Debt forcing major decisions, go bankrupt or not?

[dingdong05]

1st off, thanks for reading, all info gratefully received!

I am in debt to credit cards in the region of £10,000. I've been struggling with the minimum payment for a while but now I have to accept that I cannot spend 1/2 of my household income (I'm on income support now)to service interest. The worst one, and the one I can see no end to is over 6 grand, and its over 100 quid for the interest alone.

I have to accept the fact that I won't suddenly get a great job/win the lottery and face the truth! Also I have no savings (ha!) or property so have no assets to sell off.

So the lady at CAB said I have 2 options: bankrupcy or a reduced payments plan.
Bankrupcy = over in a year (I know about the 7 years on the credit rating)
Reduced payments = still paying all the actual debt, without interest (hopefully) and not over for at least 8 years, assuming utter poverty and no decernable increase in standard of living in the meantime.

1 MUST be chosen, and on the surface, bancrupcy looks more attractive, but what is the real repercussion of going bankrupt as opposed to having a longlasting black mark on my rating and continued poverty that the reduced payments plan would bring?

I think you're definately going down the right route if you're getting more advice.
Scottish agreements and bankruptcy routes are slightly out of my knowledge, and I'm guessing you'll be an expert now anyway but...

On the will they/wont they freeze the interest front, if you are elligible for the scottish Debt Arrangment Scheme then you can guarentee frozen interest, and again, your creditors will be prevented from chasing you, but it does have strict entry criteria.

You might also want to check up on the Low Income, Low Asset bankruptcy route as this may also be worth thinking about.

Well love and hugs across the miles anyway, I hope that everything goes well and that you're finding a way to cope with the stress.