Self-managed payment plan - SoA check needed first please

exponential

Hi all.

I have been in a backwards and forwards for over 12 months with Lowell and Mortimer Clarke who, to be honest, have been very reasonable with me. They have not pressured me at all which is great as it's allowed me to remain calm and collected throughout although the stress levels are still high.

I feel I am able to offer a small monthly payment towards my debts (all original debts defaulted 18 months ago) to Lowell and MCS.
I'm hoping to offer monthly payments to these debts in the hope that in 6 months time, I can increase the monthly payments.

Can somebody check my SoA below before I proceed with an offer.

My questions:

1. Does anything here look unrealistic or likely to be queried by Lowell/MCS?
2. With about £40/month available, should I offer that, something lower to leave a buffer, or token £1 payments per account
3. Any other advice you guys could give at this stage would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household............. 2
Number of children in household........... 2
Number of cars owned...................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly Income (after tax)................ 3,984.07
Partner's Monthly Income.................. 0
Benefits.................................. 0
Other Income.............................. 154.75
Total monthly income...................... 4,138.82

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage.................................. 1,249.34
Secured/HP loans.......................... 0
Rent...................................... 0
Management Charge (leasehold property).... 4.17
Council Tax............................... 166.88
Electricity............................... 155
Gas....................................... 64.66
Oil....................................... 0
Water Rates............................... 100.08
Telephone (land line)..................... 0
Mobile Phone.............................. 20
TV Licence................................ 14.54
Satellite/Cable TV........................ 0
Internet Services......................... 55
Groceries etc............................. 1,170.80
Clothing.................................. 148.95
Petrol/Diesel............................. 123.11
Road Tax.................................. 46.67
Car Insurance............................. 130.79
Car maintenance (including MOT)........... 50
Car parking............................... 8.92
Other travel.............................. 0
Childcare/nursery......................... 0
Other child related expenses.............. 130.44
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc)...... 39.33
Pet insurance/vet bills................... 0
Buildings insurance....................... 39.26
Contents insurance........................ 0
Life assurance............................ 0
Other insurance........................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)........ 50
Haircuts.................................. 6.83
Entertainment............................. 284.13
Holiday................................... 20
Emergency fund............................ 20
Total monthly expenses.................... 4,098.90

Assets
Cash...................................... 0
House value (Gross)....................... 217,000
Shares and bonds.......................... 0
Car(s).................................... 500
Other assets.............................. 0
Total Assets.............................. 217,500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage.....................166,026....(1,249)....8.49
Total secured & HP debts.................. 166,026

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lowell (6 accounts)...37,052.70...0...0
Cabot (4 accounts)...16,785.10...0...0
Total unsecured debts..................... 53,837.80

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income...................... 4,138.82
Expenses (including HP & secured debts)... 4,098.90
Available for debt repayments............. 39.92
Monthly Unsecured debt repayments......... 0
Amount left after debt repayments......... 39.92

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)............. 217,500
Total HP & Secured debt................... -166,026
Total Unsecured debt...................... -53,837.80
Net Assets................................ -2,363.80

Isthisforreal99

£250+ a week on food seems excessive for 4?

Clothing seems high? As does entertainment.

Water - is that metered?

Are the 2 cars really only worth £500.

exponential

Thanks, that’s really helpful. To clarify, “Groceries etc.” includes household items, toiletries, Amazon, vaping and my contribution to bills paid to my wife’s account. Food alone is about £730/month (£168/week).
We likely could get that down a bit I guess but having said that, a weekly food shop now is ridiculously expensive compared to just a couple of years ago.

Clothing has been averaged across 12 months so takes in account school clothing for the kids and so on.
Agree it looks high though.

Water is metered yes. We are currently disputing these bills with United Utilities as our water bill has jumped dramatically since they changed the meter a couple of months ago.

Yeah, the car is on old Qashqai from 2009 and my work van has no value as it's a write off which I bought back after an accident.

ManyWays

my contribution to bills paid to my wife’s account
what bills are these?

is the income you have out in after tax/

what are the other child expenses? and the entertainment?

exponential

She has personal debts that she is unable to pay so I pay them for her to avoid her getting into the same situation as me.
She is in an agreement with her creditors to get her out of perpetual debt. Her payments are fixed at £80, £80 and £30 per month.

Income is after tax

Child expenses are things like school meals, Football Club subs, Parentpay (school trips and the like), Scouts subs, spends for the children and other small child-related expenses.

