Welcome to the forum chips.

I'm sorry to hear that your circumstances have changed for these reasons.

As you say, you cannot pay money into a trust deed that you do not have.

Your Trustee has some discretion in such circumstances so we cannot give you a firm answer as to what will happen next. I think you need to contact them and start the process of working out where to go from here.

Do you have any assets, Chips - in particular do you own your home? It may be that you would be better off being sequestrated instead depending on your particular situation.

Hi just thought I would give you an update on what the IP said. I explained my situation and they told me I could still remain in a trust deed but if unable to make the agreed contribution of £200 PM they would have to extend the trust deed until the same amount of money is recovered. Therefore if I can afford £100 PM then it will take double the time to be released from the Trust Deed. This doesnt seem right to me as I thought a trust deed was based on what you could afford? I have no assets and do not own my own home so perhaps sequestration may be the answer, just dont know where to start.

Hi chips.

Is £100 per month affordable? It would generally be the case that the answer would be no where someone becomes reliant on benefit income alone.

I wonder what Kevin, Mark or Shona would expect to happen if someone found themselves in the involuntary position where they had benefits based income only?

My understanding from previous threads is that a Trustee should not expect payment from benefits alone.

No I dont think £100 a month is even affordable . would it be better to ask the trustee about sequestration as he didnt mention this as an option for me?

Hi chips

So sorry to hear of your health problems.

I can only advise what we would do in this situation.

Your illness is through no fault of your own and therefore we would not penalise you in any way. If you could afford a small payment we would take one, but if not, then the Trust Deed would simply run its course and you would be dicharged. (It is unusaul for someone on benefits to have any spare income) The Trustee would not sequestrate you as he would not have good reason to.

The reasons a Trustee has for Sequestration are normally 1)non-co-operation or 2)if it is in best interest of your creditors. Neither of these really apply to you.

There is a Regulation called Reg19, which allows the Trustee to seek his discharge without discharging you from your debts, but again this should only be used if someone does not co-operate. Your failure to pay is not because of non-cooperation. I may add that this rule is sometimes being used wrongly - simply for Trustee's to 'get out' of a Trust Deed. If they use this regulation, you are left to apply for your own sequestration, and have to pay the £100 fee. If the Trustee applies for your sequestration, the cost is to Trust Deed estate.

In a sequestration, contributions would not be taken from your benefits. This would normally be the case in a Trust Deeed.

Hope this helps.

I would agree with all that Shona says, however given that the trust deed has not been running for very long, it might be in your interests to be made bankrupt. You would not have to make any contributions for as long as you are reliant on benefits and would be discharged after 1 year instead.

Given your trustee's response so far you'd maybe have a battle to persuade them to see things from the same point of view as Shona has outlined. Perhaps it is a battle that there is no point in fighting and instead just speak to your trustee about the possibility of sequestration instead?

Thank you all for your replies, I will try and speak to the trustee again tomorrow about sequestration. Keep you all posted.

Just thought I would give you all an update. I offered to pay £50.00 a month to remain in my trust deed but that wasnt enough. They offered to extend my trust deed to 5 years and pay £120 a month. I explained to them that this wouldnt be an option for me. They told me 3 weeks ago that they would be in touch to explain what will happen next. Still waiting ...........

I would again ask them about bankruptcy,they seem keen to keep you paying their fees which is pretty poor and if you have no house to protect bankruptcy would sort things out much sooner than the 5 years they are suggesting. You would probably pay twice as much in fees as creditors would see in your 5 year trust deed!!!

A case of a supervisor clearly not acting in your best interests and giving poor advice for their benefit.

Paul

Hi tweet2.

It does sound like the situation is moving towards sequestration which, in the circumstances you outline, might be the most appropriate outcome now.