Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire offers advice on which debts to prioritise first if you're struggling

Every month, Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire answers your questions.

This week, the question is: I’ve gotten myself into debt with a few things, but I’m really struggling to prioritise them. How can I decide which ones to deal with first?

And the answer?

Debts can be placed within two categories: non-priority debt and priority debt. Priority debts need to be dealt with first as they can cause you particularly serious problems if you don’t do anything about them. The consequences can include losing your home, the loss of essential utilities (e.g. gas and electric) or even being sent to prison.

Examples of priority debts include: rent arrears; mortgage and secured loan arrears; council tax arrears; gas or electricity bills; phone or internet bills (if they are your current supplier); TV licence payments; Magistrate court fines; unpaid income tax; VAT (if business debt). Finally, unpaid child support payments are also classified as priority debts.

Contact Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire if:

• You’re struggling to deal with your priority debts.

• You have more than one priority debt and you need help deciding which to deal with first.

Once you’ve got your priority debts under control, you should look at all your other debts. They’re ‘non-priority debts’ because the problems they cause are less serious.

Your non-priority debts might include:

• Credit card or store card debts
• Catalogue debts
• Unsecured loans including payday loans
• Unpaid water bills - your supplier can’t cut off your water supply
• Overpayments of benefits - apart from tax credits
• Unpaid parking tickets - these are called penalty charge notices or parking charge notices
• Money you owe to family and friends.

If you don’t pay these debts, your creditors can take you to court to get you to pay. If you owe money to family and friends, it might help to tell them you have other debts. They might offer to wait until you’ve paid off your other debts before asking you to pay them back. If you were an authorised additional cardholder on a credit card account, the credit card company can’t ask you to repay any debts on the card. These are always the responsibility of the main cardholder.

When beginning to organise what you owe, collect together all the information about your debts, such as contracts, bills and statements. Your debts might for example include:

• Rent arrears
• Credit card debts
• Council tax arrears
• Energy or water bills
• Money you’ve borrowed from friends or family.

Make a list of your debts and write down the details of each debt. These details might include:

• Who you owe the money to - this is your ‘creditor’
• When you first missed a payment
• How much you owe - this might be in a recent statement
• Your account or reference number - this might be at the top of your statement
• What the creditor has done to get the money back - for example, sending you letters or taking you to court.

Try not to worry when you see all your debts written down - the important thing is that you’re sorting them out.

For further information on this matter, or anything related, call Adviceline on 0808 278 7996. We are here to help you find a way forward.