Entertainment is related to days out/meals, home video subscriptions and so on.

Brie

You can't afford your own debts so how can you pay for your wife's?

You both need to rethink the entire situation, including your wife's situation, and come up with an accurate accounting of your household finances.

Or you need to be prepared to tell your creditors untruths in order to get them to agree to your payment proposals. I can't imagine any debt agency is going to believe that the amount you list for groceries is actually groceries (& you admit it isn't) so it's better/easier to get things right so you don't have to remember what you included in which categories.

edited to add: sorry if I sound harsh but you're doing the right thing to try to get this sorted but it's best to do it properly. expenses have got to be trimmed based on what you've listed so far. days out etc need to be cut. are the kids old enough to understand that mom & dad are in a tight spot and things need to be lean for a while? they need to learn about finances at some point so maybe this is a way to teach them how to be responsible?

Altior

If an entity owed your company money, would you accept a payment plan that lasted over 100 years?

It looks like you've compiled the SoA to match your income with a tiny amount of headroom, rather than the other way around.

Far more sacrifices are needed (in my opinion).

exponential

I completely understand the criticism and take it on as constructive not personal.
I'm doing all of this on my own and am struggling mentally because of it.
My wife can't help as she's got her own issues to deal with and I can't put this on here too as she's teetering on the edge as it is.

Trying to run a small business, father to my children. husband to my wife whilst juggling with all these debt letters is extremely stressful and I've made plenty of mistakes along the way.

I just want these people off my back so I can at least relax from it all for the next 6 months.

My SoA was generated by AI to help me put the figures together but I'm in so much of a rush to get letters out that it hasn't actually been fact-checked by myself and is wrong in almost every way. I was foolish not to actually treble check everything as it's nonsense really.

I note the comment about not being serious, I can assure you I am but I'm like a rabbit in the headlights so am missing very simple things that will trip me up because I'm juggling with so much right now.

I can actually afford just over £100 a month and, should I continue to win more work, the offers to my creditors will continue to increase every 6 months.
I'm just scared of clicking the button to send the offer letters incase they are rejected then I'm back where I started with it all.

exponential

Is true? Posted by another user on a different thread.

"3, You can just pay without saying anything , but it's better to tell them what you are paying so they put a payment plan on their system and turn the automatic threat generator off. They will often ask for income and expenditure details, you don't have to provide those but if they make too much fuss about it thencan be easier to send them something to shut them up. They don't have to be accurate figures, just make up something that looks plausible and arrives at the figure you want to pay. They won't care whether it's accurate or not, they'll just want some evidence they can use for ticking the "we checked it was affordable" box."

Like I said earlier, I just want them all off my back. So I can focus on what is important, looking after my wife and kids.

exponential

Monthly Income and Expenditure
Household: 2 adults, 2 children, 2 cars
Summary
Monthly (£)
Total monthly income 3,800.00
Total essential expenditure 3,699.16
Available for unsecured creditors 100.84
Monthly income
Source Monthly (£)
Net monthly income (after tax) 3,800.00
Partner's income 0.00
Benefits 0.00
Other income 0.00
Total income 3,800.00
Monthly expenditure
Item Monthly (£)
Housing
Mortgage 1,250.00
Leasehold management charge / ground rent 4.16
Council tax 202.00
Buildings insurance 9.00
Contents insurance 9.00
Utilities
Electricity 120.00
Gas 90.00
Water rates 98.00
Communications
Landline 15.00
Mobile phone 30.00
Internet 55.00
TV licence 15.00
Satellite / cable TV 60.00
Food and household
Groceries and household essentials 800.00
Travel (two cars)
Fuel 350.00
Car insurance 160.00
Road tax 12.00
Car maintenance (including MOT) 50.00
Parking 20.00
Children
Child-related costs (two children) 120.00
Personal and other
Clothing 40.00
Medical (prescriptions, dentist, optician) 30.00
Haircuts 30.00
Presents (birthdays, Christmas) 30.00
Entertainment 50.00
Holiday 30.00
Emergency fund / contingency 20.00
Total expenditure 3,699.16

This is much more realistic than the rubbish AI came up with.

I have already made quite a few savings and plan to make more by altering the way we live.
We live hand to mouth anyway so no difference really anyway.

exponential

I have 3 creditors totalling over £50k so have split the available monies between them pro-rata.
They all receive a share of the £100 per month based on the level of debt each creditor has on file.

Is that normally how things are done?