IVA Feedback and Payrise

[Parki1979]

I am currently 3.5 years into an IVA with Payplan. I have to be honest, at the start of the IVA I had been in bury my head in the sand mode and I probably did not ask the right questions, look into my IVA options, and not sure if I got myself the best of deals. This has carried on throughout even though now at least the end is somewhat in sight.

I have questions now, are Payplan actually people I can leave to look after my best interests, or should I research everything they say? I currently pay £369 a month towards this on an income of 22000. My income at the start was around 19000 and I have had small payrises since, which have increased my payments. When I have done my expenses every year I have always said my expenses were the same.

I now have had a payrise of 7k. After reading around the web it seems I may be able to keep some of it, maybe even 50%? Would this be 50% of this payrise, or 50% of the salary I started the IVA with? In this time due to the cost of living and such, should my expenses have gone up? In reality they have, I just didn't want to rock the boat. For example should I be looking to keep 50% of my rises plus a small cost of living increase over the years?

I found it hard to do my expenses initially as I I had no idea what should be considered a reasonable amount. I have pretty much lived accordingly to what I had agreed, but it has been doable generally even if on the difficult side. Is there some sort of document that I could have used to guide me on this?

I presume the last payment I will make, would be the 60th month, so the month before I started, 5 years on?

Any feedback would be appreciated. I am accepting of paying more, I am more just looking to have some knowledge before I speak to payplan, so I am not overly shafting myself. Many thanks kind people.

[Foggy]

First I would say that Payplan are a reputable firm. However, they do not do everything as I would like, but then that probably applies to every firm out there. Recently they underwent a reorganisation, which, I understand, resulted in a downsizing on staff resources, since then they have become a little less consistent.

Now, on the pay rise front, your IVA payment, as it now stands, before the rise is accounted for , will increase by 50% of your net increase in income (so, basically, half the rise will be added to your regular payment.

Expenses do need to fall within industry guideline figures, which are not published - as you should claim your actual spend and it will be adjusted if it exceeds the guidelines and you cannot justify this excess. These guidelines are sporadically revised but rarely follow general increases in the cost of living. The last set I have seen was 2015 and, as far as I can tell, they are still pretty much the same !
All that said, it is always a good idea to research anything any firm says --- They have thousands of live cases, all possibly on slightly different versions of the Protocol, so sometimes they might apply terms from one Protocol version to another versions case (if you see what I mean). You, however, only have one case to look at !

You are most of the way through, but dig out your proposal and Chairman's Report and everything will be in there.

Last payment ? If you are on a straight 5 year arrangement, yes, the 60th payment will be the last regular payment, as long as you are not a homeowner. If you are a homeowner, you will have to look at equity release or an extension of the IVA in lieu.

[Parki1979]

Thanks Foggy, I really appreciate your time and feedback.

I have never had a problem with Payplan, this was just something I never looked at before I went with them, so if anything I have been lucky. Just decided to ask the question as I have been reliant on what they said, and nothing every company would put my interests first I suppose.

50% I can handle, Initially I was worried I wouldn't see any of it, which would have been hard to take as I have worked so hard for it and gone the extra mile for years. Do you know if is half the rise each time, or if its upto 50% overall based on what I had when I went on it? Presumably I would be better to pay this amount as soon as it goes on my monthly wage rather than at my review or I would essentially owe the difference?

I suppose I should ask payplan and see if a reasonable adjustment would be fair, but with the payrise I suppose it would be a harder sell now. After starting the IVA I should have made adjustments as I was diagnosed with Type 1, and that increased my overall costs for food and such.

[Parki1979]

I will dig out my chairman's report and have a thorough read, as that like you say may give me a lot of indicators, I am more researching as you say so I can make sure what they tell me is correct, and being pro-active as you say its not good practice to take anyone's opinion at face value without checking the facts.

Many thanks once again.

[Foggy]

Each increase in the payment amount supercedes the previous amount so the increase will be additional to the current payment amount.

The usual provisions state that a pay rise ( as opposed to overtime etc) should be dealt with at the following review and any increase applied to the payments from the payment a month following such review. Historically this meant that the full increase was yours until the review. However, increasingly IPs have now been slipping in an extra review to capture such pay rises earlier than the standard terms were designed to do.

I am unsure what Payplan do in this regard.

[Parki1979]

I have been through my Chairman's report, but I either have a page missing, or it makes no mention of it. I will double check my other copy tomorrow though that I filed away.

Do you see it as wise for me to inform them, and then presumably they would let me know if it stands from the next review which would be June? They have never checked previously, just a month or two before my review with a P60 and a few months payslips. Presumably if it is written in then I would not be liable for the extra when they ask for a P60 at the review as it has been agreed.

Presumably I can ask them what if questions? I get a lousy £300 bonus each year which they never pick up on.

