going fulltime to partime and not claiming universal credit then DRO application?

stu12345_2

myself and wife are in a DMP from stepchange , £22,500, still owed (£11,250 each) we have been on it for 18 months, 3 years still to go. about £540 a month, We are exhausted in our jobs, they are physical, we are 55, we asked boss to go from fulltime to p/time,---  earning about £700 a month each. they agreed. I spoke about a DRO, as we would be eligible.
Questions,  is that allowed ? in a DRO being passed. going fulltime to p/time.? and we also looked at partial housing benefit, we rent council, we have to apply universal credit to get some... we would get about £35 a week, our rent is £77. but we dont want to search or be seeking fulltime jobs anymore. So we could apply as have to sign claimant commitment. hence wouldnt claim any benefits.  we would have to pay full council tax though. I have a feeling we will be in negative balance when our income , expenses are worked out via DRO advisor ,slightly? does that cause a problem? in application?.eg how will we survive? eg food banks?
I spoke to national debt helpline, they said not claiming any benefits is allowed when applying for a DRO, im getting a  lengthy DRO phone call next week from CAB, I want to explain to them, we are still fulltime, but need to know all will be ok, if we go p/time then apply for DRO, ( will we have to wait 2 months on lower wage) ( or could we apply immediately) even tho wont have 2months wages slips on  new wage?
My boss said once we go p/time , there is no going back, as they will ahve new employees doing our old jobs, so need to know hypothetically, all is ok, before we go p/time new legal work contract. then DRO would be ok to apply.
We fit the other criteria, eg old car, no home, no savings. never had DRO, bankruptcy in last 6 yrs 

sourcrates

The only restrictions of note that apply to a DRO is the fair treatment of creditors prior to application.

There are no rules about reducing your employment hours beforehand.

The only potential issue is your disposable income, it must be £75 or less, but having a negative balance suggests you would not survive on such a budget, and no one would approve such figures, as they would be unworkable.

You MUST budget correctly, so all your expenses are covered, and you have a reasonable standard of living.
Think very carefully about what you are doing.

fatbelly

If you qualify for UC you should claim it, inc housing costs.

Likewise with Council Tax support.

It would be unusual for someone on UC to fail the DRO surplus income test, unless they were getting a lot of child and disability related benefits. It's a very rare case.

Better to inflate your expenses on food etc than deliberately deprive yourselves of benefits. The trigger figures for the Standard Financial Statement are very generous.

The £11250 each seems remarkably symmetrical. That's not a joint debt of £22500 is it?

stu12345_2

yes , we owe almost the same,  the problem is would the regulator see it as potential making ourselves poorer by reducing our hours?  we no longer want to work fulltime until the DRO is complete, 12 months, then we will up our hours in a  diff job, as for universal credit, it states each person much actively search for 35 hrs a week work at min wage, if we get forced into a fulltime job, it would end the DRO and put us back to square one. Housing benefit is part of a universal claim, ( thus force into the claimer commitment of fulltime work seeker) hence we cant get it, even though its not much per week value.
our work is making us ill through exhaustion, but not enough to go on the perm sick  etc..

plus if we did make a universal credit claim, surely we would get a ban as they would ask, why did you leave your last job, etc, we would have to put we reduced our hours on purpose, as we are exhausted, I mean what would they do? they would say i and wife caused the damage, hence no universal credit for you for 13-26 weeks,, and no help with rent? its a mess, someone give us the correct answer please what to do. I cant handle any more weeks of exhaustion in my job and the CAB is contacting us in 10 days for telepone interview about a DRO consideration.

fatbelly

It's not a problem for the DRO.

How best to play the benefits situation is best asked on the benefits board.

