Potential DRO - universal credit query/children

Hopefuljcr

I have been burying my head in the sand for way too long now and need to get mine and my husbands debt under control. Most debts are just irresponsible spending/getting into difficulty with bills after having a disabled child and me not being able to go back to work.

My debt including joint debt (£13,872) is £23,152 and husbands including joint is £28,532. He earns a full time ok wage, I am on carers allowance & we have a joint universal credit account together. I think I am able to do a DRO and he just wants to go bankrupt as we have no assets and his job won't be affected. How does our income get worked out in regards to how much we should be each putting into the household bills? Do I class all the universal credit as mine or does it get split between us when working out income? Does my daughter's DLA get disregarded? We spend all her DLA and more on her needs every month.

Also, we have 2 children living at home and my husband has an older daughter we have 50% of the week, we pay for everything she needs here and half of her weekly school lunches/bus etc, there is no child maintenance payment as we just pay for what she needs when here but technically she's not on our universal credit claim so can we even put her down as living here?

I have just finished putting all our debts into a excel sheet with references so its ready to go when I can work out how our income is split and also try work out what we can put for expenses particularly in regards to my step daughter.

Hope this all makes sense - my brain is fried after a whole day of tracking down debts and making spreadsheets. Thank you.

fatbelly

Are you already working with an intermediary? Be guided by them. CA and Money Wellness do most DROs.

Your husband should also persevere with one as long as they say he qualifies. If he does not, then go bankrupt. DROs have two big advantages: they are free and there is never a contribution from income.

Broadly speaking, they do a joint assessment of expenses and then apply the proportions of your income to that. For example if he earned nine times you, then he would take 9/10 of the expenses, you would take 1/10. That would translate to different surpluses and so it could be that you qualify, he doesn't. But go through the process.

Daughter's DLA is hers, not yours.

You should be honest about what you spend. If that looks high your Intermediary will put an explanatory note.