Hi shadow79 and welcome.

I don't think that you can assume that the first £500 will be yours.

You can certainly ask the question though.

Hi shadow79

I think TDA is correct and suspect that they will be looking for 50% of the whole net amount, rather than 50% of the amount after deducting £500.

Mark

It's an interesting question though isn't it? Would seem a bit daft that shadow79 would be better off getting a bonus of £499 rather than one of £950!

Hi Kevin

I think they are probably referring to windfalls rather than income as the £500 figure seems to be pretty standard for most firms for pools wins, etc.

Mark

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, that I'd be better off if I hadn't performed so well.

It's more the fact that I have car insurance, professional membership and car service due this month and with the TD taking most of my disposable outcome I havent been able to put anything away for them so was hoping to cover it all with any bonus I got. Thankfully the TD hasn't gone against me when switching to direct debit for the car insurance, so hopefully I shouldn't work out any worse off. Fingers crossed!

Just in reference to "net" amount - that's after tax, isn't it?

I'm going to call my IP in the morning and see what they say.

Thanks for your advice.

Hi shadow79

Yes, effectively your take home pay.

Mark

Hi Shadow79,

I think if you can reasonably demonstrate that you have additional costs to pay this month which you haven't been able to budget for then you have a good argument for retaining a bigger share of your bonus to assist with these costs. Run this past your Trustee to see what they say.

It's a tricky one balancing issues like bonuses and overtime and always something which should be agreed upon up front. When discussing it with clients I try to explain it on the basis that if they weren't in a TD and still had the debt, the likelihood is that they would use some of the overtime or bonus to try and bring down the overall debt and try not to focus on losing 40-50% of the bonus.

Let us know how you get on once you speak with your Trustee.

I will do, thanks for all your advice so far. Very glad I found this site! 🙂

Your welcome Shadow79.

Hi,

An update on my query - my trustee asked me to send receipts showing what I've had to pay out. When I did the sums I'm left almost £300 short this month despite having a bonus!

If they asked for 40% it wouldn't be so bad, but they were pretty rigid on the 50%.

Hopefully my 2nd year in the trust deed will be a bit easier if we factor in bonuses when doing the annual review. The only problem with that is I never rely on my bonuses because they're never guaranteed and I'd be afraid to jinx myself!

Thanks to the advisors who gave me advice on how to approach my trustee 🙂

Hi shadow79.

Do you have allowances made to enable you to save towards these irregular expenses when they're next payable?

Hi,

They have added my car insurance and servicing into my monthly outgoings when working out my payments, but my car service was double what I thought it was going to be and my insurance is more expensive because I've switched from annual to monthly payments. The professional membership is a completely new expense.

I'm glad that some of this has been built in shadow79 and hope that it will enable you to save for the expense next time around.

Is your trustee aware of the increased insurance cost and the new professional membership?