Checks during DRO application & process

2socks3023

Hi

I am considering a DRO, and need advice please.

I’ve spoken to Step Change about my debts, and a DRO appears to be the most appropriate solution.

I appear to meet the criteria, but have really severe anxiety about starting the application.

My anxiety is around life-complications, the risk of inadvertently submitting a fraudulent DRO application, and adverse impacts on my future employment.

My post is stupidly long. Apologies for this. I have attempted to format it to make it easier to read.

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My financial and personal situation, in brief:

• I have debts to the value of £15k. This is credit cards, paypal credit, and a couple of things I bought on monthly terms (which I no longer own).

• I live alone in a council house, on a secured tenancy.

• I have a permanent physical disability, and am currently a wheelchair user.

• I am currently unemployed, and on long-term sickness.

• My sole income is benefits + PIP (high rate mobility and care)

• My income & expenditure meets Step Change’s criteria for advising me to apply for a DRO (in that I have far less than £75 remaining each month before paying anything towards my debts).

• I will continue to be unemployed and in receipt of benefits as my sole income for the next 12 to 15 months due to having several joint replacement and other surgeries planned for the coming year.

• Following this, I intend to return to work. Under normal circumstances, I work in a career which has a professional registration. I don’t want to say which, but similar to Nurse, Social Worker, and Occupational Therapist in that the right to practice is controlled by the professional registration body.

All of the above has led Step Change to advise a DRO.

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Complicating factors in my life:

• Although I live alone, and claim benefits on the basis of this, my ex-partner still has some connection to my address.

• Due to he/she being on low income, he/she has been unable to find stable accommodation since moving out maybe 18 months ago, and has mainly been sofa surfing with friends and family.

• He/she stays overnight at mine a couple of nights each week.

• He/she stays overnight at mine solely in their role of paid support worker. (I receive the high rate care component of PIP for this).

• The Benefits Agency are aware of this…granting me an exemption on the bedroom tax for it. The council are aware of it too. Both are satisfied we are not fabricating a lifestyle in order to defraud public services.
  

• None of this should be an issue, but…

• My ex is still on the Electoral Register at my address. The reason for this is that he/she doesn’t have an alternative address as a home, in addition to probably hoping for a reconciliation at some point in the future.

• My ex still has active credit/contracts registered at my address. These include broadband, mobile phone, and gym membership.  The reasons for this are same as the previous, in that he/she doesn’t have an alternative address to use. I don’t use the services he/she pays for. Obviously, he/she uses their own gym and mobile. He/she uses the broadband when they are here.

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My anxiety:

• I have really severe anxiety around two things mainly...though they are linked. They are around the general point of submitting a DRO application that may be deemed fraudulent, and around the impact of this on my career.

• Although my own life and that of my ex are entirely separate, and any apparent connections are entirely circumstantial, I can see how this might not appear to be the case to anyone undertaking an investigation following a DRO application.

• I am hardly sleeping, for the fear that the fact my ex is still on the Electoral Register, and still has contracts for broadband, gym, and mobile phone at my address might be construed as evidence that he/she is living here, and that this would constitute an attempted fraudulent DRO application.

• Linked to this is a paralysing fear of the impact of an accusation of a fraudulent DRO application on my plans to return to work following my planned surgery.

• Whilst a DRO wouldn’t have an adverse impact on my career, an accusation of fraud most certainly would…to the degree that I would be barred from future practice by my professional registration body.

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My questions:

• What checks are undertaken as part of the DRO application and process, and by whom? I keep reading on this forum and other places that “The £90 DRO fee doesn’t buy much investigation time by the Receiver”, which is understandable, but surely there are some checks? The entire process can’t rest solely on self-disclosure, can it?. It would take literally 60 seconds to check my credit file online, to click the link for associated persons, and to see that my ex has active contracts / credit agreements at the same address. The same applies to the Electoral Register.

• From the information I have provided here (and I have no reason to lie, omit, or distort given that I want advice and I am posting anonymously), how likely is it that my application would be viewed as being fraudulent? The fear and distress of this far exceeds the anxiety and distress caused by my debts.

• Are there alternatives to a DRO that seem appropriate? My £15k debts are roughly equivalent to 4 months pay on my return to work…but I would be unable to practice again if I engaged in fraud. The complications in my life make it feel like I would be gambling my career away for 4 months pay. This feels like a huge, risky, and unnecessary gamble.

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Apologies again for the lengthy post.

And many thanks in advance for any advice.

RAS

You are definitely overthinking this. But you need advice from someone who's really experienced. @fatbelly

2socks3023

RAS said:

You are definitely overthinking this. But you need advice from someone who's really experienced. @fatbelly

No doubt. Overthinking is difficult to switch off at the mo.

But an accusation of attempted fraud would end my career though...

sourcrates

Living with someone, or not, is not going to end in the result you suspect.

On a scale of overthinking things, you are well over the limit with this post, granted, its the fear of the unknown, but nothing you have said would be prejudicial to having a DRO granted.

