Welcome to the trust deed forum Abi.

The starting point is that you have no liability for your husband's debts. His contribution to his trust deed is based upon his disposable income.

Where this can get a little tricky is apportioning joint household bills and expenses. For example, if one person earned much more than the other then it might be reasonable to expect them to pick up more than half of the household bills.

So in theory if your income increased substantially, it might be reasonable to expect you to pick up more of these joint household expenses. In this scenario the effect would be (on paper) that the other person's expenses had reduced and therefore they could afford to pay more into their trust deed.

I think the best thing to do would be for your husband to disclose any such change to his trustee in the event that it happens. If the change isn't huge it probably isn't going to make a large difference to his monthly payment.

Thank you for your reply. Can they legally make us pay more? We would roughly get an extra £680 a month however we’re struggling to live based on what they have allocated to us especially with my illness being unpredictable I take quite a few sick days which in turn means less money. Would there be any way around it?

Hi Abi,

When your husband signed his trust deed he committed to paying what he could reasonably be seen to afford towards his debts. This is part of the basis under which his creditors accepted the trust deed (and the likelihood of writing off some of what he owes).

So a significant increase in your income might be relevant. Equally, you might want to keep evidence of any reduction in your income due to sick days and/or any increases in your joint household bills and expenses.

quote:

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Originally posted by Abi
[br]Thank you for your reply. Can they legally make us pay more? We would roughly get an extra £680 a month however we’re struggling to live based on what they have allocated to us especially with my illness being unpredictable I take quite a few sick days which in turn means less money. Would there be any way around it?

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The thing is, if the payment is increased they are not making you pay more, they are making him pay more. So yes, if the fact that your income has increased means that you should reasonably be expected to pay a higher share of the household bills, meaning your husband can afford to pay more, then they could legally do this.

It gets a bit complicated, to be honest, but a lot might depend on how your husband's trustee was allocating the household bills between you previously.