Was bankruptcy ever suggested as an option rather than a long 5 year trust deed(usually they are for 3 years)?

What company are you with?

Paul

Yes i looked into all option and asked all companies i was with what extent would it take and if it would cause problems and i decided against it as i did not want to go that route, as i said i am disabled and when i looked into it, it would have caused problems with my phone line and such as with my illness i need my phone line as i am forever in and out of hospital and need it in emergencys and i did not want to loose my bank account because i dont go out much and buy a lot of my shopping online and when i enquired with my bank if i took that route would i loose my account they confirmed yes. So my other option was a trust deed or a long debt management plan of 15yrs. Plus i wanted to be able to pay into the debts i had ran up i did not simply want a way out. I ran up my debts and wanted to take responsibilty for them.
I am just very worried now i have realised of the bank issue this month and the problems that may arise from this. It is my own fault i should have checked more closley. I just dont know what kind of consequences it will cause.

Trustees have a fair amount of leeway so dont panic,missed payments can be caught up over time for example. Just let them know of the difficulties as soon as you can. Its very easy to make an error especially at this time of year when pay and benefit dates can be different to usual!!

Paul

Hello Reidy1982 and welcome to the trust deed forum.

£39.23 per week would be the correct equivalent for a £170 monthly payment. This is because there are an average of 4.33 weeks in a calendar month.

The situation regarding being £70 behind is probably to do with being part-way through a cycle of weekly payments at the time of the switch. The trust deed firm are probably only "counting" your payment as being complete each time the total you have paid previously adds up to £170.

It's incredibly unlikely that your trust deed will be ended because you have paid short this month, please do not worry about this too much. As plasticdaft has correctly suggested, it's much more likely that any arrears will be dealt with by extending your trust deed at this stage (that could change if you continued to get further behind though).

I doubt that there will be any problem with a grant for a washing machine. Once they are back in the office give the trust deed firm a call to confirm this and ask for confirmation in writing from them.

Do you rely on benefits alone for your income?

If so, was this the case at the time that you signed your trust deed?

Yes my total income is my benefits i have a long term illness which has gotten worse as i grew up and was the same when i signed my trust deed, i was suggested a LILA but they said i was 10 pounds over the income based that i had to be to go that route. I had originally opted for a dmp with a company called payplan but the girl forwarded me to kmpg to speak to one of there advisors about a trust deed instead as i would be paying a dmp for 15 years, after speaking to the women and going through my budget she suggested i would have to do a trust deed for 5 years as apposed to the 3 to cover a significant amount of the debt and for it to be acceptable. It became protected in August without any problems and had been paying it correctly up until i made this horrible mistake this month, as i said my own fault i really should have checked properly. i wont be making that mistake again i just hope it wont cause major problems.

Thank you for the information on the grant when she mentioned it to me i explained of my trust deed and she did not know how it worked and said to advise myself through the company i was with. I just didnt want to go ahead with it and then get into trouble if i went and bought a washing machine with it.

Hi Reidy1982

I think you have been given duff advice to be honest. The LILA may not have been available, but the Certificate for Sequestration would have. There are a number of people who could have signed this on your behalf. Of greater concern is the very fact that a 5 years Trust Deed was mentioned.

Unless you have any assets of any worth, then sequestration would certainly be your best option. If you are on benefits there would be NO contribution. The sequestration would have had no effect on your telephone line either.

If I were you, I would give serious thoughts to continuing with the Trust Deed.

Mark

Mark offers sound advice and I am afraid that you have been poorly advised to start with.

Scare tactics regarding phones etc may have pushed you along the trust deed route and while its admirable you want to repay as much of your debt as you can,I think your trust deed company will be the only ones really gaining anything from this,as creditors will receive very little return after fees etc.

Have a really good think about what you could do with the extra cash you would have if you just binned the trust deed and ended up bankrupt(not as bad as you may think).

Paul

To add to plasticdaft's comments. My advise would be to advise that you feel you are no longer able to continue with the Trust Deed. The Trustee's only option will be to discharge himself/herself.

Once this happens, you can look at sequestration and if required, I will happily sign the Certificate for Sequestration on your behalf. There is no cost for this and will will hopefully allow you a more settled new year.

Best regards

Mark

Hi Reidy1982.

I do agree with the others based upon what has been written.

Benefits are designed to cover a need with no excess built in to cover debt repayments or a trust deed.

