hi all, not really got time to go into too much detail right now with the background of how this all came up (will give details tomorrow when I can) but due to changes in circumstances certain benefits got stopped last year and took quite a few months to be restarted again. .the same has happened over the summer this year and both of these instances have resulted in a build up of debt. I am on the verge of being taken to court for repossession of my home (local authority) but have paid the majority of what I owe with back payments of the benefits I have just had reinstated. I have recently gained employment, a year after graduating last year as a mature student with 2 children and will get my first pay on 30th november. My most urgent problem right now is that, despite telling british gas of my situation re benefit non-payment, on and off for over a year, as well as my rent arrears this has caused, they are refusing to stop court action (on thursday this week, to cut off my supply on 20th november) despite my application to the british gas energy trust and my offer to pay a substantial amount to both my gas and electric bills on the 30th of november and every month from then on now I am working. I know this is very last minute but I really dont know what to do. My home phone is incoming calls only until I can pay that bill which I have told them so email is the only way at present that I can talk to them..they have given me a freephone number but the only pay phone near me has glue stuck in the coin slot!!! Any advice would be truly appreciated. .all I want to do is get out of this mess ..if only they would give me 2 more weeks and I will have been payed and will be able to pay them!!! Thank you for any help you can give ..to be honest I just wanna give up. .really seems like theres no way out, they just wont give me the extra week or two to come up with the money..

will do thank you!! x

Thanks dx, Sorry to sound a bit dumb but what counts as notified arrears?..x

Hi all, Sorry for going quiet for a while..things have been getting a bit much to cope with but we have been to CAB for advice and had a few appointments with a lovely man who really took the time to listen to us and explain all the options and how things work...for anyone needing one to one advice I couldn't recommend CAB enough!!..After discussing things with the CAB I saw my OH smile a real smile for the first time in ages! Anyway after exploring all the options available he said that bankruptcy is really the only way we're going to be able to get out of this mess. The only problem with that is the £700 fee so I asked if reclaiming mis-sold PPI would be a good idea to raise funds to pay for it which he said would be a very god idea. I do have a question (which I didn't think of asking at the time!) which I hope you can help with... Because my OH is only making token payments of £2.00 a month to each of his creditors would they be able to keep whatever the claim is worth to reduce the debts? I have just written the SAR letters which will be posted tomorrow before starting the claims and one of them is for a Barclay loan that has already been paid off in full so I assume that cannot be touched but one his creditors is Barclaycard so maybe not? The other two are for Virgin CC and MBNA CC - the Virgin card was taken out online before they stopped using boxes that had to be un-ticked for PPI and the CCA from MBNA (also applied for online) shows the box for PPI was not ticked but they have still been charging for PPI. As for the Barclay loan, he was told he would not get it if he did not agree to having PPI on it so I think he has valid reasons on each for re-claiming! We really need to sort this out asap before it takes any more of a toll on our lives as stress levels, especially at each knock on the door and letter dropping through the letter box, are rising and at times causing stupid arguments over nothing when we should be standing together! We dont mind some of the money (if the claims are successful!) going towards the debts but do you think it is possible to reclaim without creditors taking the lot as this is the only way we can afford to raise the fees? thank you all for previous help and in advance of any advice you may be able to give Wando Pondo Pops xx

One other question I have is do all debts have to be included in a DRO or an he just include any that take the amount to just below the 15K threshold?

Thanks Gez and Sarge, I've had a look at the cccs website about DRO's and it looks like the way to go but we'll SAR MBNA and Virgin CC's to reclaim the PPI first, as suggested by Gez, as he's just over the 15K limit. Any idea how long reclaiming PPI takes after getting the SAR response? I know things will get better eventually but it seems a long way to go right now!! x

