Welcome to the forum Mumof1boy.

Sorry to hear that you're in this tough and worrying position.

The trustee has to balance a couple of things.

Firstly, they need to be mindful of your interests and any changes that have occurred that were outside of your control.

Secondly, they need to be mindful of the interests of your creditors. The creditors agreed to the trust deed going ahead based upon the original proposals made to them. The trustee has obligations to your creditors if things change in a way that means they stand to be repaid less than they agreed to.

One way to balance these interests can be an extension of a trust deed when the affordable payment amount reduces.

However, your trustee should not be taking any payment from you that is coming from a benefit like Child Benefit. You should make them aware that this is the case, so that you can at least use that money to cover household bills and expenses.

I'm afraid that we cannot tell you what judgment your trustee will make. They need to assess your case based upon the facts and quite possibly to get feedback from your creditors as well.

Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate it. I have sent bank statements today as they requested this, so hopefully receive a decision soon

Morning Mumof1boy

TDA advisor is correct - the trustee has to balance what is in the best interest of creditors. Any payment that have been taking from benefits must be refunded to you as they are protected benefits and the trustee is prohibited by law to take payments from them.

I would recommend speaking with your trustee and to work out a way forward. Every trustee would treat this differently.

Hi Mumof1boy and welcome the forum.

Sorry to hear that you have found yourself in a difficult position through a job loss and now looking at an extension of your Trust Deed when you thought it would be finished.

As others have said it’s about trying to find a balance between the interests of your creditors and also yours.

A proposal is made to all of your creditors at the outset and this is ideally the minimum amount that needs to be ingathered and paid back to the Trust Deed.

Obviously circumstances can change throughout a Trust Deed and the payment can go up or down. If a payment is reduced then the Trustee needs to consider this and what they do to try and ensure they ingather the amount that was proposed at the outset.

A Trustee also has discretion over arrears and can recommend their proposals for ingathering the arrears or for closing off the Trust Deed.

Do you know how much arrears you have and how long this will take to be repaid if you continue with the payments?

I’d also look into the possibility that you could have paid the Trust Deed whilst in benefits. This shouldn’t happen.

It shouldn’t take your Trustee from October 2018 until now to make a decision in your case. I would email them and ask how much arrears you have and explain why you have the arrears. It was a job loss that wasn’t your fault. Tell them that you are stressed with it all and need some closure or a clear path of what you need to do to be discharged from the Trust Deed.

Please let us know how you get on when you speak with the Trustee. Like I said best send them an email so you have it all in writing.