A question about : Such a big mess!
You know the saying... 'you can't help who you fall in love with!'
Brief History... my husband has a history of mental health illness and 2 weeks ago he had a psychosis episode while at work and he walked off site (Agency factory work) and I took him to A&E and he was admitted to a mental health hospital. He had been a little 'strange' for a while but not ill enough to be admitted. Anyway, he was detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act but that has now been changed so he now comes home at night and I take him back during the day while I'm at work.
Since this happened he has confessed to being in a great deal of debt totalling Ј29,000 (including overdrafts which I didn't know where to put on the SOA) which he must have built up over a while since we did a consolidation loan (Nationwide Further Borrowing).
We went to the Citizen Advice Bureau yesterday to freeze his credit cards and start a debt management plan for him but looking at our total outgoings and debts I might need to sort out mine too! (although I'm on top of mine and was paying Ј50 over the minimum payment on mine up until this all happened!)
Last night we rang to place a claim for ESA but I understand that people with a mental health illness often get turned down even though his mind wouldn't focus on a job.
We have quite a bit of food in the cupboards & freezer and enough cat food to last a month but my wages won't even cover the household bills and now I'm really scared we'll lose the house. I've placed all our details in the working tax credit website but it comes up zero because my husband was in a good job last year with a take home pay of Ј1239 a month!
My overdrafts are close to their limits (-Ј75 on Ј100 overdraft and -Ј190 on Ј250 overdraft but need fuel to get to work and the virgin bill is due soon). ALL the household bills come out of MY bank account and are all up-to-date. All I can think about is how long until we have to sell the house!
I'll post my SOA below and would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1046
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0 (ESA claim not yet approved)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1046
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 527
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 288
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 117
Electricity............................. 65 (gas/electricity combined Ј125)
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28
Telephone (land line)................... 37 (Virgin phone/tv/internet)
Mobile phone............................ 2.5
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 32 (usually use the 2 council tax free months to pay car tax on my car)
Car Insurance........................... 61
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 120
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10.4
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 38.55
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 55 (Ј5 Aviva & Ј9 Scottish Provident for me... Ј41 Scottish Provident for my husband due to mental health history)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1643.82
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 122000
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 67161....(527)......5.88
Secured Debt.................. 14659....(288)......5.64
Total secured & HP debts...... 81820.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Hubby Nationwide CC............2042......104.......19.9
Hubby Halifax CC...............13084.....369.......20.95
Hubby Lloyds CC................1783......48........20.94
Me Lloyds CC...................4243......98.34.....20.94
Me Nationwide CC...............2472......63........19.9
Hubby Barclaycard CC...........6497......139.......19.9
Hubby Amazon CC................2168......25........ (1.31% per month)
Hubby Tesco CC.................1985......39........(1.57% per month)
Total unsecured debts..........34274.....885.34....-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,046
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,643.82
Available for debt repayments........... -597.82
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 885.34
Amount short for making debt repayments. -1,483.16
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 122,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -81,820
Total Unsecured debt.................... -34,274
Net Assets.............................. 5,906
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.
Best answers:
- hi...ring working tax and explain that your earnings have now dramatically dropped and ask them to advise whether you can start a claim from today's income.
The ESA claim hasn't been turned down yet so don't panic yet...if it does get turned down I know lots of people that appeal with the help of their psychiatric team and get some financial support then. (I work in the community and part of my role is supporting people with MH)
The debt is scary but fixable...there are lots of options that stepchange and citizens advice can give you - Hope you get the benefits sorted out very quickly for him. In the short term could you sell one of the cars to release some cash to help?
- I was up early again this morning and I have emailed our local MIND organisation, asking if we are able to get help with filling in the ESA medical forms. My husband is physically fit to do any work he is offered BUT mentally, he's 'not with us' all the time. Thank you for the advice about applying for Working Tax Credits... I'll ring on Monday.
I'm looking back over the last few months and the arguments we have had over petty things (and me thinking 'is it time to separate' if things aren't the same anymore) and now I realise that his mental health hasn't been right for a while. I remember asking him if he was feeling OK but his answer was always 'I'm perfectly well, I'm not getting ill again'.
I get paid on 30th November and I'm going to look at the dates the household direct debits come out of my bank account and see at what point/what date in December the money will run out. - Your initial strategy is going to be about buying you time to sort out a long term plan, and see whether your husband will be well enough to work.
So the first thing is to make sure your income (your earnings and his Ј71 CBESA if he gets it) is safe - it should be going into a bank account unconnected to your debts.
If that does not already describe your current account then you need a new one - a basic account will do.
You may get some council tax support to reduce your council tax - check and claim.
Then your non-priority creditors get a Ј1 token offer and the mortgage/secured loan get a proportion of the contractual monthly instalment, according to what is available. On your figures they get about 25%.
