Over 60 - best course of action? Advice this weekend please???

Squiggly_Diddly

I'm posting for some suggestions as to what I can do to help my mum please. I'm fairly savvy with dealing with benefits offices/housing depts etc & I will probably get her to phone CCCS & have said she needs to get paperwork together in the meantime & write down her SOA for me. - I cannot put a full one on here as I don't know it completely but I'll give as much info as possible. But I'd like some expert suggestions if that is the right course of action??? Apologies if this gets a little rambly but trying to make sure the situation is clear!

She is 62 & retired - her only income is a combination of £120 p/m private pension (that does not increase yearly) and her state pension. At the moment it comes to something like £121 a week - she has about £1 a week too much to qualify for the pension credit top-up which would give her free dentist & optician - therefore she goes without those I think come April when the benefit rates change she may come under that barrier finally.

She lives in a council property, so rent & C/Tax are essentially paid (she has to contribute a minimal amount currently but again that may change come April).

I am a full-time student (& single parent) on a full-time unpaid work placement, but also work part-time. Mum helps me out enormously by looking after the kids after school (they're all teenage or nearly but can't be left alone for 5 minutes without a row!!). I do as much as I can in return to help such as paying to put her old car through MOT, pay repair bills, etc - keeping her car helps me as she needs it to run my kids about. She has dinner with us quite often (as it makes more sense for us to all eat together). I replaced her fridge-freezer when it broke a few months ago. And replaced the food.

It emerges she is £10,000 in debt - half being a loan with her bank, and the other half on 2 credit cards, 1 belonging to her bank, the other not. I cannot afford to pay this off for her - if I could I would do so like a shot. She has been using the credit cards to buy food etc - in other words to pay essential living expenses as she can't afford to pay her essential bills because the loan/CC repayments take up £200 of her monthly income. :eek: And I think she was "encouraged" to do the loan as a consolidation a couple of years ago.....

Her income will never go up (barring a lottery win which would be clever as we don't do it!). So she lives on the bare minimum the Government have decided is acceptable - £120 a week - and the situation is just going to keep getting worse as time goes on, from the way I see it. She has key meters for gas & electric & hardly ever puts the heating on, yet these take up £20 a week minimum between them. She does not drink, smoke or go out - there is no extravagant spending.

So, essentially, after all that rambling, I'm wondering if anyone knows what the best course of action may be? A DMP with CCCS? From what I can work out, she may have about £40 a month left over to pay towards this?

Thank you all in advance, any advice would be much appreciated. (And I am an OS fan too....)

Squiggly_Diddly

Just bumping as these pages move so fast! I'd really appreciate any suggestions - was going to get her to go & open a new basic bank account today or Monday, and then arrange to get her pensions paid into there. I can always send template letters off to her creditors (as there are only 3) direct for now if that's easier for her??

dubsey

Definately get your mum to give the CCCS a call. My mum is living on £59.15 a week but with rent and council tax paid, she too will not put the heating on and I found out yesterday that she hadn't eaten in 2 days because she had no money for food. Now at 58 she is trying (but not succeeding) to find full time work.

Mum called the CCCS and although they can't help her by contacting her creditors (I think because she can only pay £1 per month to each) they have been there to listen and advise whenever they could. I know they have been a massive help to her and have told her that as soon as she can pay more they will 'take her on' so to speak.

Good luck to your mum!

Squiggly_Diddly

Thank you for that. She has just paid in the last week or so the FEbruary payments, so I figure we have a couple of weeks to get things sorted.

I was going to get her to cancel the DD's to those companies, and then send letters offering token payments of £1 in the meantime too. Did your mum do that? Has she had a lot of hassle from the creditors in the meantime? I was going to do letters offering the £1, enclosing a budget, and telling them we are contacting CCCS & see how it goes from there....

My mum did find some work in her late 50's after my dad died very suddenly & she was left with nothing - she worked as a carer going to people's homes, and quite enjoyed getting out & about meeting people. But moneywise she was no better off working than retiring when she got to 60.

Squiggly_Diddly

Doing loads of reading & trying to get my head round DMP's, IVA's, etc.

Mum was talking about getting another loan but I really don't think that's the best idea - she would still be paying £200 a month & living on £300. Trying to figure out if she could do a DMP with only £50 or £60 a month? May be able to juggle the budget to get it up to £100 but don't want her to be living on bread & water either.

What about an IVA? Would that be better or is it the same as a DMP??

Sorry, brain is so overloaded & confused now...!!

fermi

Squiggly_Diddly wrote: »

What about an IVA? Would that be better or is it the same as a DMP??

No! An IVA is a form of insolvency, no matter how nicely the adverts on TV try to dress it up. In general you need to owe at least £15,000 and be able to pay at the very least £200 per month for 5 years. There is info on MSE here: IVA Guide.

Squiggly_Diddly

Thanks Fermi. She was talking about bankruptcy originally anyway - has absolutely nothing to lose, but would rather pay something I think. But no, doesn't sound like an IVA would be any good then - I have given her an SOA template to fill in over the weekend & then she will be ready to phone CCCS hopefully.

fermi

Squiggly_Diddly wrote: »

Thanks Fermi. She was talking about bankruptcy originally anyway - has absolutely nothing to lose, but would rather pay something I think. But no, doesn't sound like an IVA would be any good then - I have given her an SOA template to fill in over the weekend & then she will be ready to phone CCCS hopefully.

It does sound as if she has nothing to lose, but only a professional advisor from somewhere like CCCS should advise bankruptcy. The judge/courts ask if you have taken that sort of advice before they will grant it.

MSE has the Bankruptcy & Living With It to deal with issues regarding that, but CCCS and professional advice comes first.

If they need to go for a while making token payments then CAB money/debt advisor's can be helpful with that, but it depends on how busy you local one is and what they are like.