Hello eve1064,

You will need to let your Trustee know about all household income received while you are in the Trust Deed. It would however be common for your wife to be able to retain a proportion of the disposable income while your share is paid into the Trust Deed.

I agree that ?ú60 per month seems a low figure to cover clothing for five people. In general do you feel you have committed to a budget that will not work for the three years?

The CCCS guidelines are that ?ú80 per month should be the maximum allowed for clothing based on 2 adults and 3 children. Most creditors use these guidelines when assessing trust deed proposals so mosat insolvency practitioners pay heed to them too I believe.

Regarding the tax credits lump sum, you should let your trustee know about it at least - they shouldn't ask for any more than your half of it, and you never know, they may not even ask for that if you can make a convincing argument.

Hi Eve1064
I agree with TDA and Mark that you are best to let your Trustee know about the lump sum, hopefully you will be able to come to some agreement as to how much you are required to pay over.
If you were working to a tight deadline, is it possible that your Trustee has had to reduce various allowances, to allow a viable contribution to be paid to creditors? Have you been given an allowance for incidentals that you could maybe use to buy additional essentials?
If you find that you are really struggling to manage your finances however, please let your Trustee know.
Julie

Hi,thank you for replying.I will let them know once and if we do receive the proposed tax credit payment due and see what they say.Do I still have to tell them about my adjustment in my tax credits payments that are to go up next month as its only for a couple of months till the youngest reaches 1 and this amount was raised due to a drop in earnings from my wife being unable to work now?Also the tax credits are awarded to my wife and paid into her bank account which she has.Will she have to show her bank statements as well every 6 months for reviews?I took the bull by the horns and phoned them today to see if my trust deed had become protected and they said they had no objections at all and will receive the paperwork soon, so I am delighted.We can finally try and get on with our lives and have a much brighter future

Congratulations eve1064, that is great news!

Any change in circumstances is meant to be notified to your trustee, tax credits included, though obviously do mention that it is a very temporary increase. Although the tax credits are paid to your wife's account, they are based on your joint circumstances and are actually paid for both of you so do need to be taken into account when assessing your contributions.