[thesheriff443]

Twin brothers aged 52 hang themselves from the same tree after falling into debt.

Brief outline, they were part time warehouse workers who lived together their whole life, their mother died and left them 40 grand so their benefits stopped, after this the money ran out.

They emptied the fridge freezer folded all their washing before hanging them selves

Both had notes in their pockets saying they could not take anymore.

[parmnion]

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/201...k-on-benefits/

[Cherie]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nged-tree.html


A very sad case, given their Mum died in 2014 I would say they struggled to survive without her guiding hand and having their benefits cut for having 20k which is about enough for a year to live on each is criminal

[Strictly Jake]

Oh no that's awful

See this is the trouble with debt and debt collectors. Being in debt myself I know how hard it can be the constant feeling of panic and anxiety trying to push bills and payments the furthest they can go before you pay them just so you can afford to buy essential things like food. The odd time you want to treat yourself to something the guilt you can feel knowing you have debts to pay

The problem is the constant harrassment you get, phone calls, letters, demands. When you took out credit cards etc when you could afford to do so but your lifestyle changes and you end up missing lots of payments simply because you have to but will pay it back when you can, the harrassment I don't see any benefit to it makes you have mental anxiety

So I can see why they got to a point where they couldn't handle it anymore

[thesheriff443]

Originally Posted by ShakeyJake10

Oh no that's awful

See this is the trouble with debt and debt collectors. Being in debt myself I know how hard it can be the constant feeling of panic and anxiety trying to push bills and payments the furthest they can go before you pay them just so you can afford to buy essential things like food. The odd time you want to treat yourself to something the guilt you can feel knowing you have debts to pay

The problem is the constant harrassment you get, phone calls, letters, demands. When you took out credit cards etc when you could afford to do so but your lifestyle changes and you end up missing lots of payments simply because you have to but will pay it back when you can, the harrassment I don't see any benefit to it makes you have mental anxiety

So I can see why they got to a point where they couldn't handle it anymore

I’m sorry to hear you are struggling but stay strong.

[arista]

Yes Sad
that were not brought up to be independent.

[parmnion]

Can't you get your payments put into one monthly payment of about 50 quod shakey?


If you can do that then you can ignore all the letters...I'm sure there are some helpful people on here who can give advice.....don't let it get you down my friend.

[Kazanne]

Originally Posted by ShakeyJake10

Oh no that's awful

See this is the trouble with debt and debt collectors. Being in debt myself I know how hard it can be the constant feeling of panic and anxiety trying to push bills and payments the furthest they can go before you pay them just so you can afford to buy essential things like food. The odd time you want to treat yourself to something the guilt you can feel knowing you have debts to pay

The problem is the constant harrassment you get, phone calls, letters, demands. When you took out credit cards etc when you could afford to do so but your lifestyle changes and you end up missing lots of payments simply because you have to but will pay it back when you can, the harrassment I don't see any benefit to it makes you have mental anxiety

So I can see why they got to a point where they couldn't handle it anymore

If you are in a lot of debt Shakey you can get a places where you can get them to add your debts together and then they decide how much you can afford to pay back and they will take one payment and share the money out between the debtors so it would be manageable for you, if you then continue to struggle you can ask for a debt relief order in which you pay about Ł100 and they write the debts off, obviously you cant have catalogues etc after that,but it might be worth it to have that peace of mind

https://nationaldebtexpert.org.uk/?u...r%20%7C%20CCCS

https://www.stepchange.org/about-us/our-history.aspx

These are just a couple there are quite a few out there.

[Cherie]

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/


you can shift all your credit card debt onto a no interest card so at least even if you are only paying small amounts it will be coming off the debt amount rather than paying interest

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Can't you get your payments put into one monthly payment of about 50 quod shakey?


If you can do that then you can ignore all the letters...I'm sure there are some helpful people on here who can give advice.....don't let it get you down my friend.

Several options really. ALL of these impact credit score, in increasing order of severity, but if you're in bad debt tbh that doesn't matter all that much as your credit score will be in the gutter anyway.

