M for Medicine

A classic example of a situation where clients get into debt whilst trying to do the right thing came to my attention recently when I helped a couple who were seriously struggling to pay what they owed.

Both of the pair were working – him full-time and her part-time – and, although they weren’t wealthy they were managing to get by. Once their daughter was born, however, their debts began to mount up. This was no fault of their own, their daughter was born with Type One Diabetes which required a lot of medical attention.

Her mother gave up work to look after her full-time, learning to inject her and give her the medical help she needed. Then, unfortunately, the daughter developed epilepsy, which meant she required frequent visits to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This resulted in her father taking a lot of time off to drive her to the hospital regularly, which caused him to lose his job.

On top of this, he fell into debt as he was spending huge amounts on petrol through his credit card. Despite getting agency work, the take home pay he was making was significantly less than the family were used to, as his work was only as and when rather than regular hours.

The couple started struggling to pay their mortgage and the house ended up being repossessed so they moved into rented accommodation. They were paying seven creditors on a combination of loans and credit cards. Once they finally called me, I visited their house, did the usual income and expenditure checks and managed to reduce their payment from a completely unmanageable £700 per month to £150 with the interest and charges frozen.

This was one of those situations where I was so glad I could help, because the family fell into debt through no fault of their own.