Help & Advice needed

[mikeymikey]

I have posted on here recently and have been helped greatly by the assistance given. I have mentioned before I have debts of approxiamately £90k due to debts arising from gambling which resulted in loans and credit cards, being paid with loans and credit cards and so on and so on. I am having medical and other help to overcome the gambling.
I have told my wife, my parents and in-laws and am overwhelmed with their love and the fact they will support us.
My in-laws have even said they would give me money to help pay towards the debts(just under half the amount).
My concern is this. If I take the IVA route and use the money from them would it make any difference to the creditors(about 8?). So if for example I was deemed to pay £500 per month would that be the same if I owed £50k or £90k. Why should I waste their money on me.
Subsequently if they gave us money as they saw fit when an IVA was in place how would that be viewed?
Alternatively is there anything else I could do in this situation bearing in mind their ptential generosity?

[abc]

Not an easy question to answer!

Firstly, the amount that you would pay each month will be dependant on what you can afford rather than the level of debt. That being said if you can only afford £200 per month and your creditors were £90,000, then the dividend to creditors would be very low (after costs) and the IVA is unlikely to be approved. You need to review your personal income and expenditure first.

If you had very little as disable income, then perhaps you could consider the alternative being a one off IVA, being that family and friends give a certain amount in full and final settlement.

Or you can do a combination of the both.

If you were able to pay £500 per month, then after costs you would be offering creditors about 25-26 pence in the pound which is almost the min.

Receiving the money throughout the IVA would be seen as a windfall and you may have to pay this into the Arrangement.

Hope the above helps.

[mikeymikey]

To add to that I also pay into a police pension which ends in 2015. Can anything be done to say freeze amounts and use money from that at a later stage?

I presume also that child benefit and child tax credit count towards income?

[abc]

In my experiance your police pension is payable per your contract of employment, you might want to check that point.

Yes to both child benefit and tax credit.

Let me know if you need an income & expenditure proforma to help you calculate your surplus.

[kallis3]

I'm not sure if you can freeze payments on your pension unless you leave the force, when it will be frozen.

I think you can opt out, which would probably mean that what you have paid in would be frozen until you retire.

[MelanieGiles]

You ought to be able to suspend the payments into your pension scheme, but this will obviously affect your eventual pension pot in the future. And in reality, there is nothing to stop family members from providing you with funds to offer to creditors, but you do need to ensure that this represents the best way forward for you, as you rightly point out why should you take their money to repay your own debts.

Have you considered bankruptcy proceedings as an alternative?