Hi CDC123.

That's correct I'm afraid.

To bring your trust deed to an end before the four year minimum term your total payments would need to cover all of the following:

1 - Your full debts at the start of the trust deed.

2 - Interest on those debts.

3 - Your trustee's fees and costs.

Unfortunately this is going to add up to a fair bit more than you owed at the start of your trust deed (though all of the payments you've made already would count towards this total).

That was what I thought, well that won't be happening then #128514;. Thanks for the reply, 18 months more payments it is for me then #128532;.

I still think this is a shame CDC123.

It used to be possible to bring a trust deed to an early end with third party help so long as the creditors agreed to it. If it works for the client and for their creditors, then you could argue that this is a good thing all around.

The Scottish Government changed the rules to prevent this and create the minimum four year legal term. To be fair, there are also some solid arguments in favour of this change and the minimum term being introduced.

Elsewhere in the UK early settlement of an IVA (which is loosely equivalent to a protected trust deed in Scotland) remains possible.

Yeah, I agree it's definitely a shame.

I was actually quite excited that they had offered to help out, as I thought it would help me start to get back on track. Like you say, if they're getting their money anyway, then literally nobody loses. If I end up losing my job now, which is a distinct possibility with the way things are, they'll end up with less.

But rules are rules I suppose, I can only do what's allowed.

Thanks for the replies

Just an update on this. I did contact my Trustee about an early settlement. I have £7921 worth of payments left on my agreement. They wanted £66,291 to settle early. So, I've now asked for an affordability assessment as I'm making far less money now. It seems to me like they would have been better coming to an agreement with me, because now they'll end up getting significantly less from me.

That may well be correct CDC123, but as mentioned previously a trustee simply isn't allowed the discretion to do that any longer.

Hopefully your payment can get adjusted to an affordable amount in line with the change to your financial situation.