www.iva.co.uk

Hi everyone I came on here before x-mas and made a few posts (but forgot password so had to start again!!)
After putting my details down Melanie said I may be eligable for an IVA. Hubby and me have been struggling for a while now and I have had my head well and truly in the sand.
We have 3 young children and only he works as childcare costs would be approx £1100.00 so my working would'nt even cover childcare so I am now looking for an evening job only problem is hubby works shifts so gonna have to be a flexible job.
We owe £36000.00 cards, loans and overdrafts I have done a debt remedy with cccs on line and it say's we have no funds to pay our creditors!! I've worked it out and we have about £175 to pay if I get a job we'll have more. Any suggests to scared to phone anyone know I should need advice x

You do need to phone someone Lisa, you can't go on like this.

As you have already spoken to Melanie's office, why don't you give them a call again?

The online forms are ok as a guide, but you do need to speak to someone to get the proper picture.

She won't mind that you have phoned before.

Hi Lisa. £175 would not achieve a very high return to creditors and regardless if the CCCS found that you had no surplus it may be too tight. Creditors reject proposals that are unlikely to last five years so bankruptcy may be the best option.

However, if you are adamant about not wanting bankruptcy or there are specific reasons against it you could structure a proposal. If the youngest child has not reached school age you will be able to work daytime hours without the cost of childcare when he/she goes to school. This would increase the amounts payable into the IVA and increase the dividend accordingly.

It would be worth speaking again to an IP as if you do find some part time work and your I&E conforms to the guidelines an IVA may be viable. In the interim you could send each of your creditors a copy of the CCCS I&E and pay £1 per month to each.

Good luck and do not commit to anything that is not affordable or sustainable as the money would be better spent on your young children.

Don't forget also that an IVA represents a massive commitment - you will be required to pay 100% of your disposable income into the plan over at least a five year period and even then you will probably lose most of any equity you have in property.

It is also pretty inflexible and does not cope well with changes in circumstances especially loss of employment so you need certainty of income.

If you live in rented accomodation or have no or little equity bankruptcy may be a much better option for you.

Best Regards

The other option you could think of if you really don't want bankrutpcy, is a debt management plan.

This does take a lot longer and there is no guarantee that the interest and charges will be frozen, but it could be a temporary stop gap if you are looking to find a job which will free up some extra money towards an IVA.

You do not pay over 100% of your disposable income in an IVA - if you have overtime or bonuses, you are allowed to keep 50% of that. If you have problems during the 5 years, you can always ask for a payment break and most IP's are amenable to this.

The best thing to do would be to run through your options with an insolvency practitioner who can advice you about an IVA, DMP and bankruptcy proceedings, and complete a full assessment of your income and expenditure with you.

Are you property owners, and if so do you have any equity in the prperty at present?

I agree with Jan that there may be limited flexibility, but if the loss of income is permanent, the IVA will fail.

And for anyone who does not get overtime and bonuses (which will be an awful lot of people), the contribution remains at 100%.

A stopgap DMP or token payments might well be a good idea, with a view to a more permanent solution, be that IVA or bankruptcy.

Best Regards. . .

I agree that if the loss of income is permanent, then the IVA will fail, however, most IP's will give a generous payment break whilst you seek further work.

We are managing to pay our IVA's, and have some money spare during the month. OK, we don't go out anywhere, but we make savings and can have a little treat occasionally.

Some posters even manage to go away on holiday!

"And for anyone who does not get overtime and bonuses (which will be an awful lot of people), the contribution remains at 100%."
Some IVA's only ask for 50% of annual pay rises; that has been a huge help to me already as my last review meant I was £100 better off each month.

Good point!

Thankyou for getting back to me so quickly, I will send off letters to our creditors and see if they will except smaller payments, and evening job is my only option as my youngest is 11months and wont be going to school for a while! If I do find a job we will obvously be able to pay more back to creditors. I dont want us to declare ourselves bankrupt as we have a mortgage and don't want to lose our home we have never missed a payment on this or any other utilities bills.

Melanie dont think we have any equity in are home at the moment our mortgage is £78000. and we only have a two bedroom terrace x

If you don't have any equity in your home, then you could declare bankruptcy and not lose it.

Lisa,

If you don't have any equity you would NOT lose your house in bankruptcy and it would not affect your mortgage.

I'm surprised no-one has told you that yet.

Best Regards

Thankyou again does anyone know where I can get more info on this as we know we cant carry on like this x

I would suggest contacting your local Citizens Advice as soon as possible, or failing that National Debtline.

The important thing is to get your situation under control and know where you are going with it.

Best Regards