www.iva.co.uk

Hello - well finally plucked up the courage to ask for help. At the start of our IVA we where in a terrible mess of paying all the payments on C/cards, loan over draft & normal household bills. Then having nothing left & having to live on credit cards. This went on for some time & debt just got worse & not better & we never used to know what we were spending on things like food etc.
So eventually it came to one month I had paid everything out & was left with 102pounds to live on for a month & it made me call for help.
So we did a few of those things you fill in on line & got called up by **** - & was impressed (at the time) with the **** company that phoned us. Paid them there fees - stopped paying creditors etc.
We did our I&E form our selves & then they phoned us to go through it. Some of our I&E where to high & they said they would give us the maxuim allowances they could So here goes:
Income one -1163.00 / income two-0 / Benefits 219 & 131 T = 1513
Debts - Just short of 15,000 unsecured.
Rent - 490 / Council Tax - 77 / Water - 30 / Electricity - 30 /
Gas - 30 / H Phone - 20 Mobiles - 40 / TV L - 11 / Car Ins- 40 /
Car Tax - 15 / Car Maint - 35 / Fuel - 95 / FOOD & household - 295 /
Clothing - 35 / Sky - 21 / Eye & Dental - 28 / Other - 20 T = 1312
Left over - T 201 for creditors.
We are a family of 4 with two young children aged at the time 3 & 5 years old. As we had gone so far in with the company we felt we could not pull out & continued through with it & our IVA was agreed.
Two months down the line Income one got a wage increase from 1163 - 1219 and I got a increase in tax credits - phoned the company & they said they wanted 50% - ok so phoned every month & paid 50% of the difference in increase. Income one also had to do over time so phoned & they wanted 50% of that too - ok.
3 months after our IVA started our car needed servicing & mot - which went horribly wrong & cost over 700pounds to fix. As we had just started our IVA we had had no time to build up any cash (or savings) for this to happen. We had to use all the overtime & extra bits of income increases & borrow of my elderly parents. Which I still have been unable to pay back. Which also means we are behind in paying 50% of any over time & extra Income.
6 months into IVA - winter. Alowances of 30 each for Gas & Electric was just not getting us by & food & household goods @ 295 for a family of 4 was terrible to try & cope with & we started to not cope.
Bearing in mind we had been told we had been given maxium allowances in our I&E. So I phoned up **** & told them I was not happy or coping with our I&E - was told to put it in writing. I did & I also explained all of this above too & filed a complaint. It took a month for them to reply in writing - which they never answered any of my questions in my complaint. & a month to phone me regarding changing my I&E. I asked for increases in the areas of food household goods & Gas & electric ONLY as I felt the amounts where insufficent for a family of 4 two being very young. Its been over 6 weeks now & we have had nothing in writing to tell us its all ok & our increases in wages can be swallowed up by our requests.
I just want one of the experts to look at our original I&E & see if it met or ever did meet CCCS guidlines. Sorry I waffled - gona go cry now.

Lynsey, I'm sorry to hear that you are having a lot of trouble with your IVA, but hopefully one of the professional experts will be able to advise.

Melanie Giles usually emails out copies of CCCS guidelines if you want them. You can find her website details by clicking on the expert link on the left hand side of the page, by going there, there is a 'contact us' button. Ask for the guidelines and they will be emailed to you and you will be able to check them at leisure.

If you haven't had any luck with your IVA company it might be worth emailing your IP direct. You can find his/her email address here - http://www.insolvency-service.co.uk/newipsearch.htm

JUST COPIED & PASTED ONE OF MY REPLIES FROM ANOTHER LINK - Which also does not help our situation above -
Hello! Our company knows about that we all pay council tax over 10/12 months. So they divide it up over 12 months to make 12 month equal payments - though we have to pay it in 10 months. Example of mine is: 96pounds over 10/12 months but they put it on our I&E as 77pounds. It makes life very in the IVA harder as we have to pay 96 not 77.
They also did this with my Child Tax Credits - as you get 13 payments a year & @ time of my IVA I was getting 202 a month they worked it out that we get 219 a month - spreading the 13th payment out across they year - this also makes our IVA life very hard.
Sometimes we barely manage at all & worry we are set to fail.

Why are the firm's names being starred out on this post? And Lynsey I am happy to send you a copy of CCCS guidelines if you e-mail me to my website.

I Just do not want to appear as bad mouthing them - which I am not. I will email you later today melanie many thanks

Hi Melanie's Team - thank you for emailing me the CCCS Guidelines - it has given me a better picture of my situation. Looking at the guide lines I know feel a little more justified in asking for an increase from 295 to 355 for Food & house hold goods. (for a family of 4). Which I requested the increase in November 08 due to reasons above). little mouths can still eat alot & I am not talking sweets & rubbish! My little ones love fruit & veg - though I do buy "in season stuff" & I like to still do a decent meal at least once a week. Though we do lots of casseroles - which is cheap & healthy.
At the start of my IVA I was not happy with the 30 pound allocation for gas & Electric each. I had set a higher amount - but was told on my over the phone I&E discussion b4 the IVA to bring it down to meet maxium allowances. We are on pre payment meters (requirement of our rented property) I thought I would be able to cope finding money from else where. (where?!?!)
I am not trying to upset my IVA company which I will name as Blair Endersby - I just dont know where we are are anymore with the lack of communication.

Just a thought I should add to my post I am not actually asking for my IVA company to decrease my payments - but to just keep them more or less to the same figure agreed. My husband & I were very relieved to have our IVA approved but felt some of our budget that we felt forced into was unrealistic. But being in a bad place & scared & in a situation where we did not actually know what our real life I&E was - we felt we could trust them.
We currently have to move house due to our landlord increasing the rent every 6 months from now. being in a 2 bedroom end terrace property which we have suffered ill health too (children mainly) due to severe damp & constantly being a cold home. We have a chance to move to a 3 bedroom house with gardens etc & better conditions. But it means an increase of rent of 10 pounds a month & a higher council tax band. I spoke to the IVA company & they said it should be ok - we are only moving to give a better life for our little ones & to move closer (across the road) to my elderly parents of 78years old one whom has severe MS & Asthma. I have to move to make a better life for my children & my parents but am scared how its going to affect everything too.

Lynsey, Blair Endersby post on this forum and have picked up on a few posts where their clients haven't been happy and they have sorted the problems out quickly - I hope this happens for you. You can also find an email address for BE in their profile in the experts section at the side of the page. I understand emails to this address will be passed to an IP.

You have to put the health of your family first. Your allowances seem low to me for a family of 4, and if you aren't asking for your payments to be decreased but to keep your pay increases then I don't think you're being unreasonable.

Good luck, and please keep posting xxx

Also bear in mind that the guidlines are that...just guidelines. They arent a limit or a maximum. If you pay more, then you put down what you pay.

It may get queried as to why, so then you pull out the old bills etc to proove it.

Thank you Skippy for your post & I do not think I am being unreasonable either & I do think our budget was set to low. We have got this far but with little ones getting bigger & prices have increased in everything, we wont cope for the rest of the IVA.
I will keep posting but I feel very low about it all now.

Hi PoorbutHappy - being on pre payment meters for gas & Electric with British Gas - you dont get statements, just a yearly statement Of usage - not about how much you have paid! I only have the payment pieces of paper to prove (topup agents) I have put any money on my meters.
Cant wait to move & have proper bills with proof of what I use & cheaper bills as they charge alot more for pre payment meter customers.

Sorry about my post about starring the name! I had not realised that you yourself had done that - and thought that Jan had her zapper out again!!!

Glad the guidelines are useful, and from what I have seen of the Blair Endersby representative who posts on this site, I am sure that common sense will prevail and that a compromise will be reached by both sides.

Of all the larger operators in the IVA market, this firm are the only one who publicly admit there may be a few faults in their system, they always seem to be put right, and full credit to the person behind the post for this.

It's good that Blair Endersby do post on here, and that they do admit their faults. It's a shame that some of the other larger companies don't post on here, as they do come in for critisism, and it would give them the chance to put things right, and maybe restore the faith of their clients.

Just caught up with this again!

No, it wasn't me Melanie![:D][:D][:D] My poor old zapper has been a bit redundant just lately!