Many thanks, you have given me a lot of insight. I will read through my other copy of the Chairman's report but at least I can be asking the right questions. My other queries and expenditure I can bring up at my review.

[Foggy]

Previous reviews can be revisited and sometimes missed extra income can be picked up --- fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
My advice would be to tell them everything, as and when it happens. This avoids surprises on either side. I am sure that my IP was sick of hearing from me !!
The relevant clauses will be in your original proposal, as amended (if amended) at the creditors meeting --- details of that would be in the chairman's report. Over both of these documents Standard Terms and Conditions apply, of which you should also have a copy.

[Parki1979]

I haven't spoken to payplan as such for years, my last review was done via instant message, and they just upped my payments based on my p60 and payslips and we carried on.

I will certainly give them a call tomorrow and let them know, and if required may extra payments now. I suppose if it is only required at my next review then they will tell me, but I will be sure to read my Chairman's report so I can be sure and bring this up if required.

I think you are right and I need to speak to them more, I pay the bare minimum to my workplace pension for example and this does is not listed on my expenditure. I also read I was allowed to claim extra for food and such based on my autoimmune condition. I certainly should have been asking the questions as I went along.

I really appreciate all your help, I certainly am a lot wiser already.

[luluj]

I would alert them to the change in income. Better in my opinion to tell them now and pay additional monies then be asked for an amount later on, not budgeted for and potentially then at risk of an extension.

Let us know how you get on later.

[Parki1979]

I am going to phone them today while I have found all the relevant information so I will let you know.

My chairman's report does mention things as I was missing it off the copy I had looked at:-

Additional Income: Where I am employed, I understand that I must report any overtime, bonus, commission or
similar to the Supervisor if not included in the original surplus calculation, where the sum exceeds 10% of my
normal take home pay. I agree to the fact that disclosure to the Supervisor must be made within 14 days of
receipt and 50% of the amount (over and above the 10%) shall be paid to the Supervisor within 14 days of the
disclosure. I am aware that if I fail to disclose and/or pay any such overtime, bonus, commission or similar, it
will be considered a breach of the IVA and the Supervisor shall notify the creditors in the next annual report with proposals for how the breach is to be rectified. I understand that the term of the IVA may be extended by up to a maximum of 6 months to recover any sums due (to remedy the breach), without any variation being required and that the latest Income and Expenditure review will provide the surplus for the basis of calculating additional income year on year.

[Foggy]

That clause relates to additional income such as overtime, commission and bonus payments. A permanent pay rise is treated slightly differently in that there is no 10% disregard.

[Parki1979]

Still waiting to speak to my Case Handler, even though we have exchanged a couple of messages. He was too busy for a call yesterday and today so I will keep trying through the week, as I haven't spoken to anyone on the phone since I started. He confirmed it would be 50% though.

[Parki1979]

I probably will not get the chance to speak to my Case Manager in the short term, but I am going to get things complete by email.

Just a quickie, looking at the income and expenditures - How does 50% of the rise I would get to keep get allocated? Or is it simply my expenses are re-allocated to balance up? I was looking to increase my expenditure a little as I noticed I haven;t increased it in 3.5 years but my payments have increased, so thinking of adding a little, but perhaps at my next review as to not muddy the waters with the rise.

I noticed that my income was taken from my actual pay - Is it normal for this to be after my Pension contributions have been taken out?

Many thanks

[Foggy]

Adding to your expenses will have to be at the agreement of your IP -- this is always harder to achieve than an increase in your IVA payment !! That said, always worth a try.

The 50% you get to keep is, basically, ignored going forward.

Income is calculated from take home pay. Pension contributions are usually ignored if they are considered reasonable and are at 'base' levels, according to whatever pension scheme you are in. Often you get no say in what your employer deducts but voluntary payments over this are generally put on hold during the IVA and not allowed in expenses.

[Parki1979]

Ah I see, my pension contributions have increased from £77 to £99 as they are percentage based, but it is not something I have added to so will see what they say when I sent my payslip in, which I was told will prompt then to increase my payments.

I have worked out what I consider to be 50%, it was just something I wanted to check as there doesn't seem to have been 50% of my previous payrises even though they were all pretty low.

I was just thinking of adding a bit on for fuel and a bit more for food as I am following a low carb diet after my medical diagnosis - but £30-£50 a month in total as that is what I consider I am out of pocket, but I wouldn't be too fussed if it was turned down. I am doing okay this year, but last year I had to pay £800 for car repairs which was difficult to get by with.

Many thanks for your time, you have managed to answer all my questions, so I feel a lot more confident with the process now. I wish I had asked things on here at the start before I went into the IVA, I honestly felt I had to pretty much pluck the expenditure from thin air, but I do feel I am in a lot better position now for when I come out of the IVA. I have been reading a lot of posts from here, which has helped as to how to deal with things on the credit report. There really is so much knowledge on here, which seems somewhat limited on a google search.