Any advice on what to fo when partner goes to prison

[Raccoonsatemyscones]

My husband has been given a short prison sentence (2-4 months) All the bills were in his name and came out of his account and he was the only earner in the family.

So far I have contacted the council and gotten all my benefits adjusted but I have been advised it may take up to 3 weeks to receive them.

I have tried putting his loan on stop but they won't until he goes into debt.

I'm trying to figure out what I do about direct debits such as rent, sky tv (which will cost me more to cancel than to carry on paying. They won't let me transfer direct debits from his account to mine unless they get it in writing from him but I can't speak to him until next week and I need to pay the rent. I thought about transferring money to his account but coukd get messy as I'd need to time it right so that the housimg benefit I transfer would be paying for the rent and not the loan I can't afford. Also I'm worried they'll take out a direct debit and he'll go into his overdraft, putting us into debt.

Any advice on best way to handle this/anything I might not have thought about? It only happened 2 days ago and am home alone heavily pregnant with a toddler to look after aswell and can't think straight!

Please ignore the advice about deciding to go into debt with your rent. Keeping a roof over your head is an absolute priority.

Maybe see if you can get an appointment with Citizens Advice next week OP.

I went to CAB the day after it happened. All they said was to call hmrc and income support and ignore the rest as it's all in his name anyway. It doesn't sit well with me and eould surely just cstch up eith us later down the line.

I've figured that with my personal savings I should be able to cover rent, council tax and the bills that will cost me more to cancel than keep. Should have enough food in the house to not need much for shopping, fussy toddler permitting. The water/gas/elec isn't due until end of the year so hopefilly I can scrape together enough for those. If anything I'll struggle once he's back as by that time I'll have exhausted my savings, I still have to pay the solicitor too.

There's a debt management charity in my town, it's run by a church but you don't have to be religious to receive help. I think there's similar all over the country. Might be worth asking one of them for advice?

It sounds like you're doing a good job of holding it all together. It must be very hard for you. It's hard enough being pregnant and looking after a toddler, this is the last thing you need.

I really hope you manage to find someone you can talk to irl, you shouldn't have to go through all this on your own

I'd look at moving the bills to your own account.

Do you actually want him back after he put you through this and could have killed other people's chidren or taken a parent from a child?

Your family need to know, of course they will think badly of him. His behaviour caused it though, no one else made those choices for him.

Yellow the OP has stated that the companies won't move the bills without the consent of the current account holder.