I was made redundant in May, whilst on maternity leave.
I am currently unable to work due to having my baby and I earn the basic Maternity allowance of £120 a week.
I have c. £23k of debt, across 4 creditors, 1 loan and 3 cards, all unsecured.
The debts are all mine and in my name, I brought them into my current relationship from my previous marriage and I have been unable to get them cleared as part of the divorce.
Could I apply for an IVA (i have no outgoings as my partner pays for everything so the maternity allowance is all disposable)?
As soon as I apply for an IVA, does all interest charges etc stop? or do they continue to acrue?
As soon as I apply for an IVA, do the creditors have to stop contacting me or is this only after an agreement has been reached?
The best thing is to speak to an insolvency practitioner as soon as possible. There is a list on www.iva.com of companies and user feed back. Or you could speak with one of the expert IP's on this site.
Their advice is free and they will talk you through your options.
Good luck, I know that this is a scary time for you. Once you have spoken to someone you will feel better.
Are you sure that all of the maternity allowance could be made available to creditors? If so, you would have £520 available to pay creditors on a monthly basis, which would mean that you could clear your debts in 45 months if creditors were to cease charging interest and collection charges. In which case an IVA would not be an option for you, but a DMP possibly would if you could not negotiate with your creditors directly.
Is your partner happy that you contribute nothing to the household and family costs, and use all of your income to repay debt?
