Hi lilone,

Not long until the sleepless nights start but all worth it!

How much is your payment per month to the Trust Deed? How many remaining payments of the 48 do you have and do you have any assets included in the Trust Deed?

Any change in circumstances will be taken into consideration by your Trustee and it’s something which should be discussed with them so they are fully up to date with things.

If you anticipate that you will not be in a position to maintain your agreed payment to the Trust Deed when you return from maternity leave then it’s unlikely that your Trust Deed will be able to continue and complete. In this scenario your Trustee will more than likely release you from your Trust Deed and you would need to consider an alternative option such as Sequestration (depending on your circumstances) to deal with your debts. Under this plan if you cannot afford to make any payments towards your debts then you are not required to and your debt is written off and you are released from this after either 6 months or 12 months. There is a little more to it which I’m sure your Trustee could discuss with you if this is appropriate.

If you can afford to make a payment towards your Trust Deed but it’s not the agreed amount which was proposed to creditors and accepted then your Trustee could consider a reduction in your payment but this could extend the term of your Trust Deed.

The last thing you want to do is focus on trying to maintain your Trust Deed payment which then has an impact on family life and you result to credit as a way to support you. Ultimately you need to do what is affordable for you. Balancing work, kids, bills, childminders etc. is difficult and with a Trust Deed to pay on top of that you are doing the right thing seeking some advice now before it does become difficult.

Are you claiming tax credits Lilone? Depending on your household circumstances you may find that a chunk of the childcare costs can be offset by an increase in tax credit payments.

Maybe worth a visit to the HMRC website to try out their calculator tool?

thanks for your response!!

originally my payments were 800 a month they have reduced this until baby arrives to 650 soi can purchase baby items etc and then advised once mat pay begins no payments will be due until they review when i go back to work. its not i dont want to pay i just dont know hwo much they will want if am only going back two to three days and nursery will be for at least two days a week which is £500 a month. i dont want my trust deed to fail ether but dont know how people do it!

I have had a look at child tax doesn't look like we would be entitle to anything, quiet a difficult position to be in!

It will ultimately come down to how much you can afford to pay per month after all of the adjustments have been taken into consideration. I know you don’t want the Trust Deed to fail but if you can’t afford to make a suitable payment per month there may be no alternative.

Speaking about my own situation when we expanded our family and had children we downgraded our car from a more expensive one to a cheaper one and also made adjustments to our spending habits i.e. taking lunch to work instead of buying them etc. We also looked at reducing any costs that we could. Reducing tv package, shopping around a lot more for more competitive insurances etc. It was tough at adjust from two full time incomes and then childcare on top of that.

Try and sit down and work out a budget based on what you think your income might be taking into consideration your part time work and the child care costs. It’s also other things such as nappies, wipes, baby milk, clothes etc. that you don’t initially think about but can easily cost £50-70 per month and does have an impact on your budget. This will give you an idea of what you could afford to pay to the Trust Deed and then if it’s reduced how this would impact on the timescale of your TD i.e. need for it to be extended etc.

Lilone

The trustee is required to balance what is in the best interest of creditors and whether it is appropriate to continue with the trust deed. Given the statutory costs incurred by the deed, the trustee needs to make a commercial decision on how long to continue with the deed.

If the trustee concludes it is no longer appropriate to continue with the trust deed, then the trustee has the ability to resign from office. This is not to make the situation worse but it allows the trust deed to come to an end. The effect would be to place you in a position before you entered into the trust deed. That would mean you would be responsible for the debt.

At this point, you may be eligible for other debt relief solutions that may be more appropriate for your circumstances.

I would recommend speaking with your trustees office - they are there to help and provide advice and support.

hi

I dont want to go back into the place i was before trust deed id be way worse off, this is a bit of a frightening scenario especially with new baby.

I will get in touch with trust deed once baby is here in mean time i am not returning to work until next year once baby arrives not much i can really do until near that time i suppose just something i didnt want hanging over me during this time and also applying for nurseries

thanks

hello

Sorry additional question if I can still make some sort of payment will the trust deed still continue or would it be terminated? for example b ased on when i start as my salary was higher they asked for £800 month am now at £650 uintil mat pay and whn i return however due to childcare costs i will only be able to do part time so i may only afford £150 or something a month can it be cancelled on this basis?

This is concerning me as i have read if trust deeds fail it can leave you back to where you started.....i dont want debt collections or anything with a baby and go back to square one after everything ive been through already?

Thanks

Hi lilone,

If you can demonstrate that some level of payment is affordable then the trust deed may be able to continue.

The trustee will also consider the interests of your creditors, who may stand to receive much less than was originally anticipated when they agreed to the trust deed in the first place.

OK, so this is basically how it works.

Your trusee has to report to creditors each year and advise them whether they are still likely to receive as much as what was originally forecast at the start. If their return is likely to significantly reduce then your trustee would advise creditors what they intend to do about this and give them a chance to respond as to whether they disagree with the intended course of action.

How they view a change in what you can afford might depend upon a few different factors too: eg whether it has come about due to circumstances beyond your control, how much the reduction in payment is, whether you are willing to mitigate the effect of the change by extending your contributions to some degree etc.

So as you can see, it is difficult to give you any certainty as the outcome will depend on how both your Trustee and your creditors view your particular change in circumstances.