An income and expenditure form lists everything coming in and everything going out each month, so a creditor, adviser, lender or court can see what you can genuinely afford. Most UK creditors and advice charities now use one shared layout, the Standard Financial Statement. Fill it in from three months of real bank statements rather than memory, convert every figure to a monthly amount, include the irregular costs, and keep the evidence.
You will meet this form when you ask a creditor for a payment arrangement, when a debt adviser at StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline sets up a plan, when a mortgage lender discusses arrears, when a court considers how much you can pay towards a judgment, and sometimes when a landlord or lender checks affordability. In every case the question is the same: after essential costs, what is left?
The form is not a test you pass or fail. A realistic form that shows a small surplus, or none, is more useful to everyone than an optimistic one that falls apart in month two.
Since 2017 the UK debt advice sector has used the Standard Financial Statement, overseen by the Money and Pensions Service. Creditors who sign up to it agree to accept the same layout and the same spending guidelines, so you fill it in once and everyone works from the same numbers. It also has a savings line, so you can set aside a small amount each month (the guideline allows up to £20) without a creditor objecting.
If a creditor sends their own form, the categories will be close enough that a completed Standard Financial Statement transfers across in minutes.
| Group | Typical lines | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed costs | Rent or mortgage, council tax, gas and electricity, water, insurance, TV licence, broadband, phones | Direct debits and standing orders on the statement |
| Living costs | Food and household shopping, travel, car costs, childcare, school costs, clothing, health | Card spending, averaged over three months |
| Flexible costs | Subscriptions, entertainment, eating out, gifts, hobbies | Card spending, averaged; be honest |
| Priority debts | Rent or mortgage arrears, council tax arrears, energy arrears, court fines, child maintenance, tax | Letters and statements from each creditor |
| Non-priority debts | Credit cards, loans, overdrafts, catalogues, buy-now-pay-later | Current balances and minimum payments |
People underestimate their spending by a wide margin when they guess. The fix is mechanical. Download the last three months of transactions from each account as a CSV, import them into The Income Tracker, and let it group them by category. The monthly average for each category goes straight onto the form. A quarter is long enough to catch the annual car insurance, the dentist and the school trip that a single month misses.
Anything paid yearly or quarterly gets divided into a monthly figure. Anything paid weekly is multiplied by 52 and divided by 12, not by four. The weekly to monthly calculator on this site does that conversion.
Facts on this page were last checked on 2026-09-16 against:
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