We put down exactly what we spent on everything to a realistic level. We have added rises each year when they have happened and have never had a payment rise.
Sometimes you have to change things in your spending, such as using own brands rather than branded names which will always save you money.
We were always spending money like water which is why we found ourselves in the position we are in.
You have to cut back on things otherwise you will struggle.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
I think it's difficult to expect your IP to be able to tell you what you should be spending on different things as at the end of the day, everyone's circumstances are different so only you can do this by going through your spending patterns over the last few months (looking at old bank statements?) and totting things up.
This was one of the reasons why we took 6 months from making our first phonecall to actually holding the creditors meeting and we had our I&E changed numerous times as I wanted the time to get it right as I knew once we were in, it would be more difficult to change it.
I think once your IVA payment is agreed, then unless your own pay increases in some way, it's difficult to add in other expenditure as this is going to reduce your IVA payment to below what was expected and agreed at the creditors meeting, but if your pay increases to counteract any additional expenditure then it shouldn't be a problem adding things in at review time
I think that there should be allowances made for the area you live in. I live in the south and the prices are so much more here than my sister in law pays in Hull. Diesel around here is £1.50 a litre at the moment thats almost £7 a gallon.My sister in law pays £1.39 a litre thats less than £6.50 a gallon, big difference.
Carole, I live in the north near Hull and diesel is £1.51 a litre, I don't think it makes a difference where in the country you live, I work in Hull but live 30 miles outside of it in a village that has poor public transport links so I have no alternative but to use my car for work, fuel is currently costing me £150 a month just to go to work.
Allowances should be based on your actual expenditure, not where you live in the country in my opinion
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
I wish I had been aware of the guidelines - there were things we didn't know we could claim for and when putting a figure to them for things such as petrol were told it was too high - only to find it was well below the guidelines - good old Blair Endersby for you.
Some of our allowances were actually suggested by Payplan as we didn't realise that we could claim for things such as meals at work and pet insurance.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
I don't see how anyone can tell you whether your petrol allowances are too high or not, I was seriously worried about ours as we both live 30 miles away from work and it costs me around £150 a month and hubby £180, I was very worried that those figures wouldn't be accepted but my IP told me not to worry about it as at the end of the day, it costs what it costs and if the creditors queried it, all we had to do was produce receipts
I do a 24 mile round trip a day to work, plus other journeys for shopping etc and we claim £230 a month.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Blair Endersby have a lot to answer for. Our IVA was unaffordable - we were told time and time again to 'absorb' our heating bills doubling (moved from gas to home with heating oil) increase in petrol, clothing as girls were in school etc etc. Despite hubby's overtime being cut and him being on basic only due to an injury and getting around £300 a month LESS in income. Needless to say we couldn't pay the high figure they kept putting up and up every year. Thank God for Karol and all at GT who went through the figures, saw it was unaffordable and arranged the variation meeting to take payments to date as full and final. I dread to think what would have happened if we had not been transferred to them
Never had any problems upping our allowances. We've just done our annual review and none of our increases were questioned.
I do agree with Lem that you can't set allowances just because of the area you live in.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
So pleased to see that Angelrainbow's new IP is now listening and taking on board their affordability issues. So important to maintain a successful IVA all the way through.
Mel - Angelrainbow has completed her IVA with a full and final at the end of last year.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
