my debts will never be paid...PLEASE BE NICE

Desperadoo

Hello, bit of background 

I was with Payplan with s DMP then in March 2020 as was self employed and when Covid hit income dropped and has never really recovered,  went self managed DMP December 2022.  

Everything going ok , have paid a total since March 2020 of £8.5k but still owe £31k.  when with Payplan was £200 per month and Currently pay £105 per month 

Reality is I am now 61 years old and these debts will NEVER be paid before I die...  I will be 87 and doubt I will still be around then.  I am ill and may have to give up work, not due my state pension til I am 67 so in reality will have no income unless I can get sickness benefit ( or whatever it is called ) I know self employed can claim BUT if I give up my job I may not get this. 

I only earn approximately  £200 per week and have no hope of earning more, I am ill and cannot even see me being about to work til retirement age,

I rang one of the Credit Reference Agencies  who owns 2 of my debts and the girl was lovely, once she got me calmed down through the tears so I could get up to date balances and did a new income and expenditure and on paper It say I cannot pay what I am but I asked her to leave it as it is for the minute.

Because I owe so much  £31k I really dont know what to do ....I cannot go bankrupt due to the part time job I do , I have no assets to sell.

Part of me says as this will never be paid anyway reduce the payments to minimum rather than £105 per month.... company  who I rang I pay £80 per month,  they offered to reduce this to £30

I just done know point even of this post as just dont know where to turn 

Grumpelstiltskin

Are  you sure  Bankruptcy would be a problem for your job?

Have you looked at a DRO?

There is a thread here, but things have changed since it started, a DRO can cover debts up to 50K now.

Debt Relief Orders (DRO) - Information & help thread — MoneySavingExpert Forum

fatbelly

There are several forms of insolvency designed to help people in different situations who have debts that can never be repaid, or we should say not paid in a reasonable timescale.

You say that you cannot go for bankruptcy because of your job. Do you have that in black and white, and does that say the same about IVAs and DROs?

We can definitely help. There are lots of ways of both increasing income and dealing with debt. But because that would involve a lot of questions, it would be really helpful if you could prepare, and post, a statement of affairs using this link

https://lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

tigergambit

On income around £800 per month you cannot afford to pay £105 or in fact anything at all. Reduce your payments to £1 and ask them to consider writing the debts off.

ManyWays

I could make a lot of guess and assumptions and many of them might be right, but as @fatbelly says there may be lots of ways to improve your situation. A Statement Of Affairs will help us to not mention the ones that are very unlikely to help and just talk through the real ones

sourcrates

And if push comes to shove, you just stop paying, after all, you have no assets, so what can they actually do?

The answer is nothing, as they can`t take what you don`t have.

We can find you a way out of this, of that there is no doubt, and there are various things you can do, and strategies you can employ, but as said previously, to avoid 20 questions, fill out the SOA, and we can get the ball rolling.