Looking for some advice, I entered my protected trust deed in October 2018, I was meeting all my monthly contributions as expected and was in fairly regular communication with my trustee.

In September 2019 my wife and I had a child and some 6/9 months later her income dropped while she was on stat maternity pay.

This put a strain on some finances while I was meeting my trust deed contributions. We fell behind on or Council Tax and Utilities which are a shared responsibility. 

At this point I requested that my trustee reviews my income and expenditure, they took 3 months to review and come back to me. They agreed to reduce my monthly payment by 50% going forward, when challenged they also agreed to refund me that figure for the 3 months delay to service council tax and utilities arrears. 

During the communication I questioned the trustee if the reduced amount would result in an extension of my 48 months, they made it clear in writing that this would not be the case. 

Fast forward to January 2023, I haven't heard anything from my trustee regarding the end of my agreement, I then when prompted receive commination to advise that the balance between the reduced payment and the initially agreed amount was due. Effectively another years payments. 

Not only that, they money they refund they were now also wanting back through the extended period of payments. There was nothing in writing at the time or more recently mentioning that until now.

My questions are, if your circumstances suggest that a reduction is merited should that automatically mean and extension to ingather the funds? 

Should they have made me aware that any refunded sums would result in an extended term? 

My trustee has suggested that in their time doing hundreds of trust deeds never have they agreed to reduced payments that haven't resulted in an extended term, I quote "the original figure I signed for is the figure that must be paid in full to creditors" 

Having read the AIB guidance for trustees on income and expenditure reviews I challenged this with my trustee and was adivised it's only guidance and not law. 

Thanks for reading