Its your DRO intermediary that prepares your application, its fully checked to make 100% sure all information is correct before it is submitted, if anything were to be amiss, it would not be submitted till rectified, so once it goes to the insolvency service, its virtually guaranteed to be accepted, all the IS do is check the basics and rubber stamp the application, you are right in that £90 does not buy much of the IS`s time.

You need to wind things down substantially, DRO applications are simple and easy, and do not attract the scrutiny you suspect, your suspicions that you may be committing fraud are frankly silly, I don`t know where you get such thoughts from, but they are totally unjustified.

2socks3023

sourcrates said:

You need to wind things down substantially, DRO applications are simple and easy, and do not attract the scrutiny you suspect, your suspicions that you may be committing fraud are frankly silly, I don`t know where you get such suspicion's from, but they are totally unjustified.

Thank you

It's not, strictly speaking, a fear I might be commiting fraud.

It's fear that I may be suspected of commiting fraud.

I am confident that any such suspicion would be proven false, but the nature of my profession is that I would be legallyobligated to dislose any such investigation to my professional registration body. This would trigger a referral to the Fitness to Practice panel, an entirely separate investgation which would take many months to conclude, and which would impact my right to practice.

You are right in saying it is a fear of the unknown. I have a fear of taking a step along an unknown path...A step which would be impossible to retract if/when it goes wrong.

fatbelly

It's an individual application and you are free to spend your PIP how you like - it doesn't even count as income for a DRO

I read your post and there is nothing there that would cause a problem.

The DRO Team at the insolvency service spends literally minutes checking your application. They check that you have not had a previous DRO in the past 6 years and check that the debts you have declared match an Experian report, which is why your intermediary will make sure they have seen one.

They'll check the adding up on the income and expenditure, check your payment is in and and that any valuation of asset seems reasonable. If I say 99% get approved, that's probably an underestimate.

Who have stepchange suggested to do your DRO? My understanding is that they no longer process them,

sourcrates

Please read fatbellys post above, he is a DRO intermediary with CAB, the same professional body who would assess your application.

So when he says he can see "nothing that would cause a problem" you can believe it.

I fail to see where you are getting this suspicion of committing fraud from, nothing you have posted would lead me to suspect anything of the sort.

RAS

Thanks, fat belly.

I hope that 2socks will use CAB for their DRO. I believe they are rather busy with all the extra work since Stepchange pulled out?

But have seen comments suggesting the new contractor doesn't yet have the staff required, or trained?

2socks3023

fatbelly said:

It's an individual application and you are free to spend your PIP how you like - it doesn't even count as income for a DRO

I read your post and there is nothing there that would cause a problem.

The DRO Team at the insolvency service spends literally minutes checking your application. They check that you have not had a previous DRO in the past 6 years and check that the debts you have declared match an Experian report, which is why your intermediary will make sure they have seen one.

They'll check the adding up on the income and expenditure, check your payment is in and and that any valuation of asset seems reasonable. If I say 99% get approved, that's probably an underestimate.

Who have stepchange suggested to do your DRO? My understanding is that they no longer process them,

Thank you

It's not the PIP aspect.

The thing that worries me most is that my ex has a broadband contract at my address (in addition to still being on the electoral register)

He/she doesn't live here.   And only stays overnight in the role of paid support worker.  As said, both the Benefits Agency and Council are happy with our arrangement.

But surely the broadband confuses issues?

I don't imagine many support workers take out broadband contracts at their place of employment.

He/she has done this because of the fact that they are my ex, and that they did live here up to 18 months ago. This  causes lack lack of clarity.

Would the fact that he/she has this contract cause the DRO Team to suspect fraud?  This is the question for me.

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Step Change haven't recommended an intermediary.

I've just read through the Personal Action Plan that Step Change emailed to me. It's stated that an approved intermediary will guide me through the process...but there's no mention of a specific intermediary.

sourcrates

No one checks who may or may not have a broadband connection at your property, in the same way no one checks who may or may not have a subscription to Hello magazine, both are irrelevant for DRO purposes.

"Would the fact that he/she has this contract cause the DRO Team to suspect fraud?  This is the question for me".

No, it would not even be a consideration, why do you think it would be ?

"He/she has done this because of the fact that they are my ex, and that they did live here up to 18 months ago. This causes lack lack of clarity".

Again, only to you, not a consideration for DRO purposes.

DRO`s can only be accessed through a DRO intermediary, such as CAB, Christians against poverty, and a few others.

2socks3023

sourcrates said:

Please read fatbellys post above, he is a DRO intermediary with CAB, the same professional body who would assess your application.

So when he says he can see "nothing that would cause a problem" you can believe it.

I fail to see where you are getting this suspicion of committing fraud from, nothing you have posted would lead me to suspect anything of the sort.

Thank you

Where I'm getting it from is fear :':cold_sweat:

The massive, paralysing fear of 1)The unknown,and 2)A referral to my professional registration body's Fitness to Practice team

I'm sure  the anxiety caused by the debt is leaking into other bits of my mind too.