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tiredandfedup
Starting Member
14 Posts |
 Posted - 16 February 2009 : 22:11:49
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I am petitioning tomorrow at the High Court. I have £20000 approx debt, largely due to a tax bill. I have been diagnosed as bipolar after many years of very bad swings from depression to manic periods - including crazy spending. Last year I had a breakdown and have not worked since Feb 2008. Hence the bankruptcy. I am receiving JSA as I am currently out of work, I have no assets and rent my flat from a housing association.
Some worries:
As my outgoings are equal to my income (ie benefits) I am guessing that there can be no IPA at the moment. But as I hope to restart my career freelancing soon with small and irregular sums of income, how will the OR respond to this? My income over the next year or so is going to be very variable. Will they assess it as it goes along?
I depend on my mobile to keep me in touch with the world of work and it will be vital to me getting going again. Will the OR automatically inform the phone company and then they will cut me off?
How much detail will the OR want to go into at the interview, and how far back?
Does the OR take a different view of things because my chief creditor is the Inland Revenue?
Any thoughts on any of this would be very welcome. I am pretty scared and getting very paranoid about it all. But this forum has really helped already, just reading everyone's stories. |
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tiredandfedup
Starting Member
14 Posts |
Posted - 17 February 2009 : 18:06:35
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Went down to the High Court and did it today. What a relief! Very smooth process, no alarms and no surprises.
The only bad bit was when I decided to kill the time between handing in the forms and getting the bankruptcy order by going to the CAB to get some help on the above queries. I got to the bit about the IPA and they said 'What's an IPA?' So the advice on this forum has been rather better than that!
One thing I still don't understand, though. Can an IPA be set up after your discharge but within the 3 years? I am not likely to earn that much over the next nine months but I hope to get back up to speed after that. Will my income be monitored even after the discharge in 12 months (or sooner)? |
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Jane.l
Average Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 17 February 2009 : 18:09:48
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well done!
an IPA can only be set up before discharge, not after. If you are discharged with no IPA in place (as I was) you are not monitored afterwards and can earn what you like  |
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tiredandfedup
Starting Member
14 Posts |
Posted - 17 February 2009 : 18:41:36
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Thanks for that Jane!
It's odd, though, isn't it, that from what I read here either what you say happens, which is obviously a good thing, or if your circumstances change within a month or two of your discharge you could suddenly get an IPA for 36 months? Or am I being thick about this?
Also, still paranoid that my stupid spending - which mainly happened around 12-15 months ago in a manic phase of my illness - will be raked over and that I will get a BRO as a result. Anyone had any experience with that kind of thing? |
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pix1
Average Member
689 Posts |
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Jane.l
Average Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 11:14:58
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| Well, in my case, just before I went bankrupt I was doing a temporary job, working loads of hours and I hated it, I was also depressed and stressed with all the bankruptcy business (plus 3 kids!) that I decided to leave that job. So at the time of going bankrupt I was out of work, I got early discharge in March and in May I got a new job. I did not tell the OR as I was discharged |
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tiredandfedup
Starting Member
14 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 12:21:06
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Thanks for that Pix and Jane.
I don't want to get out of paying what I should and I can't exactly afford to turn away work, but I guess what you're saying is that if there's any way of avoiding a sudden change in circumstances just before the discharge, that would be a good idea!
Here's hoping it all works out. Thanks again for the responses. This forum has been crucial in getting me this far. |
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Skippy
forum expert
United Kingdom
3290 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 12:38:50
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I don't think advising someone to 'hibernate' is good advice. There is no point putting your life on hold for 12 months just so that you don't get an IPA.
Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, today is the present, a gift to make the most of.
View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.bankruptcyhelp.org.uk/
20 IPA payments made, 16 to go - on the home straight! |
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Niobe
Administrator
United Kingdom
4590 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 12:51:57
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If I were ever to declare BR, then I certainly wouldn't be trying to avoid an IPA.
I would like to think that I could hold my head up and say that I have paid my way.
The glimmer gets brighter all the time
Jan
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tiredandfedup
Starting Member
14 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 13:04:09
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| Thanks Skippy and Kallis. I agree - I don't want to avoid anything. I guess my original query was to try to get head my round the logic of it all and what I should expect. Which I now have. I think! I'm sure that by tomorrow I'll have developed some new worry to torment myself with... |
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Jane.l
Average Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 13:06:25
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| If I had been in a permanent secure job that I enjoyed, then I would not have even thought of packing it in and would in all liklihood have got an IPA,(which would have been fair enough) but the job was ending soon anyway so we decided to put ourselves first. We had paid our way for nearly 20 years of struggling, we had nothing to show for all the debt apart from a delapidated house and the cars, which were needed for work purposes and we knew we could not keep anyway, so we wanted a fresh start, nothing to pay, we were losing everything anyway, why not put ourselves first for a change? |
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Niobe
Administrator
United Kingdom
4590 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 13:29:33
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Sorry, I don't agree. If you have borrowed the money, then you expect to pay at least some of it back.
My finances are my number one priority at the moment, if I'm paying something back, then I feel a lot happier about myself.
The glimmer gets brighter all the time
Jan
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Jane.l
Average Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 13:49:40
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| We will have to agree to disagree on that, my view is that we tried our best to get the best outcome for the creditors out of our predicament (proposing an IVA, trying to sell the house, etc) but were thwarted at every turn, Picture would not agree to the house sale, they would not agree to any arrangement to pay the debt back at reduced payments, they were very rude and aggresive on the phone to such an extent, we had to stop speaking to them over the phone and only communicate in writing. NR bunged £10,000 in interest on top of one of my loans as soon as we started to default. after 5 months of Picture dithering about whether to let us sell the house or not, quite frankly I had had enough and felt I could not care less if they got nothing. |
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Skippy
forum expert
United Kingdom
3290 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 14:19:14
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I agree with Jan on this one. If a person has borrowed money in good faith they should make some attempt to pay at least some of it back. If that person genuinely cannot afford an IPA that's a different matter, but to suggest that someone doesn't work so that they can avoid an IPA is not good advice as far as I'm concerned.
Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, today is the present, a gift to make the most of.
View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.bankruptcyhelp.org.uk/
20 IPA payments made, 16 to go - on the home straight! |
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leahk
Junior Member
117 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 14:26:12
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I believe in paying my debts - I've never missed a payment on anything, but if the Credit card companies weren't so greedy with their interest rates, my debts would've been cleared years ago and I wouldn't be where I am now.
Still, I've learned my lesson and its not a road I plan on going down ever again! |
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coxy
New Member
United Kingdom
63 Posts |
Posted - 18 February 2009 : 14:26:37
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I would have to agree Jane our circumstances are similar to yours in that we had a mortgage & secured loan the loan was with first plus for 85k if they had agreed to let us sell the house when we had an offer on it for 140k they would have got 60k back but my solicitor said only in a full and final settlement.
They said they would rather take there chances at auction and have ended up with around 30k. so part of me says serves the greedy bar - stewards right, if they had tried to help us when i informed them that we were starting to get into trouble instead of putting interest rate up 2% we probably would have entered into some sort of agreement to pay the shortfall.
Im sure we all start out with good intentions when we borrow but no one knows whats round the corner.
1 thing that does nark me though that a lot of people including us shouldnt have been lent as much as we borrowed and that was down to greed on the banks part,and now we are paying for it with our homes,whereas the banks are being rewarded with bonuses its probably me but it doesnt seem right somehow. |
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Court tomorrow - some more worries re IPA/OR etc.
