www.iva.co.uk

My husband works away from home 2 nights a week and has to pay for his hotels, meals, bridge tolls and the dreaded petrol bill which equates to about £275 - £300 each week. His employer is very slow at paying back his expenses, sometimes 3 weeks we are therefore struggling with trying to keep our heads above water some months when we are waiting for anyting up to £900 to come back to us, fortunately we have been able to ask a family member to help us this molnth but we cannot go on like this. Has anyone been in a similar situation or know of a answer to this problem - thanks

Sorry to hear of your problems.

Could he speak to his employer and either ask that payments are made quickly as you cannot afford to be out of pocket each month, or that he makes upfront payments to him?

Does the firm have a credit card? If they do then your husband could use this as they firm are responsible for the payments.

Unfortunately no he couldn't speak to them as it may put him in an awkward position as they are a finance company. This is the way that they operate, you pay up front and then claim it back.

Thanks for your reply

I would find it difficult to wait for £900 if I was solvent!

Hopefully one of the experts can advise but I think that I would be asking if they could pay up a little quicker.

Exactly! It has always been an issue. He does chase them constantly but thinks they are now just getting annoyed with his chasing and take even longer to pay the money back into our account. Last month we really struggled - we were thinking of asking for a payment breaks but are loathed to do that as we may have to have a new central heating boiler this year which could cost in the region of £1500 so may need to ask for payment breaks then.... hoping we will get some help from somewhere.

Thanks again your replies are really appreciated

Hi - I'm not sure if this suggestion is possible but worth asking your IP. Could you defer a couple of payments to help you build up an 'expenses fund'? This is kept in a separate account and only to be used for your husbands expenses. Then at the end of the IVA, you simply give the money back to the IVA pot.

With such a high monthly sum, it is impractical to rely on your contingency fund (besides, who's ever gets that big)!

I think footing the bill for expenses is something we all worry about - my company takes 2 months to repay and I have over £300 owed at the moment. But would be stuffed if I was owed anywhere near £900.

My IP allows me about a £500 float to cover work expenses (which was agreed at the start)

thanks for this we will be having a chat when my hubby comes home tomorrow and will give our IP a call to discuss a float

It sounds a sensible solution for you. x

The only problem will be if starting over needs to take a further payment break for the boiler. If they take one and it's tagged on to the end, there may be a problem taking another one without resorting to the creditors.

Something to discuss with the IP though.