Sons DLA and our IVA???

[nikkio]

Hi, I don't know if anyone can help but my husband and I have been in an IVA for the past year now and someone has said to me that we were possibly mis-sold it because my sons disability living allowance should not have been taken into account as our income as the money is actually his money. Our IVA practitioners, say the money should be considered as we have to pay our sons normal expences out of this. Once he turns 16, in 5 months time, his money can be paid directly to him and the IVA company said he should pay the money back to us each month to cover his 'expences'!
although his DLA is shown as income there is no DLA costs shown on expences!

Surely we would have to pay the normal expences for my son if he was disabled or not? The disability living allowance is his money, paid to him, but unfortunately as he is under 16 it has to be paid to me first.

When questioned about this, the company accused me of having a 'hidden agenda'!

I just do not understand why my son has to pay for his own normal expences because he is disabled when my other two children don't?

Please can someone explain? Thanks.

[Viki.W]

Hey nikkio, welcome to the forum. "hidden agenda" how horrible to say that to you. Please wait for an expert to advise you. Viki X

[freelili]

Hi

DLA is classed as income in an IVA, but some of what your son gets should be offset given the extra expenses you son may need. In other areas it isnt considered, as its paid to the disabled person for living with a disability.

With that said my two sons get DLA and I do take out a few quid towards the house hold bills and food. They have food allegies and need certain foods. They have their own comfortable rooms, equipment, TV's entertainment etc.

Have you recieved an official looking letter from the IVA council?. This organisation are targetting people from the insolvency registar, telling them they have been miss sold IVA and 'helping them into bankruptcy' which they charge for.

If youre happy with you IVA and you son is getting all he needs in your present circumstances, then let things be, send the letter to your IP and see what he/she advises.

When I started my IVA journey, my two kids DLA was counted but one lot was offset by the extra needs of these two boys. Then, I lost my job and couldnt go down the IVA route, in BR my sons money would not have been included. I didnt have any assets to lose in BR, since I rent my house. My daughter doesnt get DLA as she is perfectly normal. She isnt living with a disability and doesnt need the extra expense that the boys do to maintain a good quality of life.

I hope this helps.

Its really a matter of choice, I chose IVA over BR in the first instance but BR in my circumstances, since I am a single parent and couldnt really sustain full time employment, plus the needs of my children, BR was the better option for me.

[nikkio]

Hi thank you for your reply. None of my sons DLA was offset against the income and I have spent the last year telling him he would have to wait and see if we had any money left at the end of the month to get the things he needed!

[nikkio]

Hi Just to add, someone on another forum has quoted me the Social Security Administration Act 1992 clause 187.....I don't know if this means anything???

[freelili]

I dont think that the act means anything in IVA terms. I guess it will come down to the fact that you agreed to it at the proposal stage. With that said, I do know that DLA is not counted anywhere else. Knowing that I had extra expenses due to my boys' I told the IP this and he agreed to cancel one lot out but I still had to agree to lose the other.

If you feel that your sons disabilities and his quality of life, are not being met by your current IVA, you could email your IP and see if anything can be done, quoting the act and stating your case.

Someone else raised this on the forum some time ago. Its an issue and most people in this situation would agree, however since my IP agreed to the extra money I needed, I was happy to go ahead.

I dont know if this letter has just unsettled you and got you thinking about it or you are not happy with your proposal and cant meet your sons needs.

In the first instance I would check out that letter as I fear its from an organisation trying to make a buck out of your situation.

If youre not happy with the proposal you signed, I doubt that there is much you can do, I also doubt you would be able to challenge the decision not to include DLA as income. I dont agree with this myself to be frank but I was so desperate to sort my debts and meet my childrens needs I went ahead and was happy to sign. (at the end of the day I got myself into the mess),

If you cannot meet your sons needs and he does not have a reasonable quality of life then you must inform your IP to try to sort the issues out.

I hope that helps.

[nikkio]

Our IP company didn't explain things to us, we were caught at a very bad time. We didn't approach the company we were passed on to them.
It's our fault then that we didn't explore all the options but we didn't know what was out there.
I have approached the IP company about the fact that my son sees NONE of his DLA money as nothing is accounted for in the expenses but all they say is they think I have a 'hidden agenda'.
So basically, to me, I am claiming DLA to pay my IVA.

The DWP say when he is 16 the money is his to do with what he wishes.
The IP say he has to give it all to me!!

This should be an interesting situation in 5 months time!!!

