Published in Debt Advice Features on Friday, March 30 2007

In bankruptcy you are required to disclose all your earnings it will be seen as you not cooperating fully with your bankruptcy trustee if you do not disclose your complete earnings.

You must include everything you receive each week or month, this includes any income you receive from self employed work, being employed and earning your salary through PAYE , pensions and any benefits you are entitled to (child benefit, working and child tax, income support, DLA, etc) in addition to payments received through CSA for child maintenance, if you do not disclose all your income then this could lead to you receiving inaccurate advice, which could if found out in bankruptcy have a serious detrimental affect on your bankruptcy.

If you are seen as not cooperating fully with your bankruptcy trustee you run the risk of having the date of your bankruptcy discharge suspended, which means you would be subject to the restrictions of bankruptcy and find yourself bankrupt for longer.

It will also be necessary for you to provide details of your partners income as it is assumed that your partner contributes to the household expenses. In addition to this you will also be asked to provide details of any contributions you get from other members of the household (board from children, rent from lodgers etc.)

Note that if you do not disclose any of this information then your bankruptcy trustee will not allow you to have the full allowances for your household expenses.