I'm pre bankruptcy by about 6 months; about 9 months ago I separated with my ex partner and moved in with a friend for about 8 months, during this spell I sorted myself out and contacted all of my creditors and agreed a lowered amount to them all, mostly £1 token payments with the exception of about 2/3 which I pay a little more to, max £10, in total I pay about £40. I have 16 creditors and I owe a combined amount approx 22k. About June last year I feel behind with payments therfore most of them have defaulted, which I knew then that bankruptcy was my only way forward out of this mess.
One of my old creditors Lloyds which is from a loan back from 2008ish, have sold the debt a few times, to which I've had agreements with these companies and paid them up until about a year ago. I stupidly thought at the time I could ignore the company which was Westcott because the default had dropped off my credit file, however being pretty naive I didn't think it would come back to me, which about 9 months ago the creditor at the time Cabot Financial lodged a CCJ against me.
I accepted it as I had recently paid Westcott and offered a payment of £1 to Cabot, which at the time was accepted by the court, until about 4 months ago I received a letter stating that the claimant had not accepted the payment and had requested a determination of rate of payment for the courts, I called Cabot at the time who just fobbed me off telling me it's up to the courts to decide. Well a week ago I received a letter from my local court stating I've got to attend court in 2 weeks time for this hearing.
My circumstances have just changed and I've just moved into my partners house and we've got to work out our household I&E. My partner doesn't work therfore we've got to contact the benefits before I can redo my I&E and hand it out to my creditors as we do not know what if any benefits she'll continue to receive. My plan is after about 2/3 months I was going to go down the bankruptcy route once things have settled down and I've got the final funds for it, which I've been saving for over the last 6 months, as obviously pointless doing it when I don't know figures for my I&E and knew my circumstances would change.
Now I assume I've got to attend this hearing as it's in my best interests? Although I don't have a true I&E as stated above, do I complete an I&E with my partner and take that and state it could change varying on benefits? Can anyone advise what I should do?
I'm planning on calling StepChange for more advice from them as well.
Any advice is appreciated in advance!