Why struggle for 5 years? It's honourable that you wish to make some repayment, but how much is actually going to your creditors rather than KPMG?

Do you own any significant assets?

Hi Reidy1982

The others are right, you have been poorly advised. When they said you earned £10 over the LILA limit, they should not have included your income from benfits. To put you in a 5 year Trust Deed is shocking if your only income is benefits, and you have no assets. I have not heard of sequestration being an issue with your phone either. I would follow Mark's advise, and give continuing with a Trust Deed serious consideration. A Certificate for sequestration can be given easily enough, but you may not need it if your weekly income is less than the weekly minimum wage -DISREGARDING any benefits. The money you receive for a washing machine, should be used for exacty that, so don't worry about your Trustee taking it.

Wow you have all certainly got me thinking now. When i was originally advised in regard to the trust deed the women who i spoke with in KPMG spoke to me about the trust deed and she did mention sequestration and i had a 101 questions in regards to it as i was worried i would lose my phone line,my bank account and be placed on pay and go meter for my gas and electricty and so on which was a set of things because of my disability would make my life a lot worse and more difficult she advised me yes that would all happen. She told me my phone line would either have to be placed in my partner name or that the company would either ask me for a yearly deposit for my phoneline to be continued in my name. She also told me i would NOT be able to keep my bank accounts, i have 2 one in which all my benefits money goes into and another one i let me mum use to recieve her benefits, the only reason for this is because my dad died in june and she did not have an account of her own. The women at kpmg said i would have to close both accounts as the banks even tho none of my debts were with either bank and i would have to go to i think it was natwest and open a basic account. She also told me the same that if i went that route when it came to gas and electricty again i would either have to be placed on weekly meter with the keys which again would be an issue because i get paid fortnightly or i would have to place it in my partners name. I looked up a few websites after i spoke to her about this and i didnt find a lot of information apart from one page basically saying some company may do this in a sequestration some may not.
Also i would like to state when she said to me about a 5 year trust deed i thought it was strange because when i spoke to someone else week before it when i was thinking of the dmp route and it was suggested them i was told most only last 3 years but didnt doubt as i thought they are the professionals they know what they are doing. My debt totalled to 15 grand and i didnt even have enough left in my basic budget to cover the 170 a month until she suggested if my partner was able to give me the extra 30 a month from the his income (carers allowance he gets for me). We are not married and he has his own small loans and such so when we went into the office to speak to her she took him through it to explain i would have to be able to pay the 170 a month in order for it to go ahead and be a protected one and was he happy to agree to that. I also told her i have no assets i own no jewellery, my car is a mobility car which i lease, i asked her about items in my home she told me that my tv and such would be classed as an asset and when i went through the list of item that would be included i was resulted to tears as my home would basically be a shell with basically all i was left with was my washing machine, cooker, bed and few bits. I looked up what item would be classed under that on the net and found conflicting stories but when i asked her the next day she still stated most thing in my home would be classed as an asset. I'm very confused now i will admit the 170 a month is stretching we are just about breaking our backs to live i especially felt it when my washing machine broke down and i couldnt replace it or even had the money to have it fixed especially when it is so needed for the purpose of my illness. I'm beginning to think i have been given bad advise now and not sure what to do.

Hi Reidy1982

Could you confirm that the person you spoke to was from KPMG or a middleman company who then passed you on to them.

Mark

I honestly can not remember the name of the original women i spoke to at kpmg, i spoke to her once and she only dealt with me up till the day we went into the office and i signed paperwork, when i called a few weeks later as i did not know when i would start paying to the trust deed i was told it was forwarded to one of the relevent departments and to just call the office in future explain situation and i would be forwarded to relevant department for any answer to questions i may have had depending on my query. (ie: if it was to do with payments, or creditors letters and so on).

The original place i went through was payplan i did it over the internet and i got a call back and they wanted to offer me a dmp over 15 years then said my other option if 15years was too long was a 3yr trust deed i said i had heard of a trust deed but not to the extent of how it worked and she suggested i speak to someone and if i did not want to go into a trust deed i could go back to payplan and continue with dmp. She arranged the call and i got a call back from kpmg the next day and it went from there.

Just to double-check Reidy1982...

At the time you initially contacted Payplan/KPMG you were reliant on benefit income only and they were aware of this?

How long ago was that?