Ask a StepChange (formerly CCCS) counsellor a bankruptcy question

eggyf7 wrote: »

Hi im currently in the process of being made bankrupt(MAP) with StepChange charity in Scotland but i have a question re my mobile phone contract.
I am paying £65 a month and have 14months left of my contract with an early termination fee of £540 - can this be included in creditors? When my advisor asked for an ingoings/outgoings breakdown i listed £65 a month for phone but nothing was discussed further about my phone. i would prefer a PAYG sim
Also stupidly never included my PayPal credit debt of £750 as i thought it would effect my use of Paypal purchases using a bank card could this be added?

DawnMcUK wrote: »

Hello,

I have a complicated issue that I need advice on desperately. A little background: my husband and I declared bankruptcy in 1997, returned the house to the mortgage company, rented elsewhere and were fully discharged in 2001/2. I didn’t realise at the time what was controlling the spending until in 2007, when we had built our status back up, had good jobs and had bought the home we rented, then our only child died suddenly aged 16. We were in a spiral and debt began mounting. I then realised that my mental health was a major trigger for spending. We entered into an Iva which was extended twice when both my husband and I could no longer return to work. My physical health deteriorated quickly and I was registered disabled by 2009. We paid what we could and were released from the Iva in 2012.

Now though, things are back to crisis point. I have been extremely poorly and only receive employment support allowance and DLA (which was at highest rate for care and mobility); which has now been changed to PIP (which awarded me enhanced care but standard mobility - meaning I may lose my car). My husband is my carer and receives Carers allowance. We were managing ok, had a couple of credit cards and catalogues, but paid them ok, until early 2017, mere months after my step brother committed suicide and my step father died from lung cancer in the same month, a charity my husband and I set up in our son’s memory was taken from us (I don’t wish to explain further at this point). My health, both physical and mental plummeted, and my husbands mental health suffered massively too. We began to spend money on more cards and catalogues to fill the void. We had to move to a housing association bungalow in September 2017 after I was really poorly again, as I could no longer manage stairs or the house itself. We would not be able to afford to sell the house in its unloved condition; owing £73000 on the mortgage and similar houses struggling to get up to £75 - 80000 in perfect condition.

We just last week relinquished the house to the mortgage company as we cannot pay that on top of rent in the bungalow. We are still liable for council tax on the house so have received papers filing for the full year to April 2018 (and possibly beyond). We owe for utilities from the house and maxed out our 8 credit cards (approx £10,500) and our 5 catalogues (approx £5,500). We also have a loan with 2yrs left (approx £2,200) and are sick with worry as to what the mortgage company will say we are liable for. I’ve had to stop payments on the cards and catalogues today as I’ve been unable to shop for food for over 4 weeks, and we are so lost. I’m appealing my PIP as if I lose the car we would not be able to get another, meaning I would be practically housebound. I know my spending is directly related to my anxiety and depression, which then becomes worse due to debt worries. I’ve already caused us to enter insolvency solutions twice before, and I’m scared that there is nowhere else to go, or that I will be evicted from the bungalow! Please help!!