Both secured lenders do need to be kept up to date with developments and could be asked about their hardship schemes. If this is not resolved within a few months, you may have to ask about an assisted voluntary sale, or even the government's mortgage rescue (MRS) scheme.
Enough to be going on with, I think... - Hi Socks
Welcome and sorry to hear Hubby is unwell, mental health is a poorly understood. Problem, but I think it is accepted there is a strong link between debt and mental health.
If you did the SOA again excluding DH debts how close would you be to meeting your household costs etc?
Maybe think about DH in DMP and you keeping a -relatively -good credit rating.
IMO Step 1 though as previous poster said, make sure income in an account where it can't disappear through direct debit. Withdraw cash now if you can't get an account open fast enough.
Step 2 stepchange for DH debts
Step3 ask for reductions / payment holidays on any of your debts bills, maybe extend your mortgage making reduced payments til DH back on feet again.
The stepchange website has a host of information and you can be anonymous until you actually ask for them to get involved.
Also as previous poster said, you need an emergency fund - if credit is hard to come by what do you do if the cooker/boiler packs in etc
Lots of advice in this thread, I think you are awesome in your approach to DH mental health and the debts, and you will sort it out. It is ok to ask for help, good luck. - Looks like I need to do my SOA again...
The car insurance I combined my husband's and mine - his would be Ј38 a month if it wasn't already paid in full, and mine is Ј23 a month give or take a few pennies.
Car maintenance - I think I meant Ј120 a year (as a guess).
We DO have contents insurance but it is a combined policy - I suppose I should have put Ј19 for buildings and Ј19 for contents.
I recently did a MSE fuel comparison and I didn't see much of a reduction. We currently pay Ј125 a month direct debit for combined gas/electric so I just divided it in half(ish). I entered my meter readings on Friday and we are currently Ј286.09 in credit. I could ask for a refund but we are now coming up to the coldest part of the year. I will submit more meter readings on 30th November and see where we are. Surprisingly, we didn't put the heating on until about 7pm tonight.
I will look into losing the tv part of the virgin package. We only got it because we were paying Ј29 for phone/internet and then brought out the '3 for Ј30' package.
Quote: - I really don't have any useful suggestions, I'm afraid, Socks. I just didn't want to read and run. My heart goes out to you.
x - If you don't want to get a refund for the energy, why don't you look at lowering your direct debits? That should help you out in the short term.
- I have just adjusted the figures to take out my husband's debts...
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1046
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1046
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 527
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 288
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 117
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28
Telephone (land line)................... 37
Mobile phone............................ 2.5
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 32
Car Insurance........................... 61
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 12
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10.4
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 38.55
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 55
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1535.82
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 122000
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 67161....(527)......5.88
Secured Debt.................. 14659....(288)......5.64
Total secured & HP debts...... 81820.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Me Lloyds CC...................4243......98.34.....20.94
Me Nationwide CC...............2472......63........19.9
Total unsecured debts..........6715......161.34....-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,046
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,535.82
Available for debt repayments........... -489.82
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 161.34
Amount short for making debt repayments. -651.16
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 122,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -81,820
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,715
Net Assets.............................. 33,465
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser. - My husband has had a text today to say his application for ESA has been accepted and a payment of Ј21 will be in his bank on around 21st November. The paperwork is on it's way.
I have rung to try to make a claim for Tax Credits but the advisor told me we earned too much, as a couple, in the previous tax year.
On the plus side, my husband has been discharged from the hospital today but will be seen by the psychiatric nurse at home.
I sat and worked out the dates of all the household (and my credit card) direct debits and my December's wages will have been totally used up by 5th December with another Ј304 needed to cover the rest. Then we need to eat and put fuel in the car. I can't see that ESA benefits will be that much! I guess we'll have to wait and see. - I've found my left over holiday money...
15 Euros
300 Czech Kurunas
35 Canadian Dollars
These are all notes... didn't add up the change as banks/travel exchange places won't take it. I know it's not much but I can buy the essentials and a few tins of cat food! - My foreign currency was worth Ј38, which I managed to get a few groceries including a large piece of pork shoulder (2.99 a kg) for Ј10.56. I've cut it up into 4 pieces and put it into the freezer to use for casseroles, sweet & sour or for roasting. Maybe I can use a bit for Christmas dinner!
- I'm so sorry to hear of your trouble, Socks.
I was wondering if the psychiatric nurse would be willing/able to refer you to the local food bank. The doctors round here are able to issue vouchers.
The other thing I would really recommend is A girl called Jack - agirlcalledjack.com Her budget for food is Ј10 for herself and her son, and I've tried some of her recipes, and they're good. It may give you some fresh ideas while money is so tight. - I know it might be difficult but would your husband be ok with renting a room out if you have a spare that is. You can get a tax free amount for renting, even if its only Mon - Fri renters. Glad your husbands been awarded ESA, have you spoken to the mental health nurse about DLA. He may be entitled to something. Good Luck.
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