I’m desperate for advice help please!

nia_29

I am going to be 29 years old next week an I’m in a financial mess! I owe £11.126 pounds in loan, catalog and cc debt ( all together) currently paying £350 a month just servicing debt and unable to make a dent to it. 

I am currently working at a supermarket and making around 1200 a month with overtime but cannot get this debt down no matter how hard a try.
i am a mature student doing a science subject and will be transferring to a brick uni in September if all goes well.
I am utterly miserable and can’t sleep at night. I am trying really hard b it getting nowhere.
i decided to get advice from StepChange and the advised a IVA
we went through a budget ( I then read that is best to make sure all is covered and might need to change some stuff) 
I got sooo many questions. Don’t know what to do! 

It’s a IVA doable? Is the budget strict? I haven’t even learned to drive! I’ve been battling with this debt for so long than I haven’t been able to. Can I say save up something and buy a cheap car when I graduate? 
i can pay something just no 350.
what would happen when I’m a student? 

I feel so behind in life I don’t want to continue like this 

I don’t know what to do

editing to add my SOA:

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 0

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1132 ( this is with overtime my contracted hours are 24.5 and I make a minimum of 899.64 a month, however I do overtime I plan of making a minimum of at least 5h per week) I work so a supermarket fo overtime is available constantly 

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 1132[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 0

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 300

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 70

Electricity............................. 30

Gas..................................... 30

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 0

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 12

TV Licence.............................. 13

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 13

Groceries etc. ......................... 180

Clothing................................ 40

Petrol/diesel........................... 0

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 0

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 50

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 35

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40

Haircuts................................ 30

Entertainment........................... 35

Holiday................................. 40

Emergency fund.......................... 0[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 918[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 0

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 0

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 0[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Aquacard ......................3769.3....144.......34.89

Nationwide loan ...............2958.4....102.......12.5

Tesco .........................1422.74...25........0

Very card......................210.9.....18........39.9

Argos cars ....................233.73....13........29.9

Nationwide overdraft ..........950.......20........39.9

Capital 1 .....................450.......12........30.04

Barclaycard ...................1081.75...34........18[b]

Total unsecured debts..........11076.82..368.......-  [/b]

(Lots of credit cards that I used because I was alone in the country and they were my safety net when things broke I used them, I have chopped them of since and haven’t use any since February)

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 1,132

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 918

Available for debt repayments........... 214

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 368[b]

Amount short for making debt repayments. -154[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 0

Total HP & Secured debt................. -0

Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,076.82[b]

Net Assets.............................. -11,076.82[/b]

To give more info I am due to continue  a chemistry degree this September at a brick uni F/T and due to my immigration status I am elegible for a student loan as long as I continue working (15/16h or maybe less) the online calculator says I should receive around £7k? But I am thinking of the worst case scenario and assuming that I’ll only get £3k that would still let me pay the 110 that I’ve offered to pay plan.
i spoke to a few places the StepChange guy kept going on about an IVA and I could feel I was being pressure something  didn’t feel right so I said I wanted to think about it.
payplan suggested a Dmp which I feel might suit me better as I believe I can stick to the repayments and I can up them during the holidays with overtime and after I finish my degree to get rid of this quicker. 

At the moment I’m able to meet my repayments with lots of overtime but I’ve been trying for years to make a dent and I just can’t. Aquacard alone I’m paying 140 and they’re charging me 100 in interest alone. 

I strongly believe I can pay it off but not if they continue charging NG this amount of interest.
thank you for your replies guys! 

Edit for more information:
The thing is that while I am a student I am still required to work a min of 15/16h that’ll be around £587.52 when I put my and my partners income in and include higher figures just in case it still says that I will get a 7220£ student maintenance loan. It’s one of the reasons why I think a DMP might be a better idea for me, because I believe my finances will improve specially after I graduate and can work full time.at the moment I’ve always paid everything in time but I’m paying £350 a month and not making a dent. 

mwarby

If you rent them I’d suggest a almost certainly IVA isn’t suitable, you should be looking at a DRO or bankruptcy 

if your a homeowner a DMP would be worth looking into

if you could post a full SOA (https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php )that would help 

mwarby

Re reading your post makes me believe you are even less suitable for an IVA than I first thought 

An IVA is only really suitable if you are in a steady position, as reducing the repayments requires a new meeting of creditors and they need to approve this. Given you already know you’ll be in a worse position when you start uni I can see this potentially being a problem

An IVA budget is slightly stricter than a bankruptcy budget (typically). But for many the budget they have existed on trying to make the repayments before was even tighter. There are no fixed amounts but like bankruptcy there are trigger levels to ensure your expenses are in line with national averages. 

