Debt timebomb......

Adam141

In the last few months I have seperated from my wife (still in same house) and I have lost my job (struggling to find another) which was our main source of income. Shortly (probably within a month) we will be running a deficit of close to £1000+ pcm (income/essential costs). We have a mortgaged home (with c. £60k equity) with debts (CC's & Loan) of c. £20k with a vehicle worth c. £10k which my wife needs for her job........could do with some advice on what the first step should be to tackle this? many thanks

Adam141

Also, we have 2 young children under the age of 12......

MovingForwards

Ask here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

You'll need to post a statement of affairs for anyone to offer suggestions.

Adam141

OK, thanks

Mrsn

It may also be worth you checking your entitlement to benefits using one of the calculators on entitled to or turn2us websites. 

london21

Contact your mortgage provider if you can reduce or pause your repayments.

Check if you might be entitled to universal credit whilst in the process of getting a new role. 

pinkshoes

Ouch!

As you are now separated, it might be worth looking at selling the house to cover the debts. 

Your wife might NEED a car for her job but a £10k car is a luxury. Can you not sell it, buy a £2000 car then use the £8k to cover the mortgage?

What sort of jobs are you applying for? ANY jobs at all? You say you are struggling to get a job, but day after day I see job adverts. I'm a teacher and we have SO many vacancies for teaching assistants at secondary schools. It might not be the best paid, but you could probably start after half term and it would fit with childcare and school holidays. You can then get add ons to the TA job e.g. paid for lunch duty (and free school lunch!) then there are often cleaning positions starting after school for 2 hours (we are currently paying our 6th form to clean the school as we cannot fill the vacancies!).

Good luck! 

TBagpuss

I agree with the recommendations above - talk to your lender about a payment holiday (it's usually to o late once you go into arrears) head over to the debt board for help on reviewing and trimming your budget, and widen your search to include jobs outside your current field - if you get a job you can still continue to look for jobs in your preferred field, but at least you will have some income in the mean time.


Even though you are separating, this impacts both of you so also try to discuss with your wife what steps you can take - is she working full time? Can she increase her hours at all?

Do check out your eligibility for benefits - www.entitledto.co.uk is very useful.

The two of you probably need to try to talk seriously about whether either of you is going to be able to take on the mortgage and buy the other out,- if not, getting the house on the market sooner rather than later is probably the best thing to do. In a worst case scenario, if the mortgage goes into arrears, then the lender is likely to be slower to seek repossession if they know you are already actively marketing the property, and if you can at least meet the minimum payments on the credit cars in the meantime you should then be able to agree to have these cleared from the sale proceeds