Relationship Breakdown Debt

OakyCokey123

Hello.  My son has recently come out of a long relationship and has 2 young children with his ex.  I have discovered that she has run up thousands of pound of debt in his name and it seems that he is left to pay it all off.  He has mental health issues and lives off UC and PIP payments, and is now also  being asked to pay her maintenance.  He has around £5,000 of debt to clear - what can we do??

vacheron

If she has run up her own personal debt in his name without his knowledge, the first thing to do would be to contact the police for a crime number and report her to the relevant lenders fraud departments.

OakyCokey123

Unfortunately he was aware.  They were living together and she couldn't get credit so he allowed her to do it in his name

FlorayG

well then he is stuck with it I think. It's legally his debt if he knowingly allowed her to use his name

OakyCokey123

That's what I thought, but wasn't sure whether there was a way to make her pay half - or at least some of it??

RAS

If he's on UC and PIP, he's not going to be paying much CSA, nor is he going to be forced to pay much towards the debt.

Just stop paying the debts, and suggest he avoids mentioning he allowed his ex to take out accounts in his name.

tacpot12

He should probably take professional debt advice from StepChange, National Debtline or your local Citizens Advice if they do debt advice. 

He won't have to pay any maintenance for her, but will have to pay her some child maintenance. The amount will depend how many nights the children spend with him, if any. You can look to see what he might have to pay using the CMS Calculator here: Calculate your child maintenance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It will be very hard on him, so well done for trying to support him. Please reassure him that things will get better over time. 

sourcrates

OakyCokey123 said:

That's what I thought, but wasn't sure whether there was a way to make her pay half - or at least some of it??

Even legal action can`t achieve that if she has little or no income.

Personally I would try the write off approach, tell them he has benefit only income, and cannot afford to service these debts, he has mental health issues etc, and you don`t see the situation changing anytime soon, they will put accounts on hold for a period of time, after this runs out, they may rinse and re-peat, and after that if things haven`t improved, may take a commercial decision and write the debts off.