Hi whitehouse19

You should never be asked to pay money that you don't have. I think you should contact your trustee for clarification of their intentions - keeping shtum is likely to lead to the same outcome but might just delay you getting out of this situation. It may be that you would be better going bankrupt and could be clear of your debts within a year.

Hi,
thanks for your reply. i had looked at bankruptcy as a way forward but was told by the national debt line i would have to wait until the trust deed fails. is this the case and how long could it take?

a further couple questions that i should have added to my original post.
firstly, my original trust deed budget states that i have an allowance of 117 food/household per month. although there are only two of us, my partner is diabetic and has ibd so follows a strict diet. our food bill comes in at around 200 per month excluding any further household expenses. we also have no allowance for misc. items, which i have since heard should have been included for things like clothing. hence when it comes down to it we have not been able to live on the budget they set. should we be forcing ourselves to live within these figures or should we have been given a better allowance?
also, if made bankrupt would i still have to pay money towards debts? i have no income except benefits. thanks

Hi whitehouse19.

The trust deed will need to end before bankruptcy is an option open to you.

Contacting your trust deed company to discuss the fact that you are not currently able to make payments, and that this situation is unlikely to change, may help to bring everything to a conclusion.

In terms of the allowances these are agreed at the start of the trust deed with the company handling the case. ?ú117 per month for food for two people appears to be to be incredibly low, the usual guidelines should enable a figure much higher than that.

Some allowance for clothing (and other things that are bound to be needed over a three year period) should also have been made and would normally be.

How much was your original trust deed payment?

If you're bankrupt you'll need to pay what you can afford towards the debts (it's calculated in pretty much the same way as it is for a protected trust deed). As you're living solely on benefits income I really don't think you'll be asked for any contribution at all.

hi,
my original payments were worked out at ?ú205. we didnt get to dicuss the food/household/misc payments as we were told these were set for us. i didnt see these figures until the documents were made up for me to sign so i assumed i didnt have any say in such figures.
i know different now and will certainly be questioning this. the more i hear the more i feel i shouldnt have gone with the company i did 🙁

That's a shame that this wasn't all made clear from the start whitehouse19.

In common with Mark's comments elsewhere on the forum here today, it's extremely important that anyone who is considering signing a Scottish trust deed takes an active and detailed interest in how the whole thing will work prior to going ahead and signing the trust deed documents.