Welcome to the forum Pegasus29.

There's no issue with making standard levels of pension contribution during a trust deed.

You might wish to obtain professional advice before making a final decision about your pension. The decision (for or against) might in theory have an impact on whether you're able to offer a monthly payment amount that will be acceptable to your creditors.

Many couples enter into a trust deed in a coordinated way, at the same time, as their affairs and proposal details can easily be linked together. If your wife has already gone ahead, the benefits of using the same firm may not be quite so clear I guess.

Thanks very much for your quick response. I suppose my main concern is that I don’t want to be locked out of re-joining the pension scheme for 4 years and if i entered a TD out of the pension if there is sufficient flexibility to allow me to rejoin.

Hi Pegasus29.

Re-entering a pension scheme during a trust deed might be more tricky. This would likely have the effect of reducing your disposable income and make it tough for you to make the agreed monthly payment.

Probably best to look to make that decision before actually going ahead with a trust deed.

Once an adviser has run through your income and expenditure you should know whether you can rejoin now and have a high level of confidence that your trust deed will be accepted by your creditors.

It's obviously far better for you to continue making pension contributions if you're able to.

Hi Pegasus29,

Well done on taking the hard step of dealing with your debts.

I’d always recommend paying into a pension if it’s something you can afford to do. If you can and you want to them there would be no issue in doing this but it’s best to agree this at the start of your Trust Deed. If you entered into this at a later date as long as you can continue with the Trust Deed payments it would be fine.

You don’t necessarily need enter into a Trust Deed with the same firm as your wife. We always encourage people to speak with a couple of advisors / firms to explore all options.

How much debt do you have? Also do you own any assets?

Try not to worry or over think things too much. Honestly a quick phone call with a good knowledgable expert for 15-20 minutes will put your mind at ease.

Thanks again to both of you, it sounds like I would be best going back into the pension scheme, it was a wrench and a last ditched attempt to make headway against the tide of debt repauments. In an ideal world I'd rather be contributing knowing it is going toward securing a better future for our retirements.

My debt is not secured against anything other than my car which is a PCP deal a shade under 1 year into a 4 year arrangement. We do not own the house we live it. Its privately rented. My debt is in excess of £30k I need to make up a spreadsheet of all outstanding amounts, current minimum payments and plan to have this ready for my first conversation with an advisor (on the phone I mean, I realise this could be considered the first conversation). To even get to this point of posting about this and acknowledging the enormity of my failings has been hard. Thanks for your guidance so far.

Try not to give yourself a hard time, Pegasus29 - these things happen and your courage in stepping up and sorting it out is commendable.

I obviously couldn't speak for how it would be viewed by whatever firm it is your wife went with, but we certainly often have preliminary discussions and then allow changes to be made where reasonable, such as entering into a pension arrangement, prior to formulating trust deed proposals.