Bankruptcy- Newbie

fatbelly

It's routine. Just go with the process and answer honestly.

56puddles

fatbelly said:

It's routine. Just go with the process and answer honestly.

Yes, it is what I've done very soon after receiving the email.

I had it in mind to keep my head down and get on with remaining in the plus column; was just very surprised at receiving text and email. Until the fireside chat then...

Minkym00

Have you had a letter confirming that you are not getting an IPA? If not then you’ve not been assessed yet. 

56puddles

For any that might find themselves in a similar situation and wondering why the IS suddenly want to speak; it turns out they wished to run through the budget figures submitted and as it turns out, the budget costs have increased for water, duel fuel as well as groceries, making the budget even tighter. As fatbelly predicted, just be honest with the answers and nothing to get concerned about. For me, it was the unexpected email out of the blue that threw me a bit.

Hope this helps anyone else out there going through a similar process.

56puddles

Thought I'd share further experiences in case someone else should find themselves in similar circumstances.

I'm sure the Covid pandemic has affected collections agencies and not only in my situation.  The OR made contact a few months ago, apologising and explaining that the collections agency would make arrangements to collect my PAYE tax and would be writing to me in 28 days; this was several months after I had been declared BR. The OR confirmed that I wouldn't be held responsible for the few months that had elapsed and therefore, the collections agency should not try and backdate a request for monies.

Yep, you've guessed it, the collections agency tried to do exactly that. However, after speaking with the collections agency first and having the opportunity to explain why I felt their assertions might be incorrect, the first payments were put 'on hold' for a day, allowing me the opportunity to make contact with the OR - all done with politeness, which was appreciated. After spending some time digging out the information I required, I crafted an email to the OR setting out my concerns, while reminding of the agreement arrived at earlier in the year. I followed up the sent email within 2 hours and was able to speak with the OR that I'd spoken with during the summer.

The outcome - a good result. The OR was ticked-off with the collections agency, not least after the OR had written to them, instructing them not to try and make a retrospective claim for monies. My email had been escalated up the management chain and the collections agency would be looking forward to receiving an inbound call from a senior manager (I was able to provide the manager's name), so all's well after a bit of effort while not being bullied into something that was counter to an earlier agreement.

It was worth doing a bit of a refresh /background research before picking up the phone or firing off an email.