[cat 1]

Interesting yes? What would DLA people at Blackpool have to say about it? They issue the money for a specifically identified and ongoing need? If that need changes then so does the right to DLA?Therefore, it doesn't appear acceptable than his income for his need is utalized for your IVA? Ask legal at DLA to pass thier opinion on the situation?

[freelili]

What company are you with? Are you in rented or your own accomodation.

I would challenge that, I am sure most IP's consider the needs of disabled children, or they should do, mine did.

What if your son was to go into accomodation or a special residential college? Not saying he will or should but...... My son goes to school 25 miles away, he has transport but if he is ill at school (he suffers from a heart condition, epilepsy, etc) so it can and does happen, how would I be able to afford to fetch him without the extra money for petrol?

My kids were given suitable allowances to enable them to have some quality of life.... so should yours. I wash more, dry more, buy special food, take them out etc, etc, etc..

~The way I see it, if youre in a position to go BR you will have more weight then if youre not. If you are trying to keep your own home, the IP might not budge. I would still challenge it, the only problem I can see is the fact that you signed the money away, with that said its a stressful time and many agree to anything for peace from calling creditors.

Good luck and please come back and let us know.

[nikkio]

Hey, my IP have answered my email!!!
They said they saw that I had raised this on this forum and now I can claim additional expence for my son, 'assuming there are any' they say!!
Then he says it may have repercussions on the IVA, by either extending the arrangement or asking the creditors to agree to a variation.

They say that nothing was said about his expences in the review....this is because I was never told I could claim any!!!
There are many limitations as to what you could claim for...in the begining we were not offered and work/school lunch allowance...but now we are allowed to have it (for what it's worth..it works out to about 60p per day per child) I don't know if anyone has tried but the primary school will not except 60p a day for lunch, even families on benfits get £1.90.

When you go for an IVA you do not know what you are allowed as expenses and the IP don't really help you. Surely if we were claiming DLA then knowing we could claim, they should have asked what it was used for?

I think our initial amount was worked our wrong as I have told them we have been struggling all year and at the yearly review we were, on paper, £70 a month short. This again does not include my sons claims!

So now because things were not sorted out right in the begining we have now got to be penalised by extending the IVA or possibly having the creditors turn us down!

We ended up paying over £700 admin to their sister company to be told they couldn't help us and then passed to this company (not sure if I am allowed to name them!) and paid the £645 in admin fees....what was it all for???

[nikkio]

I'd just like to add:

My IP is convinced that I am just chasing this up because I have received a letter from the IVA Council.... he will not believe that I have just been speaking to friends about our situation and they were the ones who questioned the use of my son DLA...

We did recieve a letter from the IVA council at least 6 months ago and it was thrown away...but my IP said he didn't believe me, he thought I was much more well informed and that I had a 'HIDDEN AGENDA'.

My only agaend is to make sure my son gets the money that is his....where is the 'hidden aganda' in that??

[Skippy]

I can't give you any advice, but I just wanted to say that I think the way you're being treated is disgraceful. How on earth can they not allow you to claim expenses for your son? Good luck with getting this sorted out x

[LabDebbie]

I'm a bit confused. Have they said that you can't add on any expenses for your son? I'm guessing they've said that you can lower your payment since you mentioned extending and variations.

[freelili]

Hiya

Just a quickie are you with Synergi?

I am a bit confused about the admin fees.... I am not an expert but why do you have to pay admin fees. Some companies ask for a couple of months in advance and will refund if your IVA is rejected but you pay for your IVA along with your regular monthly payments. I do not understand why they should make an admin fee, I assume this is out of your own pocket and not part of the IVA 'pot'.

[nikkio]

Hi, no we're with Kingsgate Insolvency.

We were approached by their 'sister' company Churchwood Financial (after being turned down for a loan by Marks & Spencer) who said they could help us with a loan. Told us to stop paying our creditors and pay them over £700 to set up the loan etc...after about 5/6 weeks they informed us they couldn't help us and passed us to their 'sister' company Kingsgate Insolvency. By then we were already two payments behind with the creditors and felt we had no option but to go with this company.

Kingsgate then charged us £645 admin to 'set up' the IVA. So basically we had made two admin fees to the 'same' company to do the same work. I did question this at the time and was told there was nothing I could do about it as Churchwood had 'done some of the work!'

So by the time the IVA paperwork was going through we were at least three payments behind and receiving threatening letters and up to 20 phone calls a day/night.

I wasn't in the right frame of mind to realise my sons money was being taken to fund the IVA. And, yes these 'admin' fees were out of our own pocket.