www.iva.co.uk

I am in the process of talking to two IVA companies before deciding which one to go with, taken the advice of many on here about making sure you are happy with the company as with them for 5 years.

My debt is 31K but I also have student debt, the payment for this is removed from my wages before I even get it so would I need to include this in my IVA or is this separate?

You will have to carry on paying that seperately as sfudent loans can't be included.

Thats good, thank you.

Just to follow on what Kallis has indication - although cant be included but it should be mentioned - As you pay this at source(directly from you wages) it prevent any misunderstanding.

Hi Ruth

I don't know if the rules have changed now but when I took out my IVA in 2007 my Student Loan Debt WAS included. At the time if the Student Loan debt was below 25% of the total debt then you could include them, the reason for this was that the SLC normally vote against IVAs so as long as they had less than a 25% share of the debt and as long as no other creditors voted against it then it would be successful (in theory) as 75% of the debt needs to be voted for in favour of the IVA by the creditors. In my case I think the SLC had 17% of my total debt and they didn't even bother to vote on the day so it was successful!

It took a while for the SLC to stop taking payments from my wages after my IVA started but they refunded the payments directly to my IP.

I first took out my Student Loan in 2000, so it was one of those new interest style loans not the grant type things that they used to do (prior to 1999, i think!) so this maybe makes a difference as to whether you can include it or not? I not completely sure! But what I can say is that the Student Loan Debt is DEFINITELY included in my IVA!

Good Luck in whatever you decide!

Clare

I think there has been a change in student loans being included in iva's.

Paul

That's a shame! I knew that they couldn't be included in Bankruptcy, so they must have changed the rules for IVAs as well then. Do you know when the change happened?

Clare

From November 2009 all Student Loans must be excluded from IVA applications.

The amendment states that a Student Loan must now be treated in a similar way as it would be treated in Bankruptcy.

This has the effect of making a Student Loan exempt from the legally binding process of an IVA, essentially ensuring that it will survive any debt write-off, whilst also ensuring that the debt must be paid back, however long that takes.

Phew, Glad I got my IVA started before 2009 then!

Sorry Ruth, if I got your hopes up for a moment then!

Clare

I think it's based on when you took out the student loan and not the IVA but I could be wrong. It's worth checking though. I know student loans can't now be included but I think if you have an old one on the old terms and conditions they could be. Mine certainly was included