www.iva.co.uk

Hi all,

just a quick question...
Just wondering how old are the people who have been allowed to keep their pension.

Just been on the phone to the company im dealing with and they said the reason why we cant keep our pension is our age. Im 25, and my husband is 37. And because we are young we will have plenty of time to put into our pensions later

[:x)]

Hello

It seems that this is the line that some creditors are using to justify asking people to stop paying into their pensions for the duration of the IVA. However, it is becoming apparent from experiences with my clients and also the postings on this site, that it is more down to whether or not the creditors ask for the suspension of the pensions as a stipulation in the IVA rather than the ages of the people proposing.


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Best Regards
Oliver
www.thomascharles.com

Hi Flashingblade, I'm 31, 32 in March. I was allowed to keep my pension, so I agree with Oliver that it appears to be more to do with the creditors themselves rather than age.

Two down, fifty eight to go until freedom!

i am 38 and yes it does seem to be down to the creditors stipulating that pension payments stop.

Hi

Thanks for your replies.

Seems there is no continuity at all with this IVA process, and our company seems to fob us off a lot!

Its more my husbnads pension im concerned about, hes been paying into it for 20 years, so hope it will be ok to freeze it for 5 years or to radically reduce the monthly payment to about £10 for the process of the IVA. Ive been able to cash mine in because i paid into it for less that 2 years.

We are changing our proposal because of some utility bills increasing substanially from next month, so we are proposing a payment of £300 a month for 5 years on debts of 32k. Do you think this will be enough for the creditors, and will it provide enough return?

Your figures will return between 25 and 30% to your creditors depending on your IP fees.It,s possible but without all the details it is impossible to say.

Thanks neverending.

Our IP fees are:
Initial fee £1500 + VAT
Yearly fee of £900 + VAT

I worked this out to be just over 7k and we would be paying back 18k, so that leaves 11k for the creditors which i worked out is 29%, do u think thats enough to be accepted.

Our joint income is £1850, and we pay out £1550, that is accounting for everything.

Our IP originally wanted us to pay £420 from when our baby gets to 1, a £60 increase but ive told them no, and our gas and electrictity are going up by £59 from next month, as we havent been paying enough (British Gas' fault). On the original proposal we were offering a good return, now i feel quite nervous, what do people think?

You can only propose what you can realistically afford and I am glad to see that you have stuck by your guns.The alternative for the creditors is bankruptcy if they do not agree to your IVA and I have a feeling that they willagree yours.Do you own your house ?

im 37 and have been allowed to keep my pension.
But i have to pay half of my overtime [:(]
dawn

if at first you dont succeed try again

im 29 but was 25 when I applied for my IVA and I was allowed to carry on paying into my pension scheme. Mind you I only pay 3% of my wages into the pension, may be thats why?? as for overtime, Im supposed to pay 50% of all my overtime and bonuses for the duration of the IVA. I can also move jobs as long as I dont take pay cuts (if the job move was my choice!).

Paying 50% of all overtime / bonus / commission is a standard clause in most IVAs. This is designed to allow your creditors to benefit in any extra money that you earn whilst still giving you the incentive to earn extra cash.



Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles Ltd: Experts in all things IVA
www.thomascharles.com

Two important points have been highlighted here.

Firstly regarding pensions. Over the past 12-18 months it has become quite usual for creditors to ask for payments into pension plans to be suspended for the duration of the IVA. As with everything in life, there will always be exceptions to this rule. However, normally you will only be able to avoid this if you are very near retirement age. Note, the actual pension fund itself can not be touched, it is just the on-going monthly contributions which may be effected.

Secondly overtime. For the past 5-6 years creditors have asked for a standard clause to be included in IVAs which says that if you earn overtime, commissions or bonuses, 50% of these must be paid into your IVA in addition to the agreed monthly payments. It would be unusual for this not to be a standard clause in any IVA nowerdays.

The rational for this is that when you are in an IVA, the idea is that you pay as much back to your creditors as you can. However, if creditors were to take 100% of overtime, there would be no incentive for you to earn it.

All the Best
James Falla

Expert in IVA, Bankruptcy and informal Debt Management solutions, with extensive experience of solving personal debt problems over the past 10 years. I am regularly featured on BBC News, Finance Programs and Radio.

I have been through my agreement once again and can find no mention of pensions at all even in the small print at the back.