Welcome to the forum ttom.

Well done for starting the process of identifying your options. There will be a way to deal with this.

If it were just you entering a particular debt solution, then the payment would be based only upon what you can fairly afford to pay.

One way or another however your wife's income would be relevant to any calculation. That's because her income would be expected to contribute towards some of the household bills. This is very different to your wife actually in any way being party to such a debt solution though.

You can enter a joint DAS. Trust deeds are individual arrangements (you'd need one each) but, on a practical level, the set-up and payment levels would be very much coordinated between you.

Your trust deed would have to include all of your debts, including the tax credit debt. Because it's owed jointly, and assuming your wife does not enter into some type of debt solution, she would remain liable for this debt also and would be best-advised to try to come to an arrangement to repay it affordably.

I hope this is a useful starting point for you. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you'd like; you'll find that plenty of people enjoy a good waffle here!

You can read more about debt solutions and joint debts at:

https://www.trust-deed.co.uk/joint-debts-and-a-trust-deed.html

Hi ttom. That's why we're here - to answer your questions - so please fire away!

The period of unemployment must have been difficult for you. There is no reason why recovering from the debts that accrued due to that situation needs to be difficult though. There is always a solution, and quite often more than one. Our job is to inform people of their options and let them decide which is most suitable for them.

Equity in someone's home can be accommodated in a Trust Deed very easily usually, as long as it is not too high. If your estimate is correct then I'm sure that there wouldn't be too much of a problem for you in being able to set up a trust deed if that is your preference. Is your home owned by the two of you jointly?

As trust Deed assistant suggests, your wife's income does not directly determine how much you would pay into a Trust Deed. We would just need to ensure that you are paying your fair share of joint household bills and see what you have left over.