BR or IVA and Child's DLA?

HeadOutOfSandTime

I'm trying to work out what options we have to deal with our debts, I owe about 22.5k and my partner owes about 42.5k, all to different creditors. All was going well until I had to stop working 18 months ago, since then I've buried my head firmly in the sand and now the situation is getting really bad, I've already got one court claim form and probably many more to follow soon.

I am trying to see what our prospects of an IVA being accepted, but I am struggling when it comes to budgets and justifying outgoings.

I was working about 18 months ago but I had to stop to help my partner care for our 4 children, 3 of which have Autism and other issues, all three get £110.85 a week in DLA payments, Myself and my partner gets Carers Allowance, Child Tax Credits and Income Support.

The £110.85 per week that 3 of our children get currently goes into my account and even when entering the details in on the StepChange budget tool, it asks to include "Child's DLA" in the calculator.

Are these payments going to be accounted for in our affordability calculations for IVA/BR Purposes? The payments are for the children and not us, we do not include the payments in any of the normal "Household funds", they are for their benefit and not ours.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

jack_bauer19

hi im in similar position as your self
i have to leave work to be come a carer to our so ln who is austistic. and in very much in debt
tough init
a cnt imagine of difficult it was be for you like

PrettyKittyKat

Yes the DLA will be included as an income, as it is. However there will be a 'DLA offset' as an expenditure to account for the extra costs. These extra costs differ from child to child, as I am sure you know personally their needs can be very different. For some people with DLA it pays for higher heating costs, or higher food costs due to a restricted diet. All you need to do is have a rough breakdown of what it is used for the amount. It is unlikely to need evidencing it just needs to be discussed.

E.g.
£100 per months for additional clothing (so clothing expenditure will be in guideline)
£150 per month for physio/classes
£50 per month for specialist shoes
hopefully you get the point!

In some I&E's there is no DLA offset as the food expenditure, travel expenditure, clothing expenditure is above guideline and it is explained in the I&E that this is due to the additional needs. So effectively there is a DLA offset but just not as a listed expenditure it is included in others.