My Partner is Unemployed with £20k Debt

Graham1982

Hello everyone:

Here are a couple of ideas which might help or might be redundant:

Schools are hiring, I guess it depends what the subject is that she teaches but they are hiring. I would advise that she registers with some teaching agencies. You probably do need to register with about 5 to secure any work but once you have got some work with one, you will relatively constantly be in work.

I keep getting offers for interview in schools in the UK (I am an English teacher) but am working abroad.

I would suggest the best thing she could do to help secure work is to get a DBS check done on the live update system as this is what ALL agencies will want. From memory it costs about £35 to do and then there is an annual fee thereafter but this means that when you do register with agencies you can give them your DBS straight away and be out working sooner.

Also, this is probably not an option at the moment as she is yet to complete her NQT but has she considered teaching abroad, specifically in the Middle East? Salaries are good and tax free, accommodation is usually provided or subsidised and if you work in the right place (or wrong, depending on your personality) you can save lots of money as there isn't really much to spend it on.

Cheers

Graham

thriftychick

Regarding her work, our school only hires NQT teachers to replace any teacher that leaves so, I think she stands a good chance as Graham1982 said. Many families are also looking for Tutors to enable children to catch up before September so that may be an option too.

fatbelly

Nick_K said:

sourcrates said:

If you can`t pay your debts, then there is a range of debt repayment options available, dependant on circumstances.

How close to 20k is she ?

Any possibility of getting the debt under 20k ?

A DRO (Debt relief order) may be the way out if the debts can be brought under the 20k mark.

She would be an ideal candidate if -

# she is not a homeowner

# has debts of 20k or less

# no car worth over £1000

# no assets worth more than £1000

# has less than £50 disposable income left, not including debt repayments.

If she was able to continue her repayments, the total left to pay is currently £20,001.47. Based on her settlement balances though, the total is £17,167.15. 

Looking at the requirements -
# She has around £2,000 in a help to buy ISA. (which she is prepared to use in order to repay some of her debts)
# She has a car which is probably worth more than £1,000, however £4,672.75 of her debt is made up of the car repayments, which at this point probably exceed the value of the car.
# I would say she meets all other requirements.

Thanks you

If the car is on HP then it is not hers and so she does not breach the DRO criteria. The payments would not be an allowable expense but a third party could make those payments. If it completes within 12 months then the DRO would likely  be revoked at that point. If there is more than 12 months remaining then that wouldn't be a problem.

£1000 is the maximum asset limit so the 2k ISA would prohibit a DRO.