reply back from jo Swinson's office

[orchid5]

Hi folks hope you are all ok, this is the response I have got back from Jo Swinson's office the MP for consumer affairs.



Thank you for your email of 20th July, addressed to Jo Swinson MP, Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs. I am sure you will appreciate that the Minister is not always able to reply to all correspondence personally. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.



More generally, I do appreciate your concerns about delays in issuing completion certificates for IVAs. I have visited the IVA.co.uk forum and seen that there are a number of people who are understandably concerned about delays in receiving the completion certificate for their IVA. As noted by some contributors on that forum – including the text of a reply I sent to a similar enquiry - if any person is concerned that the supervisor of their IVA is acting unprofessionally, improperly or unethically, they may make a complaint to the relevant authorising body. Since the 5th June the Insolvency Service has operated a Complaints Gateway, providing a single point of contact for complaints about insolvency practitioners. This service should make it more straightforward for any person to understand how to make a complaint, and they may do so by completing an online form or by phone. You can find further information together with the form and contact details at http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/contac ... ts-Gateway. The Gateway is not, however, able to deal with more generally complaints about a particular firm, as an authorisation to act as an insolvency practitioner is on an individual basis. If any person wishes to make a complaint about the wider practices of a firm of insolvency practitioners, you should contact the firm directly. The firm itself may have a corporate membership of a professional body, which will usually be prominent on their website and correspondence, in which case that body may consider any unresolved complaint.



Both the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and the decision in Paymex have had an impact on IVAs.



Guidance on PPI mis-selling claims has been issued by the Recognised Professional Bodies (RPBs) who authorise insolvency practitioners. While the guidance does state that IVAs should not, if at all possible, be kept open beyond the planned duration, there will be occasions where a claim for mis-sold PPI will delay completion. This will depend on the terms of each IVA, as to whether the supervisor has the power to pursue the claim after completion, whether the lender concerned is entitled to set-off, reducing their debt by the amount of the claim, and whether the supervisor is able to recover his or her costs in making the claim. While I appreciate that a debtor would be understandable frustrated by a delay in completion of their IVA, it is right that a supervisor should pursue an asset for the benefit of creditors.



You may be interested to know that Debt Free Direct have recently introduced a standard modification to be applied to existing IVAs, where they will propose a variation to creditors allowing the supervisor to make a claim for mis-sold PPI after the completion of the arrangement, so that the IVA can be completed without undue delay.



The Insolvency Service operates a Complaints Gateway, acting as a single point of contact for complaints and providing an independent and consistent assessment of complaints about insolvency practitioners. If you believe that (name removed) has acted improperly, unprofessionally or unethically, you may make a complaint by contacting the Insolvency Service, either by phone on 0845 602 9848 or by visiting http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/contac ... ts-Gateway and completing an online form. I cannot refer the matter at this stage as I do not have sufficient information.



The Insolvency Service will carry out an initial assessment of the complaint to ensure that it is within the scope of the complaint system, and if appropriate forward the complaint to (Name Removed) authorising body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.



I hope this information is useful to you, I will respond again when I have spoken with Debt Free Direct.



Regards





Chris Phillips




Chris Phillips | Senior Policy Advisor | Insolvency Practitioner Regulation Section | The Insolvency Service | 4th Floor, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT | www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency



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Quite a positive letter and it would appear that they are now looking at this forum too for feedback, great stuff.

[MerlinL14]

Pretty much the same format I got off Chris a few months ago, without the reference to DFD, when I penned my distaste for the way IVA's are being administered on closure.

[orchid5]

Yes there was reference to another having made a similar complaint, I have removed some of the letter which names my former IP. Hopefully the fact that they have received 2 complaints now, 2 too many if you ask me might just put it on the agenda.

[Pennyless]

Well done Merlin and Orchid for raising this at the highest level.

Thanks for posting extracts of the letter Orchid. It's good to know that cries of despair over the PPI fiasco are being heard and not to mention read from those on this forum.........I wonder how many are also caught up in this that do not know of the forum?

Anyway, whilst it doesnt effect myself, I am sure that there will be many who appreciate your time well spent in raising this matter, after all its only a matter of time before PPI & IVA get mentioned in the same breath in the corridors of power.

[MerlinL14]

I did post the reply I got from Chris on the forum, with personal details and some paragraphs deleted that were not for public airing.

[wiggle1]

Good for you both. I have also recently written to Jo Swinsons office but as yet have not had a reply. Maybe if more of us contact MPs the sooner things will be done to correct these appalling practices and let those of us who have tried so hard for 5 or 6 years get on with our lives.

[Adam Davies]

Hi

A good and detailed response from Chris Phillips, let's hope some IPs/IVA companies take note and start to realise that it is totally unfair and unacceptable to keep a person in limbo even though they have completed their side of the IVA agreement.

Regards

[MerlinL14]

I think that is the bottom line Andy, the thought of going through an IVA for 5-6 years to make sure that your creditors get a high return as possible. To then be told this and that is holding up and delaying your certificate when you have letters from the Insolvency Service's Chief Policy Advisor stating that VAT and PPI should not be the cause of the long wait as it has already been addressed and guild lines issued to IP's. The salt in the wound is seeing post from people who are/were administered my Mel, McCD and a few other firms making posts that they have their CC in a very timely fashion, some within a month of final payment.These in my mind are the companies that are big enough to cope but small enough to CARE, the rest in my eyes are in it for the profit at the expense of our sanity.

[Cheshiredebt]

Absolutely agree with your MerlinL14. Some companies ride rough shot over their clients with bullyboy tactics to make an extra buck or two.

They simply do not CARE about their clients which is shameful really. IP's at some companies are like mystical beings that are rumoured to exist.

Why cant these companies see that good customer service equals a good reputation which in turn equals more money.

[orchid5]

Thanks Pennyless and Wiggle, my journey is now over thankfully, I hate seeing people unfairly treated (must be the nurse in me) and having read several stories on here post my IVA and after what I and others had experienced prompted me to write, let's hope it does do some good.

Cheshiredebt I agree with you entirely, some IP's are very transparent, available and worth every penny they charge, others sadly are not so professional and hide behind an army of customer service folk who more often than not give out totally incorrect information.