trying to pay bills ....... so why is it????

[m3bfs]

lynda you got in while i was typing. CAB will work out what you can afford to pay, and from experience and what you've said here it will more than likely be �1 per month, and when CAB send the letters they'll send an income and expenditure sheet which shows what you have available to pay. Most will agree to the token payment. Some may not, but if you still send them the �1 (or whatever CAB suggests), and they still decide to take it to court, it turns in your favour that you've been paying what you can. I know of one case where this happened, but company wasn't happy with what they were receiving ie the �1 a month, but when it got to court the judge awarded them the great princely sum of 10p yes 10p per month. Plus the icing on the cake they also had to pay everybodies court costs.

So get on the phone to CAB in the morning and let them HELP you.

m3bfs

[lynda66]

i'm trying really i am but the council have already said they want it at �9.15 a week ...... but till i go in tomorrow with yet another letter, (which the CAB can't do) and they look at it, i don't know if that's based on rob living here and working or not ...... but whatever happens they can't have it cos i aint got it...... i'm not too worried about the catalogues and stuff, they can't chuck me out of the house lol ....... but i really can do without going to court with an eviction threat.

[BrideXIII]

FOOD first, cab will tell you that, as will CCS

council comes second, thats the roof over your head.

utility bills next, gas electric water

phone is NOT a utility, but i think most people would class it as necessary

tv lisence...... no choice you have to .

anything after that is negotiable, by which i mean they will take an offer to pay cos they have to, catalogues especially.
if they take you to court and you are on benefits, the court will set an amount for you to pay based on your income, the amount is split between ALL your debtors, and trust me it aint much they can get, thats why they will accept a small amount, cos they will get less in court and they know it, they will try to bully you, don't let them, everytime they phoned me and pushed me for more, i told them NO, take me to court, get your �2.50 a month, or accept the fiver i am offering you now, every time they gave in cos they knew i knew.

PLEASE go to CAB or phone the number for CCS i gave you. they can't get blood out of a stone unless your guilt lets them.
the council CAN ask that amount cos they know what housing benefit you are getting, what YOU need to do is stop paying the other beggers so you can pay the council.

Take the step, take the advice, then step back and let them do the work for you, its what they are there for.

[lynda66]

we sorted out robs bank, which DOESN'T NEED PAYING IN ANY FIXED AMOUNTS FOR 5 YEARS ...... so i have the money saved to pay the council,if i have to, but i'm still working on avoiding it, cos after everything else ..... water tv licence, phone food electric and gas have come out there isn't the money left to pay them the �9.15 a week lol ...... that's why i have the cash in the bank so if i do have to pay it, i can pay it in one go ..... so that i can afford to use the heating when theres a foot of snow lol ...... i am now up to date with the phone, which is paid till march, the water arrears are paid till january, the telly licence arrears are paid till january,internet is paid till end of december, i have gas and leccy, to last till i next get paid a week wednesday (as long as i don't use the bloody central heating too much) ....... i have food enough to last ........ so i only need to sort the council out ........ and the overdraft doesn't need paying for 5 years and the catalogues can go swing for now, i have paid off some of the arrears, and rung them all, so they know theres a problem, which temporarily has put everything with them on hold ........ and in the mean time while the cab or ccs or whoever sort it out, they won't hassle me.

so stop panicking lol i can manage the bill payments, and have set up direct debits again, so i cant get behind, so as long as i pay the money into the bill account they will be paid, what i can't manage is to pay an extra �9.15 a week to the council ....... WHICH IS WHY I KEPT THE MONEY TO PAY THEM

sooooooo i just need to get the cab ccs or whoever to sort the catalogue payments down to as little as possible 20p a week each will be ok ..... and i can afford to eat ...... so please don't flap ...... i'm actually feeling a million times happier, even though i still have a few things to still sort ........ the letter that the council say they didn't recieve will be handed over to them tomorrow so fingers crossed that will work and i will still have the money for that in the bank which will pay the direct debits for the next few months till ..... hopefully i may finally get the DLA sorted ....... then i'll be dead rich and the back pay for the last 28 weeks will hopefully get me out of debt completely ....but if i don't get it, then i can still cope ........ does that make things clearer ???

anyway, FOOD never comes first lol ...... unless it's food for the babies ...... that does

i don't want to be paying everything off for the next 10 years at a pound a week ... i want it gone ....... paying weekly/monthly amounts means i'm skint all the time ..... cos i have to find that money each week/month ....... which is why i've tried to reduce everything as much as possible, so theres actually less to pay, so i'm not completely skint for any longer than neccesary ........ why does everyone think that's so bad?? you lost me lol

[m3bfs]

because you've got no safety net.

it sounds like you've got it sorted, maybe right down to the last penny. which at the moment is great, if everything would stay that way. But as we all know it doesn't. If for now at least you pay everybody the minimum that you can afford to pay, you can put a bit by for the rainy day that unfortunately is just round the corner, without getting sent completely of course with your repayments.

