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[SallyB]

Hi there everyone. I wounder if you can help answer a question for me.

I started a Trust Deed about 18 months ago and I have done my first year review. I have been told by my employed that i will be getting a small pay rise in June. This will be about £50 a month after tax. In reality I will not have this extra money in my pocket because of rises in the cost of things like petrol and energy since my Trust Deed started have all but eaten this away. Given this do i have to tell my Trustee about the rise?

[James Falla]

Hello SallyB and welcome to the forum.

You must tell your Trustee about your pay rise. This is part of your obligations if you are in a Trust Deed. They will find out about it any when they do your second year review. If your expenses have changed you should tell your Trustee about this and say that you need to submit a fully revised income and expenditure statement. The bottom line is that all increases in your income should be paid into your Trust Deed. However your Trustee does then have discretion about whether or not you can keep any of the payrise you receive to ofset your other increasing living costs.

[SallyB]

Thanks for your reply James.

I will speak to my Trustee about it as you suggest. In your experience do you think they will allow me to keep some of the extra money to offset my additional costs? Otherwise am going to struggle to maintain my Trust Deed payments over the next 18 months as I cannot see my living expenses falling any time soon.....

[James Falla]

No problem at all SallyB

It is difficult to say whether your IP will agree to allow you to keep any of your pay rise or not. I do not want to get your hopes up as they are generally quite strict. However if you have a genuine need, then there is every chance that an agreement can be reached to enable you to keep some of the money.

[Amy Jellings]

Hi SallyB.

While this is obviously a decision for your trustee (and you should get in touch) they should certainly take into account increases in your cost of living. If you can document the actual increases in costs for your trustee all the better.