Once you have maximised your income, use a budget planner to get a personalised analysis of your spending. There are lots of free online tools to help you with this such as the Budget Planner from Money Advice Service.

You might be able to look at making savings on your insurance cover, gas and electricity and other goods and services you pay for on a regular basis.

A price comparison website can help you identify better deals you might have access to. Examples of popular commercial comparison websites include MoneySupermarket and GoCompare (opens in a new tab).

This will ensure you are getting the most out of your existing household income. A money adviser can help you put together a budget if you are having trouble doing this on your own.

Once you have completed this exercise, if you have a surplus left over you will be in a position to offer repayment to the arrears.

Offering a repayment

Once you have worked out how much you can afford to pay towards mortgage arrears you're now in a position to offer a repayment plan to your mortgage provider. If a one-off lump sum payment is not possible, then this would normally be an amount over and above the monthly mortgage charge as this will start to reduce the arrears.

Present your offer of repayment to the mortgage provider, explaining how and when payments will be made. It is useful to include a copy of your budget to allow the mortgage company to have a greater understanding of your finances.

Make sure that the amount you offer is affordable for you, otherwise you may struggle to pay and this can lead to eviction action if you are unable to maintain any agreement you enter into.

Your mortgage lender will consider a number of factors as to whether your offer is acceptable, particularly the length of time it will take to clear the arrears and whether this is within the overall length of your existing mortgage contract.

Once you enter into an agreement it's important to maintain your regular contractual payment to your mortgage alongside any payment that you offer towards arrears to avoid any further action.