If like me you rely on benefits (due to illness) and have nothing left when everybody is paid, how are you gonna make sure you can put money in to cover the direct debit (and so not incur �30 or whatever charge) should those at DWP or social security or whatever they call themselves go on strike and your payment doesn't go through on the right day.

Yes it is very not nice thinking that you may have years of debt hanging over you at this point, but get CAB CCS or whoever to arrange the minimum payments, put any spare cash to one side, preferable in account that will earn you as much interest as possible. Every 6mths or thereabouts, those that you are paying will want an updated income and expenditure (easy done, just take all paperwork and facts and figures back to whoever you let help you) and they maybe able to arrange some one off payments from what you've managed to save, while still paying the minimum.

Hopefully haven't sounded all doom and gloom, but from one who's been there and tried it both ways, have got to say the minimum payment plan worked out to be the healthiest for my mind, body and soul. Yeah would have loved to have paid it all off sooner, but that way (while i was trying to do it on my own, all figures worked out) had me more down and depressed, because things came up that never had before so i didn't think they would which through the whole plan into even worse turmoil than before i started.

Having said all that, we are all here for you which ever way you decide to go, and thats the crux of the matter you have to decide. We're just like mother hen's :-)

m3bfs

ps if you do the CAB/CCS route, and find you have to pay the Council back, you may just find that once you have an income and expenditure sheet to show them, they will have to accept less.

[m3bfs]

anyway, FOOD never comes first lol ...... unless it's food for the babies ...... that does

you don't eat properly = you become ill, if heaven forbid you become really ill = hospital stay, hospital stay = stopping of any benefits, stopping of benefits = no money to pay debt. You back to square 1.

You have to eat, so food albeit basic not Harrods or fortnum and masons lol must come first.

m3bfs

[BrideXIII]

because you've got no safety net.

it sounds like you've got it sorted, maybe right down to the last penny. which at the moment is great, if everything would stay that way. But as we all know it doesn't. If for now at least you pay everybody the minimum that you can afford to pay, you can put a bit by for the rainy day that unfortunately is just round the corner, without getting sent completely of course with your repayments.

If like me you rely on benefits (due to illness) and have nothing left when everybody is paid, how are you gonna make sure you can put money in to cover the direct debit (and so not incur �30 or whatever charge) should those at DWP or social security or whatever they call themselves go on strike and your payment doesn't go through on the right day.

Yes it is very not nice thinking that you may have years of debt hanging over you at this point, but get CAB CCS or whoever to arrange the minimum payments, put any spare cash to one side, preferable in account that will earn you as much interest as possible. Every 6mths or thereabouts, those that you are paying will want an updated income and expenditure (easy done, just take all paperwork and facts and figures back to whoever you let help you) and they maybe able to arrange some one off payments from what you've managed to save, while still paying the minimum.

Hopefully haven't sounded all doom and gloom, but from one who's been there and tried it both ways, have got to say the minimum payment plan worked out to be the healthiest for my mind, body and soul. Yeah would have loved to have paid it all off sooner, but that way (while i was trying to do it on my own, all figures worked out) had me more down and depressed, because things came up that never had before so i didn't think they would which through the whole plan into even worse turmoil than before i started.

Having said all that, we are all here for you which ever way you decide to go, and thats the crux of the matter you have to decide. We're just like mother hen's :-)

m3bfs

ps if you do the CAB/CCS route, and find you have to pay the Council back, you may just find that once you have an income and expenditure sheet to show them, they will have to accept less.

what ^^ said.
been there done the same, and nearly killed myself trying to cope with payments i couldn't really afford just cos i felt i had to get it paid off quick.
after the CCS sorting me out, I only have One �900 debt that i have to pay, it has no interest charges, and they get �12 a month, reviewable every 3 months, but if i don't have any extra, they don't push it.
the other catalogue debts were all written off after 3 years, despite them trying to pressure me, they had to accept �2.50 a week divided between them until then.
my visa is still going on the minimum payment, although they took the card away, but i didn't want them to take the bank account, so we kept that as it was.
at the beginning I was paying �250 a month from benefits on debts, CCS said i was insane and put a stop to it all, gave me a PROPER budget, which actually allowed us to eat properly, and pay all the bills.

we are all rooting for you, we just want to share OUR experiences with you so that you know you don't HAVE to skint yourself to get through this.

[SueA]

At least you've made a start Lynda, just take deep breaths & tackle one thing at a time.

[maytreefrannie]

Thinking of you, Lynda.

I think the hardest thing is to do what you've done - get everything out, look at it, add it up. You've done that and you're now on the way to getting everything sorted.

It's also good to listen to others' advice and opinions and check them out - take them up or not as you wish, then you can decide what course of action is for you, and do what best suits your situation.

Well done and best wishes.