Council tax support is not part of UC so you can make a claim for that

stu12345_2

thus even if we did apply for universal credit, just to get the tiny housing help part, what would happen if i or wife refused to apply for fulltiem jobs, how do we explain to the job centre, we cant as it will cancel our DRO and force us back to owe £11, 250 each approx. ( we did owe approx £18,000 each, but DMP has brought it down)
 should we not look for fulltime work and just get a DWP ban for 13 weeks etc, but that would force us to live on our £600 a month wages each, which would probably not be enough, unless we used foodbanks for a year, or we took our expenses down to a min and lived mega frugally,( and not claim UC) the main worry is when we apply for a DRO , if we do apply, are we forced to claim benefits, the national debt helpline advisor said we dont in the answer he gave, i think. and will the insolvency service see it as ok not cliaming universal credit.( as we dont want to seek fulltime jobs)  Note, we cant get council tax help, as £1200 a month income is too high for a band A flat.

stu12345_2

Year ago, i spoke to the council about my woes, they said get a DRO, 100s of their tenants do, i assume they thought i was perm disabled, on perm sick,or a  pensioner, etc, i explained I wasnt and they went "oh ". You see my prob, i watched, read about  case studies on the net,, etc about DRO folk who couldnt work, etc and they got one, but what about myself or wife who are  exhausted in a physical job that is spread over 13 hrs a day, we cant keep this up for 3 yrs still to go on a DMP, we need a fast 12 months fix. such as a DRO.

stu12345_2

fatbelly said:

It's not a problem for the DRO.

How best to play the benefits situation is best asked on the benefits board.

Council tax support is not part of UC so you can make a claim for that

done an online council tax benefit calculator, we dont qualify, we only qualify for around £40 a week housing rent help ina universal credit calculator , we dont want to go down that universal way and all its claimer commitment rules.

stu12345_2

fatbelly said:

If you qualify for UC you should claim it, inc housing costs.

Likewise with Council Tax support.

It would be unusual for someone on UC to fail the DRO surplus income test, unless they were getting a lot of child and disability related benefits. It's a very rare case.

Better to inflate your expenses on food etc than deliberately deprive yourselves of benefits. The trigger figures for the Standard Financial Statement are very generous.

The £11250 each seems remarkably symmetrical. That's not a joint debt of £22500 is it?

benefits is all good and dandy, if you think you will need benefits for a long long time, but we only need it for 12 months to see us thro the DRO period, but we arent fulltime job seekers, p/time will suit us, we dont want to get a DRO only to see it cancelled mid term, via the job centre forcing us into fulltime jobs, and we would also being breaking their claimer commitment, as we arent fulltime job seekers, and back to square one by going back to fulltime again and back to another 3-4 yrs dmp.
Things used to fine when i last claimed housing benefit 12 yrs ago, i had a small pt/time job, no debt, and all this lumping housing benefit into a claimer commitment UC is all wrong. imo. If you work 16 hrs or more , you arent a job seeker , your wages are more than JSA, end of story, you should get housing help, regardless. Just my 2 cents, as they say.

stu12345_2

sourcrates said:

The only restrictions of note that apply to a DRO is the fair treatment of creditors prior to application.

There are no rules about reducing your employment hours beforehand.

The only potential issue is your disposable income, it must be £75 or less, but having a negative balance suggests you would not survive on such a budget, and no one would approve such figures, as they would be unworkable.

You MUST budget correctly, so all your expenses are covered, and you have a reasonable standard of living.
Think very carefully about what you are doing.

are you saying, if expenses are say £1201 a month, but income is say £1200, the DRO application would fail? how tight is it, cant we just say, we will use food banks etc. our DMP we have gives us a fair buffer, we can have savings, pension contributions, rainy day money, decent food allowance etc, but if we had that one chance by scrimping for 12 months and writing off £22,500, i would gladly eat rice and beans for 12 months !!

fatbelly

stu12345_2 said:

are you saying, if expenses are say £1201 a month, but income is say £1200, the DRO application would fail? how tight is it, cant we just say, we will use food banks etc. our DMP we have gives us a fair buffer, we can have savings, pension contributions, rainy day money, decent food allowance etc, but if we had that one chance by scrimping for 12 months and writing off £22,500, i would gladly eat rice and beans for 12 months !!

What we're saying is that if the true position is that your expenditure exceeds income then somewhere you will be accruing debt. You want the DRO to be a clean start and not immediately be behind with water, gas, elec, council tax etc when the DRO ends.

That's why you need to plan carefully and explore (on the benefits board perhaps) what the reality involves in claiming benefits if you are entitled to support.