Do I have to do this?

sourcrates

You can put any old rubbish figures into a DCA`s income/expenditure form, just make it benefit you, simples.

MardyMinnie

Thanks everyone for all the advice. There's no reticence to fill out the planner because I'm hiding anything - it will confirm it's all I can afford right now. Cabot have kindly given me a month's pause to fill it out, so I won't get any hassling messages in the meantime. Hope everyone manages to have a decent Christmas.

cymruchris

sourcrates said:

You can put any old rubbish figures into a DCA`s income/expenditure form, just make it benefit you, simples.

I wanted to say this but you've said it for me.... 

cymruchris

MardyMinnie said:

Thanks everyone for all the advice. There's no reticence to fill out the planner because I'm hiding anything - it will confirm it's all I can afford right now. Cabot have kindly given me a month's pause to fill it out, so I won't get any hassling messages in the meantime. Hope everyone manages to have a decent Christmas.

Hopefully everything will work out, and you can close this chapter. If you remember further down the line when everything is settled - come back and lets us know how it all eventually went. 

fatbelly

The SFS trigger figures for food&housekeeping are extremely generous. If necessary just inflate until everything balances

backinbusiness

Hoenir said:

Reticence in the financial world suggests there's something being hidden.  A flag to dig deeper. 

Rubbish.  Individual agents in debt-collecting don't have the time to analyse an I&E to the nth degree.  The OP does not legally have to furnish this information.

MardyMinnie

Thought I would update this to say I filled out the budget planner to the letter – i.e. with the actual sums, not massaged ones! – and have been offered the same monthly sum that I wanted to pay in the first place! It feels good to have it all sorted so I can now just crack on with paying. What's been a really stressful situation can now just be reduced to background noise for the foreseeable. Thanks everyone for the advice and input.

cymruchris

MardyMinnie said:

Thought I would update this to say I filled out the budget planner to the letter – i.e. with the actual sums, not massaged ones! – and have been offered the same monthly sum that I wanted to pay in the first place! It feels good to have it all sorted so I can now just crack on with paying. What's been a really stressful situation can now just be reduced to background noise for the foreseeable. Thanks everyone for the advice and input.

Sounds like a positive step forwards. Thanks for coming back to update us.