Rent arrears

[ConfuzzledMummy]

Hi ladies,
Last year I got into some money trouble and my rent went into arrears. I have rang my landlord numerous times about this and have sorted a arrangement to repay this. I don't even know how much I owe, im too scared to ask! I think it's about £800 im paying £70 a month off that's all I can afford. Plus I've just heard about this universal credit thing and that there is going to be a 5week gap when awaiting payments! This has sent me into a panic, I don't know why I posted really suppose I just wanted to tell someone!

Hi confuzzled

Wanted to hand hold as its bloody horrid when money worries keep you awake, I'm not sure on UC so don't want to give duff advice, but as for arrears, ring landlord and find out how much is still
Owing, if he doesn't answer then write to him, you need to know what you owed, what you've paid and then what the balance is, you will feel so much better being in control and having an end date for overpaying.
How much do you think you've repayed from the possible £800?

Thanks for the quick reply, I think I will ring him tomorrow. He's been really understanding actually no threatening letters or anything! I don't know how much I've paid to be honest maybe £250

Then that's a big chunk of it, honestly, even of the figure is worse than you thought then at least you know and you can still see an end in sight. We have really good jobs, but due to a pay cut for a while lived on credit cards and didn't really cut back, was ignoring it until one day realised it was keeping me up at night and did the maths. We owed £27k on 9 cards, was paying minimum payments on all totally nearly £900 per month of which around £100 was coming off the balance. It wouldhave taken us thirty odd years to clear it. I did some serious juggling of balances, extra payments etc, we now have two outstanding balances totalling £11k on Interest free for another 18months. One card we use for day to day and pay off in full. It's taken us 18months to get here and in another 18 we willbe free from it all. But it's bloody scary taking the first step to knowing what you owe. :)

If your rent is in arrears do you have other debts as well or are you borrowing regularly in order to pay for essentials? If so, you may benefit from talking to someone like CAB or one of the other free debt advisory services to work out a way to get yourself back in the black. The UC changes start coming in in October for most people but they are being phased in for existing claimants over a period of six months. So if you can get on top of your debts now, keep much more accurate records of your income and outgoings and consciously start saving a few pounds each week, you should be able to ease the transition from benefits paid in advance to the UC paid in arrears.