The budget in an IVA is stricter than bankruptcy as your creditors need to approve an IVA, were as they don’t approve bankruptcy(it happens whether they like it or not and gave very little control). This means that they can withhold their approval (which maybe critical to the IVA proceeding) until the budget is adjusted to allow for a better repayment 

mwarby

OP are you sure you spoke to stepchange directly, there are at least a few sites out there which use stepchnage name and branding, but are not the actual site is www.stepchange.org

sourcrates

No, an IVA is definitly not suitable for you, The reason IVA`s were introduced, was mainly to benefit homeowners with masive debts who could not go bankrupt, they do have their place, but only if you have a lot of debt, and an asset to protect.

If your income is likley to drop at uni, then that might be a good time to look at a DRO.

nia_29

mwarby said:

OP are you sure you spoke to stepchange directly, there are at least a few sites out there which use stepchnage name and branding, but are not the actual site is www.stepchange.org

Thank you I’ve added more info about my situation.

nia_29

sourcrates said:

No, an IVA is definitly not suitable for you, The reason IVA`s were introduced, was mainly to benefit homeowners with masive debts who could not go bankrupt, they do have their place, but only if you have a lot of debt, and an asset to protect.

If your income is likley to drop at uni, then that might be a good time to look at a DRO.

I agree an iva doesn’t sound like a good idea I felt It was being push on me.
i don’t think my income will drop for the reasons stated above 

mwarby

So as it stands your SOA would rule out a DRO as you have more than £50 left each month

You could increase you food a little perhaps to 200, your internet and phone seem very low, you could opt for fibre at say 20-30 a month 

however even with these changes you’d be looking at an IPA of some £200 a month, if nothing changed it would be £7200 over the 3 years. In an IVA that would be £12000 (you’d end up paying more than the original debt due to IVA fees)

However when your income falls the IVA would struggle, unless provision was made upfront. I feel that an IVA isn’t suitable for the level of debt, the varying income and the lack of assets to protect

If you were bankrupt and you became a student, they would look at income and expenditure again, which would almost certainly drop the IPA amount, perhaps to zero

i would consider either a DMP or bankruptcy and would lean towards the latter as the DMP could drag on when your income drops

i notice you have credit cards with many of the subprime lenders, it’s possible you may struggle to get cards with them as soon as others do, as you’d be defaulting against them 

hansolo2000

There is an avalanche of bankruptcy cases already and it’s about to explode

there ins talk of being fast tracked through bankruptcy maybe this will be a good thing

mwarby

It's not clear if this will be the case (the avalanche of bankruptcy cases) pretty much all lenders are offering payment holidays, which may yet be extended, many people have been furloughed (which again may be extended) and are saving money on travel and socializing. It's unlikely that creditors will want to force a huge number of people in to bankruptcy

Until such time that a fast track bankruptcy is announced we should be careful not to encourage people to delay taking action on problem debts. Such a scheme maybe months off, might never happen, it maybe overwhelmed and it maybe less desirable (when they last reformed Scottish bankruptcy, the Scottish equivalent of the IPA was extended to 5 years) especially given the communities experience in navigating te current rules . All the while people may be experiencing real worry and stress, which could be dealt with now under the current rules

nia_29

mwarby said:

So as it stands your SOA would rule out a DRO as you have more than £50 left each month

You could increase you food a little perhaps to 200, your internet and phone seem very low, you could opt for fibre at say 20-30 a month 

however even with these changes you’d be looking at an IPA of some £200 a month, if nothing changed it would be £7200 over the 3 years. In an IVA that would be £12000 (you’d end up paying more than the original debt due to IVA fees)

However when your income falls the IVA would struggle, unless provision was made upfront. I feel that an IVA isn’t suitable for the level of debt, the varying income and the lack of assets to protect

If you were bankrupt and you became a student, they would look at income and expenditure again, which would almost certainly drop the IPA amount, perhaps to zero

i would consider either a DMP or bankruptcy and would lean towards the latter as the DMP could drag on when your income drops

i notice you have credit cards with many of the subprime lenders, it’s possible you may struggle to get cards with them as soon as others do, as you’d be defaulting against them 

The thing is that while I am a student I am still required to work a min of 15/16h that’ll be around £587.52 when I put my and my partners income in and include higher figures just in case it still says that I will get a 7220£ student maintenance loan. It’s one of the reasons why I think a DMP might be a better idea for me, because I believe my finances will improve specially after I graduate and can work full time.at the moment I’ve always paid everything in time but I’m paying £350 a month and not making a dent.