IVA and a seperated partner

[MelanieGiles]

I practice in Northern Ireland as well as the UK maintland, and the law and custom and practice is no different in that country. I do not feel that you could afford an IVA as it appears that you could repay your debts by restructuring your finanances and continuing to pay affordable payments. Even thought that might be in the long term.

Carl - I am very interested to know what stigma you feel there is attached to bankrupty in Northern Ireland. Could you qualify that statement please?

[carlmcmullen]

I don’t think I restricted my comment to Northern Ireland.

Whilst the Enterprise Act softened the effect of Bankruptcy, I don’t think it entirely got rid of the way people view it i.e it’s stigma. People wish to avoid it for all sorts of reasons. The might not want their neighbours to find out from the ad in the local paper. They think it might hit their job prospects – even though the law does not prevent them doing a certain type of job, an employer might not want to employ bankrupts. Some fidelity insurers don’t like covering bankrupts so it might rule out working in a shoe shop. The fact is, a stigma is in the mind and that can be very difficult to legislate away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigma

[Jo Rolland]

Subby, are you currently bound to make repayments to your Student Loan or are they deferred?

[subby]

I haven't started paying them yet as I hadn't earned enough to do so, they are due to start coming out in April this year and it'll be about 80-100 a month which will push me over teh edge to be honest