Cost of Living

[ray_a]

£66 per week for feeding a family of 4 is totally unreasonable and we spend about £90 which covers the basics! Infact I would say that the only luxury we have is roast for Sunday which a joint costs £5 and a bottle of wine which costs about £4.

Given the comments made about food costs at the Monday meeting I do hope we are going to see realistic food allowances!

[MelanieGiles]

Catullus

I got my hands on a May 2007 update this week. Let me know if you would like a copy!



Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp

[Skippy]

Hi Douglas, sorry for not replying sooner - I was off sick yesterday and I haven't got internet access at home at the moment.

As far as I'm aware you won't be sent a new I & E each year unless you receive a pay rise or have a change in your income or expenditure. I received a pay rise in May (yes May!) that the OR is still deciding whether they want. I informed Clarke Willmott in June and they forgot to notify the OR, and as I have moved house the OR said to wait until I know what my new I & E will be before returning the IPOQ. To be honest I'm going to have to guess some of it as I won't know for quite a while!

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[doaxb468]

About the original post. Unison have done reasearch into the cost of living raises in the UK, it could be as much as 5% per year in some parts. Pay increase from public bodies and private firms do not give you as much for inflationary increase. For example,Gordon Brown is putting a squeeze in pay for nurses. A 4% inflationary increase I have not seen for any group of workers for this period

How would creditors be helping debtors to meet the raising cost of living unless they allow reduce contributions

[whattodo]

Do IVA guidelines consider annual pay rises in line with inflation to be 'Cost of living' increases that do not result in increased payments, or, do these pay rises come under the 50% rule?

John

[Skipper]

You are free to keep the inflation increase

<<My motto:I am proud of black culture and is against racist bigotry>

[MelanieGiles]

Most IPs take a very practical approach to increased expenditure, after all most of us have families of our own, with pets and cars that need to be maintained, school expenditure, houses with increasing utility bills. So we have personal experience of increased expenditure.

We generally accept what you are saying to us, but I have a policy that if an area of expenditure increases more than 10% I wamt a detailed explanation of this and possibly documentary evidence. I seek increased contributions in probably less than 5% of my ongoing IVAs, as this can only usually be afforded if there has been a significant change in circumsntances - such as better paid employment.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp