I have just had my annual review, the payment up to this point was £710, I have just recieved a phone call from my case manager who has stated that the payment will remain the same even though there has been an increase in food, utilities and petrol and I haven't had any pay increases. When I asked why this has not changed my case manager stated that they have to stay within the creditor guidelines for example £406 per month is allowed for food for three people!!! I asked the case manager for a copy of the amended annual statement to which they refused.The company I am with is Mitchell Farrar.
Generally the creditors will expect you to stay within the guidelines ( although they are only guidelines, not rules set in stone). Liek many things of this nature, they never keep up with reality. I would hope, when the next Protocol is agreed, that they build in some form of indexing.
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
It is difficult for all of us at present to manage our money with the steep increases to our every day expenses such as food and fuel. Your I&E needs to reflect exactly what you spend, and your IP should then be "sensible" in taking their judgement decision on annual review - if you have not had any payrise and your expenditure has gone up then I would have thought a discretionary reduction - which I believe most IP's have up to 15%, would be suitable ....be interesting to see what other IP's who post on here would do in these circumstances - an IVA is not meant to be easy, but it is meant to be manageable.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
There is a solution for everyone .... Just need to stay positive !
It worries me that all these rises in costs and no pay rises means more and more of us are getting in to debt, and more of us IVAers will end up failing because things are not viable.
Within one month of our IVA accepted our gas and elec had gone up, then threee months later the water rates went up. Only thing thats come down is the mortgage because our fixed rate finished....but then i worry about it going up again and not havingthe money to pay it.
Car insurance went up 100%...no I'm not kidding. When i rang the insurers they had no reason for it, he couldn't find anything onthe system that explained why my quote for double. Needless to say we moved companies.
house Ins went up. Fuel has gone up horrendously, and of course food has too. Its a nightmare every month to make it all happen and put something away for the contingency.
I would insist on the statement....did you actually speak to your IP or to a case admin or something like that.
I realise that IP's have a duty to make sure the creditors receive as much as possible, I too am also worried however, of people with families struggling with increases.
No-one wants to see an IVA fail, and I think we should all remember that when we speak to our IP company we may not be speaking to a senior caseworker or the actual IP. I know people who deal with Mel seem to be very lucky in dealing with her direct. An admin person my just want to get you off the phone. Have a look to see if you have the 15% reduction option available to the IP and ask them to consider if you need help. You can always go back up to the original amount if your circs improve.
It's all about give and take in my view and as there's little chance of improvement in the economy in the near future a lot of us may be asking for that 15% consideration.
On a seperate note - Tescos have reduced loads of products to 1/2 price, got some bargains today that have gone into the store cupboard. A lot of cereals are 1/2 price and the ones I picked up have a best before date of next July. Good to forward plan in an IVA I find.
As far as I understand it minimum monthly payment to the IVA is the amount agreed at the outset (stated on chairman's report) and after an annual review if there is a shortfall the payment would remain the same unless it was clear that this would not be possible and then the IP could use his/her discresion to reduce the payment up to a maximum of 15%. This would then result in the dividend not being met and would possibly increase the term of the IVA. However if the shortfall was massive then a variation meeting would be required and the creditors would need to agree a much reduced payment and probably again an extension to the term. However, if the IVA was into the latter stages it may be possible (in real hardship) to go back to the creditors and ask for the IVA to be concluded. I have no real problems at the moment but had an indepth conversation with the Supervisor of the Case Managers today just to clarify these points because they were niggling at the back of my mind and after reading some real horror stories on here I just needed reassurance of what could happen if things went .... up in the next 4-5 years. I also asked if I could speak to my IP if I needed to and the answer to that was Yes so I feel a bit more comfortable now x
YES Kazza and Footiemad...it is very concerning that our I/P's (no doubt under pressure from creditors) are quite happy to GRAB any additional income i.e.rises in income, windfalls etc.etc BUT if and when there is an increase in mortgage rates (which could have a profound effect on our ability to continue with IVA repayments) they are or will not be so happy to make a reduction in our monthly repayments????....it has to be a two way process!
Guidelines are exactly that - a guide! We have additional allowances that cleardebt got through for us as they were legitimate and I know that Melanie Giles has done the same for some of her clients from what they have posted on here.
If you can explain why your expenses need to fall above the guidelines, then they can justify this with creditors.
We were lucky in that we had the forum for advice before approaching an IP and cleardebt's advice was to write down everything we spent and we then discussed the additional items which the creditors had no problems with.
Go back to the company just explaining how you arrived to the figures in your I&E. Good luck.
Footiemad is correct and raises a point that is often overlooked on here. IPs may reduce your payments if expenditure rises and your income doesnt but this shortfall will be added to the end of your IVA thus prolonging the time you pay (and who wants that).
I think this is particularly unfair and as long a reasonable proportion of the debt is paid in the end that should be acceptable.