Hi everyone, Sorry for not posting for a week or so but we had no internet 'cos we couldn't afford the bill - something that needs looking into as Virgin Media are charging a fortune!! Sammy sausage, thank you but I applied to BG energy trust a while ago (it was unsuccessful). .I need to check the date as I think I can re-apply either next month or the 1 after. We had a letter today saying we have been over payed housing and council tax benefit since August last year which has just added to the panic about everything. Things are so bad right now that me and my OH are on 1 meal a day (mostly beans on toast with a bit of cheese on top when we're feeling extravagant!) so that we can feed the kids (3 of them between us). I have (finally) completed an I/E sheet which is really quite scary and composed letters for both British Gas accounts which I will post during the week when I can afford to send them by 'signed for' post. As for the credit cards: We wrote back in early December requesting CCA's from all credit cards and got them back from MBNA and Virgin while Halifax sent a reconstituted one with the promise that the real one would be sent ASAP.. .we still havent had it sent. As for the MBNA CCA, it shows that my OH didnt request PPI (online application and the box wasn't ticked) but they have been charging for it anyway and the Virgin card was taken out in January 2006 which, after a bit of research, was before all companies agreed to stop using boxes that had to be un-ticked for online applications in July 2007. I know it's a lot to ask but we need urgent help and advice on all of this.. we're both in quite a panic at every knock on the door or phone call from a number we dont recognise! thank you all again, x

Thank you National Debtline, I will pass on your number as we need all the help and advice we can get...feels like a downward spiral with no way back up right now! I know things will get better eventually but even after cutting back on everything we can it's still a struggle to even afford food some days! thank you everyone for your advice and support x

Thank you both for your advice! The whole IVA proposal seemed very wrong on a lot of points with mistakes in income and the fact that benefits I get for my daughter were included as his income. You have both confirmed that it's right that he holds back on that as the way to go and reclaim PPI and see what's left to pay after that. I have been working on doing an I/E for us but it's taking far longer than I first expected because there's no point in it unless I do it properly and go through the last years worth of bills to get an average monthly amount for everything! Hopefully I will get it finished tomorrow and also send off the SAR letters to start reclaiming. I have one question though, he has already signed and sent off the permission to act forms so can Payplan still go ahead even though he hasn't sent the signed proposal back? Also would it be worth sending Payplan a letter saying he withdraws his permission for them to act just to make sure? thank you again! x

Hi everyone, I started this asking for help with the constant telephone harassment my OH was getting from credit card companies and Albion about his debts but need advice on IVA's (among other things) now! Albion advised my OH to get in contact with Payplan which he did and they started putting together an IVA proposal for him based on his debts: BARCLAYCARD: £5886 HALIFAX: £4366 VIRGIN MONEY: £4262 MBNA: £1490 SANTANDER: £2188 He also has a couple of bank accounts with overdrafts that total about £-1000 in debit. He received the IVA proposal a few days ago but parts of it seem very confusing and I havent even got through reading it all to the end yet! Firstly they seem to be counting my income as part of the income/expenditure form which they have used to calculate his disposable income. The things they have included are the very small amount of maintenance I get from my ex-partner for my 16 year old daughter - they say it is not enough and the creditors may tell him to ask for more, the child benefit and child tax credits that I get for her and have also questioned why my 20 year old son makes no contribution to the household income (he had his JSA stopped for missing 1 application form out of the reams of paper they gave him every time he signed on). We have a small amount of rent arrears (tenancy in my name only) which my local housing authority have agreed to me paying it back at £10 extra a week. Other arrears (also in my name) include Council tax and British Gas (dual fuel). Of these only the rent is listed as a priority debt. After reading other posts on IVA's I'm not so sure this is the way to go. We have CCA'd them all and it looks like PPI has been charged on the MBNA card even though the box for it wasn't ticked and after a bit of research, any Virgin Money credit cards taken out before a certain date required a box to be un-ticked to opt out of PPI which applies to my OH (both were applied for online). We recently sent letters to all of his creditors explaining he was experiencing financial hardship and had been in touch with Payplan to rectify the situation asking if they would accept token payments of £2.00 a month until a payment plan was put in place but unfortunately we forgot to ask them to stop adding interest although thats easily sorted with another letter! He also had a loan from Barclays which has been paid off but was told at the time he applied for it that he would not get the loan if he didnt have PPI on it. Their reply to the CCA request was that they had no legal obligation to send it as the account was no longer active. From the look of the IVA proposal we will have no money spare for 5 years and the money I get for my daughter is expected to go towards paying off these cards. The amount Virgin were charging for PPI was about £40+ per month with MBNA charging about £20 a month. By reclaiming this those debts can probably be reduced by £1000's which at the moment seems like a much better option than paying £143 a month for the IVA - an amount I'm not even sure we can afford right now but after agreeing to the IVA it looks to me that if we reclaim PPI, it will go towards the debt but it will still run for the full 5 years and he will have to still pay the £1950 Payplan have included as costs - money that we would rather put towards paying off the debts! Any advice on where to go now would be great..feeling quite confused about the best way to turn Thank you x

