www.iva.co.uk

Hello, I have an IVA with freeman jones, just had a the latest review and they are now going to take out £520 per month previously £412, based on monthly salary of £1600+ they are saying my disposable income is in excess of £600.

The monthly outgoings on the sheet provided by freeman jones are £988 per month then add the IVA payment my disposable income is £250+ per month if they take off another £100+ my disposable income is less then £170.

This is outrageous and leaves no money for emergencies, I have explained this year after year on the reviews that their calculation for disposable income is incorrect as they do not take into account the addition of the IVA payment.

This surely is basic mathematics.

Kind regards

If your salary is £1,600 and your outgoings are just under £1,000 then your surplus income would be just over £600. If you have received increases since the IVA has begun you would be entitled to retain some of this but it sounds like FJ are correct in their calculations.

If however you feel it is too tight or there are other expenses not listed you could speak to Sarah Jolly from FJ and see if she can help. Her details are in the ask an expert section.

Hi. Your IVA payment is not deductible from your disposable income as an expense.

They take your income, deduct allowable and agreed expenses, such as housekeeping, utilities, rent / mortgage, etc. What is left is the disposable income and is wholly payable into the IVA at the start and, usually, an additional 50% of any net increase, year on year.

If you are left with £100+ at the end of each month you are doing exceptionally well.

Dear Richarddm11

I'd be happy to double check your review figures and get a call out to discuss how we've calculated your payments.

Please don't hesitate to drop me an email if you need any help with this to; contactus@FreemanJones.co.uk.

Thank you
Sarah

My payments leave us (as a family of 4) with £50 contingency, really wish I had £170 spare each month. You need to make sure all your expenditure is listed at review time.

If you have £170 disposable income then I would say the calculations are wrong in your FAVOUR not against you. Contingency for a single person is recommended as £20. And yes this is supposed to cover emergencies as well. I'm not in an IVA at this point and I don't have £170 left over after essential expenses. I certainly didnt before I paid off my debts. The way I see it, I was dumb enough to get into debts - up to me to take the consequences and accept that I was going to be poor for a certain time and not be able to spend anything other than absolute essentials. At the end of the day the IVA usually writes off a LOT of debt - so you essentially have got to spend money that wasn't actually yours. Not surprising your creditors now expect you don't spend a single penny more than you absolutely have to in order to survive. In my experience the allowances given were very very generous indeed and if someone owed me thousands of pounds I wouldn't be happy with some of the unnecessary things allowed in the budget.

Lou3, have you ever been in an IVA?

yes. successfully completed by a third party full and final settlement in 2011.

So you didn't complete the full term within the constraints of the IVA or (I assume as you were only 24), have to support a family whilst doing so?

I did two years for what was mostly student debt for fees etc, I had to run a house whilst doing so, but no, I did not have a family, even if I had the budget makes allowances for essential expenses for children. The allowances for just me were IMO excessively generous and I probably spent less than 2/3 of what the budget suggested on things like food and clothing - I certainly did not NEED the sky TV (nobody NEEDS sky TV), or the fibre optic broadband, or the £35 a month mobile phone bill (sim only contracts start at £5 a month) nor did I NEED the hobbies allowance (again nobody NEEDS this and if someone owed me money it would be something I would expect to be cut out completely until I was paid back).

I wish I was with a company who allow SKY, fibre optic, £35 mobile & a hobbies allowance.

You probably are. Most companies use the Common Financial statement as a guideline. Up to £25 hobbies allowance £30 for TV and internet and £42 for phones including mobile. I was with Clear debt, two of my friends are currently with payplan and they allow all those things and then some.

They also allow £210 a month for a single person for housekeeping - I barely spend that on the three of us (myself partner and 2 year old) and we eat WELL.

Unfortunately feeding 4 adults costs more than feeding 2 & a toddler - maybe you could give some tips on how to 'eat well for less' to help those of us unable to feed a family for £210 per month?

Basically don't shell out on processed stuff that costs more, we very rarely eat any store bought cakes, biscuits, soups, ready meals, sandwich meats ice cream, sweets, chocolate, etc etc. Partly because those things are crazily expensive and partly because they are so unhealthy I would never feed them to my child on a regular basis anyway.

Also make use of the "reduced to clear" section. Figure out what times your local supermarket reduces produce right down to 5p and 10p. I have come out with a trolley full of meat, fish and vegetables for less than £5 before. If you are smart and buy stuff you can freeze then it never goes to waste.

Make use of the basics sections the products are half the price and 9 times out of ten are just as tasty.

Plan meals - always know exactly what you intend to cook for the week and buy only enough for that. For snacks buy value bags of apples and oranges. £1 a bag and you get about 10.

Keep the larder stocked with basics, pasta, rice, herbs, stock cubes, tinned tomatoes, salt and pepper, porridge oats and UHT milk. That way you always have a cheap and easy meal if your housekeeping budget is running low at the end of the month.

Use the budget supermarkets. Home Bargins near us is fantastic for dry goods like porridge, cereals, pet toys and treats, canned veg, tea, coffee, sugar, rice, etc, Aldi is great for cheaper cuts of meat and tinned fish, cheese and some vegetables - although choice can be a little limited. Also make use of the local farmers market if you have one, eggs, fruit and veg are often a lot cheaper than you would pay in the supermarkets.

Also use leftovers, vegetable peelings and meat trimmings make superb soups when combined with a little pearl barley or some lentils which are extremely cheap and good value. Boiled potatoes can be fried using a low cal oil spray or diced with some onion and a splash of ketchup or salad cream to make a potato salad which goes great in a packed lunch.

Honestly I don't do half that stuff at the minute due to lack of necessity forcing me to and lack of time to do so much shopping around - the month I tried doing it all as an experiment I spent an average of £17 per week for three of us. Two adults and one child. The budget for that would have been £397, which to me is an obscene amount to spend on food, I couldn't spend that if we were eating lobster and fillet steak every day unless I was buying a tonne of unhealthy processed rubbish.