IVA,Working hours and childcare pressure!

[Christabelle_sparkle]

Hi,
Can I please ask some advise?, has anyone else been in this situation during their IVA?
My husband and Myself both work fulltime. He works 39 hrs and I work 43hrs + as a salaried manager. We pay £569 per month into an IVA and have been in it since october 2009. We have just had a payment break to buy a car and the payments have now increased to the above amount from originally being £366 per month. The problem is that we have twins age 7 and childcare is becoming very difficult especially after school and we are under great pressure and stress which is affecting us and the children as they miss us. We have discussed the possibility of me taking demotion and reducing my hrs so i can be more of a mum to my children but when I have contacted our IP he seemed very unsympathetic and said he would have to call another meeting with the creditors if I reduced my hours and they will want us to extend the IVA by a further year!!....I feel we are being punished and that there is no way out!, we have entered into an IVA to try and do the right thing but we a suffering as a result. £569 is a sizeable contribution.

[Michael Peoples]

It is not up to your IP to extend the IVA. He/she can call a variation explaining your circumstances and have the whole arragement back on track. If creditors ask for an extension you can then decide whether to accept or not and given your circumstances I think you are entitled to refuse.

As I often say, IVAs are not punishments and there should be a happy medium. Ask your IP to propose the variation and if it is not to your liking stop paying and go bankrupt. You should not feel bullied or pressured by the IP or their staff.

[Christabelle_sparkle]

Hi Michael, thank you for your reply. I am worried that if i take the big decision to end my career and just be a general assistant in work with reduced hours and pay and the IVA fails because of this,then we would end up being made bankrupt we would then lose everything including our home. I feel like everything is a complicated mess right now and do not know where to turn or what to do?, but the last thing I want is for my children to suffer by not having their parents around as much as they could be, life is too short for that and they are growing up so fast.