Just checked the paperwork and after sending a request for his CCA in December (received by them on 19/12/2011) he got a reply enclosing a "copy of your reconstituted version of the exevuted agreement comprising both the original and current terms and conditions together with a signed statement of the account" It also said "I have requested a copy of the original signed application form from the relevant department to comply with your section 60/61 request. You will receive this shortly under separate cover". This was the last we heard from them so have yet to receive the original signed agreement so we're not too sure when the card was taken out. He has been making monthly payments but they have been far below the minimum monthly amount for the last 3 or 4 months. We will check his credit reference files tomorrow and get back to you. Thank you for your advice so far Wanda

Thank you, He has already spoken on the phone to them today but won't from now on. I hope that by talking to them today has not caused any damage though..I was out at the time but as soon as he told me I said to do nothing else until I had checked with the lovely people on here!!

Hi all, My OH also has a credit card with Halifax which he has been struggling to meet the minimum repayments on as his working hours have been cut with the total debt being £3965 with minimum payments being £374 a month. He had a call from a company calling themselves Albion who were apparently very friendly and helpful and who offered to try to sort out a payment plan once he has given them an income/out goings expenditure form and also called a company called Pay Plan to get a reference number. After reading other Posts about Albion I am a bit dubious about him dealing with them so wanted to ask your thoughts about this. Should he talk to them or should he keep all contact about this debt between him and Halifax? Because our financial situation has, much the same as many other people, gone from bad to worse we will be asking them to accept a token payment and freeze all interest until our situation improves as well as reclaiming PPI from other creditors that are charging it but Albion have told him he must ring Pay Plan tomorrow and ring them back straight after to arrange this proposed payment plan. Any advice would be so appreciated, thank you!! Wanda x

Hi all, Thank you for your help so far and sorry for not getting back sooner but we've only just had the CCA's back even though we asked for them in December!! We will be sending SAR letters to reclaim charges and also PPI especially as my OH's SAR from MBNA says he didn't request PPI but they have been charging it anyway and his Virgin card also charges PPI but I'm more than positive it wasn't asked for as I did the online application for it and have always thought it to be completely pointless! I have another question though - My OH also has a credit card with Halifax which he has been struggling to meet the minimum repayments on as his working hours have been cut with the total debt being £3965 with minimum payments being £374 a month. He had a call from a company calling themselves Albion who were apparently very friendly and helpful and who offered to try to sort out a payment plan once he has given them an income/out goings expenditure form and also called a company called Pay Plan to get a reference number. After reading other Posts about Albion I am a bit dubious about him dealing with them so wanted to ask your thoughts about this. Should he talk to them or should he keep all contact about this debt between him and Halifax? Because our financial situation has, much the same as many other people, gone from bad to worse we will be asking them to accept a token payment and freeze all interest until our situation improves as well as reclaiming PPI from the creditors that are charging it but Albion have told him he must ring Pay Plan tomorrow and ring them back straight after to arrange this proposed payment plan. Any advice would be so appreciated, thank you!! Wanda x

My 20 yr old son was claiming jsa but just before he started a temporary Christmas job he was told his payments would stop until March 2012 as he hadn't applied for a job they had given him details of. It was an honest mistake as they gave him so many bits of paper every time he went to sign on and he just overlooked it. They gave the reason for stopping his jsa on the grounds of him not actively seeking employment because of this mistake despite the fact he was applying for up to 40+ jobs each week!!! He started working for Royal Mail as a Christmas temp and is hoping to be kept on but if not he will have to claim jsa again so my question is; will the decision to stop payments on his last claim be carried over to any new claim he makes? Thank you in advance for any advice