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How to use the budgeting tool
This information applies to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
About the budgeting tool
You can use the budgeting tool to work out your household budget. You can also use the tool to work out how much you have available to repay your non-priority debts. These include credit cards, overdrafts and other non-secured loans (loans which aren’t secured against your property).
At the end, you will be able to print off a financial statement which you can use to come to an agreement with your non-priority creditors.
To find out more about non-priority debts, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland see How to sort out your debts. In Scotland, see How to sort out your debts.
To complete your budget using the budgeting tool, you'll need to fill in all the information that applies to you on each of the ten pages. There is a link to detailed guidance at the top of each page to help you fill it out.
You won't need to fill in every page, but try to set aside as much time as you can to fill it all in properly. The end result will be better if you have got all the amounts right.
You'll need information about all your income and expenses and your debts. You should make sure you’ve got all this information ready before you use the tool. You can get a checklist of the information you’ll need to complete the tool.
When you have filled in all your information, you'll be able to look at your financial statement. This is a summary of your budget showing what money you have available to repay your debts and the offers of repayment you can afford for each of your non-priority creditors. You'll be able to save the financial statement and print it off.
When to use the budgeting tool
It's best to use the tool when you are ready to work out offers to your non-priority creditors. If you haven't already looked at our other information about sorting out your debts, it may help to do this before you start using the budgeting tool.
For more information about non-priority creditors and how to sort out your debts, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, see Help with debt. In Scotland, see Help with debt.
If you have priority debts
If some of your debts are priority debts, you will need to make arrangements with those creditors before you use the budgeting tool. Priority debts include arrears of rent, mortgage, council tax, gas and electricity, fines, income tax and VAT.
For more information about sorting out priority debts, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, see Dealing with urgent debts. In Scotland, see Dealing with priority debts.
If any of your creditors have already got a court order
If any of your creditors have got a court order in the county court or sheriff court, you need to get advice before using the budgeting tool. This is because you will need to make sure the amount you should pay under the court order isn't affected by the offers of payment worked out by the budgeting tool.
You must continue to repay whatever the court has ordered.
For more information about court orders in England and Wales, see the fact sheet What happens if you are taken to court for money you owe. In Scotland, see the fact sheet What happens if you are taken to court for money you owe.
Your local Citizens Advice Bureau can give you advice about debt problems. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
Checklist of information to use the budgeting tool
To fill in the budgeting tool pages you'll need information about all your income and expenses and your debts. You'll also need this information for your partner if you are doing a joint budget and you'll need income details for anyone else who is covered by the budget, for example other adults living with you.
It will help if you get all your paperwork together before you start. If you don't, you may not be able to complete the budgeting tool in one go and you will have to start again.
Here's a checklist of the information you'll need:
- wages slips
- benefits and tax credit notices showing the amounts you get
- pensions notices showing amounts you get
- tenancy agreement if you rent your home
- mortgage agreement if you are a home owner
- gas bills (last three)
- electricity bills (last three)
- water bills (last three)
- phone bills (last three)
- details of health expenses for you and your family
- insurance policies
- rent or mortgage arrears notice
- council tax notice of arrears
- fines notice
- tax and VAT bills or demands
- shopping receipts to work out food bills
- your latest bank statement
- the latest statement or letter showing the name of the person you owe money to and the amount you owe. You'll need this for each debt you have including personal loans, credit and store cards, catalogues, hire purchase and conditional sale agreements.
Moving around the pages
To move between the pages in the budgeting tool, click on:
- Start to go back to the beginning of the budgeting tool
- Previous to go back one page
- Next to go forward one page.
The progress bar at the top of each page shows you which page of the budgeting tool you are on as you move through it.
Important information on each page
There is important information about each page in the box at the top of the page. To see guidelines for filling in the page, click on the Read more link. The guidance page will open in another window.
For a page by page guide to filling in the budgeting tool, see Budgeting tool guidelines.
Information boxes
This is where you fill in your information to work out your budget. You can see guidelines about what to put in the boxes and how to work out amounts by clicking on the Read more link at the top of each page.
Compulsory information
Some of the information is compulsory. This means you can't continue to the next page until you have put something in the box. The compulsory information is shown with an asterisk (*).
If you miss out compulsory information, you will see a warning message to say you can't continue with the budgeting tool. To be able to carry on with your budget you need to put something in the box. If the box doesn't apply to you, for example, a box is for mortgages and you don't have one, you should just put in 0 (zero).
How to write amounts
You only need to put in the decimal point where the amount includes pence. You don't need to put in the pound sign (£). This will appear automatically in the financial statement.
Example:
For an amount of £25.00, you put in 25
For an amount of £13.50, you put in 13.5
How often payments are made
When you put in an amount for income and expenses you must say how often the amount is paid (the frequency). For example, you might pay a bill weekly or monthly. It's very important that you put in the right frequency for each amount. If you don't, the budget will add up wrong.
The frequency box will automatically show monthly. To change to a different frequency click in the box and use the drop down list to choose how often you pay. You can change it to monthly, quarterly or yearly.
Whatever you put in the boxes, the budgeting tool will work out the totals for each page on a monthly basis. This is so that the final amounts on the financial statement will be monthly.
All amounts will appear as you filled them in so you can see what you put in. If you change the amount or how often it is paid, the budgeting tool will change the total.
If there’s no money available to offer your creditors
If the budgeting tool works out that your expenses are more than or the same as your income, you will not be able to continue with the budgeting tool. This is because you will have no money available to offer to your creditors.
This can happen if you have filled the budget in wrong. You may want to go back through the budget and check:
- the amounts are right. You can go back over your income and expenses to make sure you have filled in the right amounts. You can change any amount that is wrong by writing over what you have put
- how often the amounts are paid. You must choose how often each amount of income and expenses is paid (the frequency). Make sure you have chosen the right frequency for each amount you have put in as this will affect the total amounts. If you change the frequency of a payment, the budgeting tool will work the totals out again.
If you have filled in the right amounts and frequency and there is still no money available to offer your creditors, you might want to see if you can make any cutbacks in your spending or earn any extra income. This might make money available for you to pay back your debts.
For more information about making cutbacks in your spending and earning extra income, see How to spend less and Increasing your income.
An experienced debt adviser can help you work out if you have any money available to pay off your debts. They can also help you work out your options if you don't have any money to pay off your debts.
You can get help to deal with your debts from an adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
For more information about working out your budget, see How to work out your budget.
If you stop part way through the budgeting tool
If you stop part way through the budgeting tool pages and leave it for more than 60 minutes, you will have to start again. You can't save what you have put in.
Saving what you have put in
You can print out the individual pages of the budget sheet as you go but you can't save them to your computer.
When you get to the end, you'll be able to see your financial statement which is a summary of all the information you have put in. It includes offers to your non-priority creditors. You will be able to save the financial statement.
To save the Financial Statement at the end, click on Financial statement as a pdf and save it to your computer as usual. You can print out the financial statement to send to your creditors.
