benefits included in your income when you claim?

[w_s]

i have dla, family tax credit, and nearly 30,000 dept do you take benefits included in your income when you claim

[vickir]

I'm a single parent, my salary, working tax credit and child benefit were all taken into account

[MelanieGiles]

Hi ws and welcome to the forum

If you mean are they taken into account for the purposes of income and expenditure, then yes they are.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp

[carlmcmullen]

Hi

Yes benefits are taken into account when proposing an IVA however there are very few creditor who accept IVA's if you are in receipt of soley DLA and tax credits.

Are you or a partner working?

Have you researched other solutions as there may be a more suitable one.

Carl

[w_s]

yes we both work though in so much dept we cant get a loan as keep being refused as the amount we need you need to own your won propertie which we dont we rent.so not sure what other solution there is![:(]now so confused and i need to pay £800 just on credit cards not including the loan end of jan and guess what we cant afford it so what happens now i dont know
any ideas?[:)]

[carlmcmullen]

Hi W_S

As you have an earned Income then it would be worth you contacing an IP to discuss your circumstances and an IVA might be suitable, an IP would be able to take a look at the split between earned income and benefits and advise.

Other alternatives include bankrutpcy and DMP's but it is better you deal with now whilst you still options availible to you.

Have you taken any independent adivce?

Carl

[MelanieGiles]

Given that your income is derived largely from benefits (I assume but please confirm if this is not the case), and that you are living in rented accomodation, you ought to look at either offering a DMP to your creditors, whereby you continue to make ongoing affordable repayments until the debts are paid off in full, or consider whether bankrutpcy proceedings are more beneficial.

The first option will take some time to effect and in the meantime you will have no legal protection from creditor claims or the charging of ongoing interest, whereas the latter option will be fairly quick and will discharge you from the debts quicker and probably not involve you making any further payments.

[w_s]

the DLA benefit is renewed 12 monthly as daughter is not permently disabled though is on time waiting to recover though no one can tell when she will recover could be 4 years could be 8 or when ever so the DLA benefit could change at the 12 months we have to renew we was not sure if this affected the iva?

[MelanieGiles]

If the DLA benefit is uncertain, then you should think carefully about basing a repayment plan which relies upon it, and at the end of the day this money is paid to you to look after your daughter and should be spent on her needs rather than being offered to your creditors.

[rachellxx39]

Our iva was based on my hubby working full time and the rest our benefits dla (for our daughter),child benefit and tax credits .We have more in benefits than in my hubby working full time . We had £60K and we pay £408 Per mth into iva each mth. Our daughters dla is up for review next year . She was awarded dla for 3 years this time before we claim on renewal.

[carlmcmullen]

It is always a difficult when DLA is involved and hasnt been awareded for life

The last thing you want is to find it is taken away next year and your IVA fail because of you cant afford to make payments anymore.

It needs to be reviewed fully and work out how much of contribtion is made up DLA before any advise could be given properly.

Carl

[MelanieGiles]

There is nothing wrong with that Rachel, so long as you have sufficient monies to look after your family and you wanted to propose the IVA by making the best offer you could to creditors. Hopefully the DLA will be renewed and you will have peace of mind for the following three years.

[rachellxx39]

I agree with you totally ,obviously it was included in our iva because it is an income into our household.Hopefully when its time to renew my daughter will get another 3 years or longer,her condition is going to be with her for her whole life but they havent yet awarded her a life long award. I think recieving benefits is a dificult one when deciding on an iva because my eldest daughter will be 17 when our iva is nearly ended,thus depending on her future at school will i be entitled to benefits then .

[MelanieGiles]

I'm not qualified to answer that I am afraid, but finishing an IVA after five long hard years will give you some spare money at the end to spoil her with. I imagine that you are ticking off the months one by one until this IVA is concluded.

[ladyc]

I think it may well be that your Daughter could claim in her own right from the age of 16 if she is no longer at school and child benefit ceases.
If she is not able to take responsibility herself then you could be her appointee but the benefits would be hers.
I am a bit rusty as it is some time since I worked and the medication I take causes a certain amount of confusion. Get in touch with the CAB or Benefits helpline who can clarify all of this.
Also I would have thought that DLA to care for your Daughter's needs shouldn't be taken for the payment of your creditors. Ask the CAB about this also.