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Topic starter
27/11/2020 9:42 am
Hi guys, just looking for some hope.
Today I’ve been told ( after my rent and council tax helped stopped ) that they’d left off a family premium I should have had on my account since 2017. They have backdated this and are sending me the money due, which is around £2,190. I’ve called and told them from my trust deed and I am waiting on them reviewing it. Will they want it all towards my trust deed? He did say you can ask for some not to be paid back but that’s at the trustees discretion?
I kind of hoped I would get to keep some, the last two months I’ve paid over £200 more towards my rent and council tax that the trust deed didn’t know about, so I’ve struggled but I was hoping to get it sorted out rather than get my trust deed amount lowered ( I want to pay what I’m due ) but now this could help towards extra bills and Christmas and I feel like I won’t see any of it. I do understand that it’s to go towards my creditors, but, it’s just been such a tough time recently.
Has anyone ever been allowed to keep any money?
Thanks for any help
27/11/2020 10:16 am
To be honest, I'm not sure I want to get your hopes up, nics07 - it would seem a bit cruel given that there is a pretty high chance that your fears are correct and the trustee may require you to pay the whole lot over.
Having said that, there is no harm in trying. Technically, a trustee is not allowed to request that any benefit income is paid over, which might be something you want to point out to whoever you speak to at your trustee's firm. They may take a simplistic view and just say that you can keep the lot because it is benefits.
However, in reality it is likely to be a bit more complicated than that. The trustee may well view the situation as being that this backdated lump sum means that you can afford to pay across a lump sum contribution to your Trust Deed from your earned income instead. So the the extra money you are paying is not actually the benefits money, but your wages which you don't require after all.
Scottish Debt Solutions Expert - Ask me for help setting up a Scottish Trust Deed or Debt Arrangement Scheme plan.
Topic starter
27/11/2020 10:48 am
Thank you for your reply Kevin, I did expect as much but was hoping not as this was underpaid benefit money. Just not easy when it’s been a tough few months due to a rent increase meaning I have had to borrow from family just to buy food, so this would have been nice to pay them back and buy Christmas.
Looks like that won’t happen and I’ll just have to go on struggling for a while yet. Thank you for your reply
27/11/2020 12:55 pm
You should let your trustee know about the rent increase and when that happened, along with any other changes to your circumstances which has caused your budget to become unaffordable lately. They should be able to factor this in to the calculations and hopefully let you keep some of the funds to compensate.
Scottish Debt Solutions Expert - Ask me for help setting up a Scottish Trust Deed or Debt Arrangement Scheme plan.
Topic starter
27/11/2020 2:48 pm
Thank you Kevin, I did send an email after sending evidence of the amount. I didn’t go into too much detail, the man I spoke to on the phone just said someone would look at it and make a decision so I haven’t spoken to my trustee on the phone. Inly have the evidence email to contact them, so not sure how to even directly speak to them.
