does spouse transfer count as income?

wandablake

Hi
I have been out of work due to illness for over a year and my spouse has been supporting me, transferring money each month to my account to meet household expenditure, my personal debt minimum repayments and a small amount for personal spend. This is my only income.

I am going to declare bankruptcy as my spend including my debt maintenance is unmanageable. My outgoings are higher than the money received from my spouse.

Do I need to declare the regular amount from spouse as 'Other Income' on the bankruptcy application form? I feel this would be the place to put it.

I am concerned that the Official Receiver is going to assume my spouse's money to me is available to repay creditors just like a salary would be?

My spouse is frustrated as he is good with money and I'm a mess, partly due to illness and partly my poor management. Understandably, he doesn't want to pay my debts but is fine with paying modest living expenses (travel, groceries clothes and 100 gbp personal).. I am anticipating a difficult conversation with the OR about how much of my spouses income is available to pay creditors. BTW, we have no shared assets or debts and this has always been the case.

Could anyone offer advice on how OR perceives debts by a bankrupt who is supported by a spouse? Thank you.

AnotherJoe

Money from a spouse is not income, if it was spouses would be on the hook for paying their other halfs debts, which they are not.
There should be no difficult conversation at all. It might be better of your spouse paid for these items from his account rather than yours, this will have to happen soon anyway as your current bank account will be closed.
If you are going bankrupt he should stop making any payments to support you paying your debts and you should also stop (apart from council tax and rent) Do you live in different houses ?

wandablake

Thank you. We live together but he is private about money, hence the long standing separation of our financies

If I don't put the money he transfers to me on the bankruptcy form and he stops paying it in from this month, I can explain to the OR when they see my bank statements that I don't see money from spouse as income?

I don't want the OR to think I am not being transparent but equally I don't want the OR to see the money from my spouse as a revenue stream for paying my creditors. For example,, if the OR says my children don't need 20 pounds a month pocket money and that could be used for IPA, my spouse would simply end up paying the pocket money and still transferring money to me for IPA. I know he would be frustrated with that arrangement.

If I put down zero for income on the form and just enter my own expenditure which would be petrol and credit card payments and going forward let my spouse pay all the children's things, food, etc directly rather than passing it through my account, would the OR understand? That would mean the SOA (income and expenditure) part of the bankruptcy form would not reflect the historic behaviour but a reassessed position. I will need to go bankrupt within the next month.

I can explain the situation when I speak to OR but I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with the application form.

I appreciate the advice for my complicated situation.

I want to add that I have nothing to hide from the OR. I am embarrassed and sorry about my situation and want to move forward.

Thank you.

AnotherJoe

You are still working on the assumption that money given to you from your spouse is "income". It isn't.
It's just gifts. .
He has no obligation to continue gifting you money.
Indeed and to worry you hopefully needlessly in retrospect it would be better if he'd never sent you this money because someone might take the view it was a joint loan or even his and that's why he was sending you money.. So the sooner he stops the better have you spoken to the organisations that deal with( these kind of issues I'm sure they can explain the legalities better than I can.
All you have to say if asked is that he doesn't wish to help you pay your debts any more.
And as I said when you go bankrupt your current bank account will be closed so get essentials like council tax utilities and rent switched to his.
Do you have no income at all? Nothing from a job, nothing from benefits?

Minkym00

Do you have any official income such as salary and / or benefits?

JCS1

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Money from a spouse is not income, if it was spouses would be on the hook for paying their other halfs debts, which they are not.
There should be no difficult conversation at all. It might be better of your spouse paid for these items from his account rather than yours, this will have to happen soon anyway as your current bank account will be closed.
If you are going bankrupt he should stop making any payments to support you paying your debts and you should also stop (apart from council tax and rent) Do you live in different houses ?

Not always, depends on the bank.

wandablake

No benefits or salary, no income at all.

wandablake

Thanks, we have no joint loans and such loans would show on a credit report, such information would be visible to OR. There is no history of me giving him money.

I am going to put zero down under the income section of the bankruptcy application form and my personal expenditure only under the expenditure section. I will explain during interview that spouse has been supporting me but cannot continue to maintain my debts. He will stop making any payments to me or towards my credit card debt.

I am probably overthinking it, my statements and credit report reflects what I have said above. The only income coming into my account was from my spouse and that is no longer the case going forward.

Agree that it would have been better never to have had the money passing through my account but I didn't see myself going bankrupt until a month ago.

Thanks.

Minkym00

Put down £0 income then and don’t include any any “other income”. As your partner is currently financially supporting you then it’s totally understandable that they would be transferring money into your account. It’s just moving household budget around, no doubt to cover DDs? If there are any questions, just be honest, but it’s not income and won’t be seen as income.