A) You can contact each lender directly and explain that you're struggling to pay, and they HAVE to (by law) offer you a repayment agreement and you can offer a token amount to each (say Ł10 a month) if you can justify that you can't afford more. Total debt is factored into that; not just income / living costs.

B) You can contact debt advisors and have them set up a reduced repayment plan. Basically they contact your lenders for you, usually get some of the debt written off, and a repayment amount agreed, then they combine all of those into one payment that you pay to them and they pass on to the lenders. This is better than option A if you're bad at organising loads of separate payments / are stressed about more letters coming through.

C) Worst comes to worst you can just file for bankruptcy which means you don't have to repay any of it. All accounts will be closed, all letters will stop, you can basically just forget about it. The drawbacks are that if you have assets like a house or a car loan, those assets will be seized (they'll let you keep a reasonably priced car if you need one for work or live somewhere out of the way) but if you have a house or anything you lose it. You also can't get credit of any kind so not even mobile phone contracts etc (you'll have to use PAYG) and sometimes even things like internet providers can be a hassle. Though if you know someone who is willing to set it up in their name and you just transfer the cash to them each month, you can get round it that way. Really a last resort especially for a homeowner BUT it's always there is worst comes to worst .

With all of them your credit is screwed for 6 years but then you can start rebuilding it and have good credit within a couple more years. With the first option (no official insolvency) you can fix it faster than that.



This is a really sad story because I can say for certain that there's no way that these guys were totally stuck... they've obviously found the system too complex to navigate and needed help and support that they didn't get. Their debt situation could definitely have been fixed.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Cherie

you can shift all your credit card debt onto a no interest card so at least even if you are only paying small amounts it will be coming off the debt amount rather than paying interest

Only if you've not been missing payments etc. you need decent credit to get a 0% balance transfers card.

Also you have to beware the trap! I had Ł1500 on a couple of cards, got a Ł1500 Barclaycard with 0% balance transfers and put it all on that, paid off the Ł1500... then they upped my limit to Ł4500... and I ended up maxing it out over the course of a year . Wups.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Only if you've not been missing payments etc. you need decent credit to get a 0% balance transfers card.

Also you have to beware the trap! I had Ł1500 on a couple of cards, got a Ł1500 Barclaycard with 0% balance transfers and put it all on that, paid off the Ł1500... then they upped my limit to Ł4500... and I ended up maxing it out over the course of a year . Wups.

wups indeed, cut up the card if you ever manage to shift again .

[Strictly Jake]

Thanks for the advice didn't want to get off track with this sad story though

[parmnion]

I knew everyone was nice on here really..

[Twosugars]

Originally Posted by ShakeyJake10

Thanks for the advice didn't want to get off track with this sad story though

Jake, listen to the excellent advice by Kazanne and Toy Soldier. I confirm all they said.
In my time I dealt with all this as a telephone interpreter and the stories I heard... But it's all true, these charities will help you sort it and deal with your lenders, they're wonderful and life savers to many people.
They will set up a debt management plan for you and get lenders to agree to it.
Do give them a call, please.

[Gstar]

Originally Posted by arista

Yes Sad
that were not brought up to be independent.

Inappropriate comment

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by ShakeyJake10

Oh no that's awful

See this is the trouble with debt and debt collectors. Being in debt myself I know how hard it can be the constant feeling of panic and anxiety trying to push bills and payments the furthest they can go before you pay them just so you can afford to buy essential things like food. The odd time you want to treat yourself to something the guilt you can feel knowing you have debts to pay

The problem is the constant harrassment you get, phone calls, letters, demands. When you took out credit cards etc when you could afford to do so but your lifestyle changes and you end up missing lots of payments simply because you have to but will pay it back when you can, the harrassment I don't see any benefit to it makes you have mental anxiety

So I can see why they got to a point where they couldn't handle it anymore

Hope things improve for you Jake

[arista]

Originally Posted by Germyle

Inappropriate comment

Why?

[JerseyWins]

Aww that’s sad

I kinda can’t believe they openly talked about suicide with each other and both agreed it was the answer though I wonder if it was an impulse decision or talked about a lot leading up to it. But I guess they were going through the same struggles and feelings </3