My wife has an IVA as result of her financial unmanageabilty, due to her being diagnosed with bipolar. It's 3rd year review time to ascertain the monthly amount to be paid and they are trying to increase the payment quite considerably by £150/month, this has been due to my wages going up in the last year. Firstly, is this normal for a partners income to be taken into account if the IVA isn't in their name. Secondly, do I have to justify my personal allowance to the practitioner. The reason I ask is that I plan to save my wage increase and I'd feel a little miffed if this had to go towards the IVA payment. Any helpful comments welcome please
Your income should be taken into account Ian, but only for the purposes of confirming that you are both paying fair shares towards the shared household expenditure - which is usually based on the same percentage contribution as your individual earnings.
You should retain all of your own disposable income, but if your wages have increased it will be expected that you pay a higher share of the bills, which could result in your wife's disposable income increasing accordingly.
Thanks for the answer it certainly clarifies the situation. As a guidance, what would you expect my wife monthly payment to be if we had a joint income of £4,000/mth (70% Mine and 30% Wife) with joint bills of £2,900/mth, Wife bills £100/mth and My bills £600/mth as they are asking for wife to pay £310/mth. Thanks for your help
How they would work it I think would be that if your wife earns 30% of the total household income, she would be expected to pay 30% of the household bills and you the other 70%, so of the £2900 total expenditure, her 30% share of this would be £870, if she is earning £1200 (30% of £4k) then £310 a month seems fair
Or you could say you are each responsible for 50% of the monthly bills which are £1450 each, no-one can argue with that, your wife only earns £1200 so already you have to subsidise her to the tune of £250, if she did not have an IVA,that £250 would be in the pot for the whole family to enjoy, however they are also asking for another £150 month on top of what you are paying now for her debts, which you are having to pay from your salary, dont forget the IP is there to maximise monthly payments not to protect your interests,there is certainly room for negotiation here
Last edited by Daniel Griffiths on Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It is your wife who is in the IVA not you, your salary and details of it are of no buisness to HER IP. Her IP can only presume that you contribute to household living expenses and presume it to be at least 50% unless you tell them otherwise. In that situation she has no disposable income and in Bankruptcy would not offer and agree any payments whatsoever. However you have been very kind enough to volunteer a greater part of your salary to pay her IVA and if granny moved into your home and offered her pension then that would be also gratefully received, IPs these days are paid on 15% realisations, review times now I think are going to be battles in trying to protect what is yours. However if your wife has any sizeable assets such as equity in your property then it is in both your interests to ensure the IVA does not fail and it could then be seen why you you want to pay her IVA
I understand how you feel, my husband and I were both in iva's he overpaid into his and it finalised 2 years early, however since he completed in dec/jan my ip reviewed my iva and decided that due to excess disposable income -even though he earns about 20 x my wage - my monthly payment has increased from 235 to 947, I am at this moment in time trying to get a review done as this is just not fair. Don't get me wrong I am willing to overpay on wealthy months but this month was about £2k down due to less commission on his earnings and no give whatsoever from the ip she said we've just gt to manage with £400 for the month for 5 people and 2 cars to run! Tough times
It is my wife's IVA and we have a joint financial association through the mortgage. They have always been interested in my income and personal allowance in determine the level to pay. I know it's in my interest to ensure my wife pays the monthly amount, if she says that she can only afford to pay £230/mth as previous payments due to her salary not increasing, is this fair and reasonable for the IVA not to fail?
You do not have to deal with your wife's IP and if you refuse they may have to assume a 50/50 split on the outgoings as Daniel mentioned. This is what the OR would have to do where the non insolvent spouse refuses to provide their personal information.
By all means speak directly to the IP and your wife can give authority for you to do so.
