After the bankruptcy

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August, Jessica Hurst wrote to the media asking them to investigate how her dad’s debts of just under £12,000 became a bill of just under £73,000. Nigel Hurst killed himself eighteen months ago after learning that bailiffs were to repossess his family home. It was the bailiff who found him. Student, Jessica, was left with a pile of debt recovery letters and bank statements which she hoped would hold the clue to his financial troubles.

After an old school friend offered legal advice, Jessica has persuaded the creditors to reduce their demands back to a manageable level. How did they do that? And what did they learn in going through the process? Helen Grady - who reported on the case for File on 4 - asks Jessica about the response to the programme.

If you've been affected by the issues raised in this programme and would like details of organisations which offer advice and support, you can visit BBC Action Line or you can call for free, at any time, to hear recorded information 0800 066 066

You can also get help from …

https://www.samaritans.org/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/suicide/

Presenter: Helen Grady Producer: David Lewis Editor: Andrew Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:47.4	Thank you for downloading Moneybox Live. I'm David Lewis and I'm a producer at the BBC.
0:56.6	In the autumn, I worked with reporter Helen Grady on an investigation into bankruptcy and the devastating impact it had on one family.
1:00.9	But what happened after the story went out has been just as interesting.
1:07.1	So for this edition of Money Books Live, we revisit the story to bring you up to date on what's happened.
1:17.0	The number of people declared bankrupt in the past five years is 110,257. One of those people was Nigel Hurst, a father of two from the Lake District. Mr. Hurst was made bankrupt in March
1:23.9	2014 with debts of around £11,000. In the three years that followed, that
1:30.1	sum rose to £73,000. As is usual in such cases, various fees were added to his debt,
1:37.8	the idea being that a debtor must help meet the cost of administering their bankruptcy.
1:43.7	Back in the autumn, I took up Mr. Hurst case on behalf of his 26-year-old daughter, Jessica.
1:49.9	You can hear my investigation on the File-on-Four website.
1:53.9	Back then, Jessica faced the prospect of losing her family home to clear her father's debt,
1:59.5	and she was bewildered that what started out as £11,000 in
2:04.6	unpaid household bills had quickly grown to £73,000. Today on Moneybox Live, we're going to do
2:12.8	something we don't do very often. We're going to return to the story of Nigel Hurst and ask what happened
	...

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