrow - you may need some way of paying off last year's council tax before they slap £80 on it and send it to bailiffs.

No-one's going to criticise you for putting it on a card - it's moving priority debt to non-priority. The way things are going it'll end up in a DRO but will cause fewer problems in the short term while you get your budgets sorted.

I don't have a card left to use now. All frozen, except TSB, which I destroyed.

[Deleted User]

fatbelly wrote: »

If you do decide you can avoid the need for a TV licence, it's an easy self-declaration online and gives you protection for (I think) 2 years.

There's no legal requirement to make any kind of declaration, and they won't believe you anyway.

Just ring up and cancel (and don't be pressured into saying why you don't need one - you don't need to justify yourself to them), then cancel your DD.

From then on, ignore the monthly "Threat-O-Grams", and their doorstepping sales people.

katsu

If you cancel the TV license you can still watch other channels on "catch up" like ITV and channel 4 & 5, just not BBC iplayer. We don't have a TV license and I do watch the occasional programme on the other channels. You can still listen to BBC radio.

In your situation I think it is worth cancelling now if you can. We do complete the online declarations so that we don't get bothered by the threat-o-grams or doorstep visitors.

I would definitely suggest that you look at a second job if you are not getting overtime most months as you can't make ends meet on your current salary.

You can maybe get a bike on freecycle? Definitely worth considering a bike instead of a car as that way you would go from a monthly deficit to a surplus.

I hope the ideas from everyone here can help you improve your situation.

[Deleted User]

katsu wrote: »

We do complete the online declarations so that we don't get bothered by the threat-o-grams or doorstep visitors.

You've never had them try to "confirm this with a visit to your address."?