Just a little help and or advice?

elkay115

I haven't posted in this part of the forum before so please be gentle with me. Quite frankly I am in utter doo doo as far as debt goes. I owe so much that I don't even know how much because I have never had the guts to sit down and add it all up.
At the moment I am not working, I don't have a mortgage. Suffered quite bad from depression on and off for years, at the moment I feel really, really down and very rarely go out the door unless I have to.
I receive working families tax credit of £46, and was getting the rest topped up by JSA (around £15 a week) but the depression got to me and about a month ago I couldn't face going to sign on and that money has since stopped, along with my rent and council tax rebate. I know I am my own worse enemy at times, but doing stupid things like not going to sign on, but at the time I really just can't help myself.
The letters pile up but I have no way to pay them so ignore them hoping they will go away. Yep another stupid thing to do.
I am already in agreement with all the companies I owe money to pay an amount monthly, but I just can't afford it.
Life just sucks, and I just feel so down and so stupid to be in this mess and not being able to see any way out of it all. I never answer my phone during the day and never answer my door unless I know it is a friend or family member that is coming to visit me.
So after typing all that I am not really sure what I am looking for? Maybe just somewhere I can vent without feeling I am being judged?
Anyway any advice will be greatly appreciated.

tigtag02

The only people that will judge you in here are the occasional troll and they are not worth our time

You have come to the right place.

Do you feel that you could talk to CAB? I know that its going to be hard but you have to speak to someone with regards to your benefits.

If you post your SOA we can help there

BIG HUGS

darcyvuqua

noone judges here all i can say to you is keep your chin up there are always better times around the corner xxx

boredofbeingathome

I agree with tigtag, there is no debt that can't be sorted.

Everyone will do their very best to support you.

I don't know whether you have seen the depression support thread, and also Martin's article on debt and depression and mental health ( don't take that bit as an insult) Sometimes we can feel so down that it is hard enough to make a cup of tea, let alone sort out debts.

So grab a cup of tea, and deep breath and begin to take the next step on your debt free journey.

Well done on starting, by posting on here.

BOBx

10past6

Hi & welcome to the forum

If you've aleardy made agreements with the companies, this shows you do have the strength to deal with your financies.

What about contacting them again and requesting a reduction?

10past6

You could send them this letter:

Your Address

DCA / Creditor’s Address

Date

Dear Sir/Madam

Re Account No/Reference No:XXXXXXXXXX

Since making that above agreement with you, my/our circumstances have changed.

I/ We cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

I/We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and our outgoings. As you can see we have only £XX per month left for our creditors.

The offers we have made to our creditors have worked out on a pro−rata basis, and we have written to all our creditors asking them to accept reduced payments.

In view of my / our circumstances, please would you agree to accept a reduced offer of £XX per month. If interest or other charges are being added to the account we would be grateful if you would freeze these so that all payments made will reduce what I owe you.

Should our circumstances improve I /we will contact you again.

Thank you for your assistance.

I/We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

elkay115

Thanks for the advice so far. What is a SOA?
I did try to reduce the payments a few months ago and none of them would agree to it because I was paying a really minimum amount even then. When I first arranged payment plans with them all I was unemployed. Then got a job which was the only way I was managing to pay them but lost my job a few months ago. I never told any of the companies I had started working because I knew they would have wanted larger payments from me, and I was just managing the payments while working. So I can't really say to them I have a change of circumstances.

Arrghh! It's all just one big mess!

10past6

SOA = Statement of Affairs

Click here to complete yours.

elkay115

Oh right well I may tackle that tomorrow. It might take a while to find all the letters and actually work out what I owe.

The simple answer though is I get £46 a week and my rent is £42 a week. Which hasn't been paid for about a month now.

I am supposed to be paying £10 a month to 4 different companies. I am ready to get my phone cut off because I can't afford to pay it.

Like I say it is all rather one big fat mess.

10past6

elkay115 wrote: »

So I can't really say to them I have a change of circumstances.

They CANNOT take what you don't have.

You MUST inform them you are still in financial difficulties.

Should any of your creditors take legal action, IT'S IN YOUR OWN INTEREST YOU SHOW THE JUDGE YOU KEPT THEM INFORMED OF YOUR SITUATION.

Were all here to help and offer advice, my advice, your debts are not going to go away, better to try and deal with them sooner rather than later.

The members on this site will offer all the help / support / guidence they can.

10past6

elkay115 wrote: »

Like I say it is all rather one big fat mess.

But it all CAN be sorted, remember, as serious as it may appear, it's only debts, you may well face many more serious challenges in the years ahead.