Hi 'baldy' - re the equity release, we had the standard clauses on this (85% LTV etc) - we have negative equity so this was never going to be an issue! Stepchange sorted the valuation - must have been a desktop or drive-by valuation as nobody ever came to the house. We got a letter pretty much as ST...

Amid all the worries and concerns that are posted on this forum, I wanted to give everyone some hope. I have just completed my IVA with Stepchange (formally CCCSVA), and it has been a relatively painless process. I say 'relatively' as the process does by its very nature mean I have had to live on a ...

I am with StepChange - I am now in my 4th year with them. Never had any problems. They are very reasonable and have always been fair with any changes. Annual reviews have been painless. In fact I have sometimes wondered why they crop up so infrequently on this forum ... possibly they have a lot of s...

We have never had to support the 'disability related expenditure' with receipts. My IP accepts that the income and expenditure cancel each other out.

We receive middle rate DLA for our son (about £200 a month). I put it down as income, with a corresponding expenditure under the heading of 'Disability related expenditure'. My IP fully accepts that this money is intended for the sole purpose of proving for our son and does not expect any of it to g...

Reading this set alarm bells ringing, so I checked my policy (Directline) - no mention of IVA, Bankruptcy etc (although there is a catch all clause about notifying them of any material change). Similarly, last year's renewal documents didn't mention IVAs. Should we be alerting our insurers to the fa...

Although I still have about 24 months to go, I am starting to think about any potential PPI problems that I may encounter further down the line. I have had a number of PPI arrangements in the past, but I can honestly say that I always took them knowing what was covered etc ... i.e. I cannot say I wa...

I don't know about the back payment, but my son receives the middle rate of DLA and none of this is paid into my IVA for the reasons already given (i.e. it is money paid to my son for extra care needs). It appears in my I&E as £x income, and is then offset by the same amount as 'Care needs for son'....

Hi We are currently on a fixed rate interest only mortgage with Cheltenham and Gloucester. Our fixed rate deal comes to an end in about 12 months time. Whilst I will see if they will let me have another fixed rate deal, I don't hold out much hope. Therefore we will revert to SVR, which for us will b...

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I have previously posted on here about how my IP will treat an increase in income due to my wife receiving an allowance as a local Councillor. Having now worked out what she will actually be getting, and how much our actual expenditure will increase as a result of this, we have worked out that there...

Thanks for the reply - just to clarify though, I am in an IVA not my wife. Not sure if this would make a difference to the advice?

Just an update - the 'work' my wife was looking to return to was to stand for the local council in local elections. On reflection the 'income' that is discussed above is classed as an 'allowance' to cover the costs of being a councillor. On working it out, after paying the expenses of being a counci...

Hi My wife is standing in local elections, and if elected will receive an allowance as described by the OP. In Kallis3's reply, you say '... to cover costs already incurred ...' The allowance is paid monthly in arrears, so one can certainly say it is to cover expenses incurred in the previous month....

Thank you both for your replies; I think you are both saying more or less the same thing, which is pretty much the position that I expect my IP would take. However, my wife's position is unmovable on this - and if push came to shove she simply would not return to work as it would not be worth it. He...