Worried

[maizie]

My creditors meeting is on the 21st May. After reading a few posts I am getting quite worried. My IP (Accuma) haven't included for medical/dentist bills. Should they? Im going through the stage now of worrying about stuff and thinking what if I can't afford my payment one month because my car goes wrong or I have a dentist bill. Help!

Life is far too stressful!!

[ivoriva]

You should be able to include nominal amounts for both of these, such as £10 a month for dentist and however much you need for prescriptions etc.

[tracy.h]

If your meeting isnt until the 21st then give the company you are using a call and put your mind at rest,best do it now than wait til after im sure you will be fine.

Tracy

[Oliver]

If you are concerned about your expenditure budget feel free to give Accuma a call to discuss this. You may find that they have already included a blanket contingency fund to cover such costs already.

Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

[MelanieGiles]

Suprising that no provision has been made for such expenditure - this can really mount up over a year with sight tests, glasses and contact lenses (if you wear them), dental check-ups and prescription charges. Did you mention to the IP that you incurred this sort of expenditure? You should also have made provision for car and house maintenance as well! Do make sure that you can afford the payments you have presented to your creditors before committing to this arrangement - if you have got the figures wrong it may be possible to change them prior to the meeting, but you will need to speak to your IP as soon as you can.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[maizie]

I just called them. Accuma said it was at the discretion of my IP and that I am also claiming £20 a month for contact lenses (in fact its just gone up to £22 per month) they would have the arguement that I wouldn't be using that dentist money each month (if that makes sense). They said if they changed things now my creditors meeting would be put back. I have explained to them that if the creditors dont accept the IVA and want modifications i.e. increase in amount I am offering then I will apply for bankruptcy because I can't afford any increase. I just hope I dont get a big bill for dentist or anything like that!!!! They have allowed for £15 a month car maintenance.

Life is far too stressful!!

[Skippy]

Hi Maizie, when I was in my IVA Accuma allowed me £35 per month for medical and dental expenses (I wear contact lenses but have to have glasses as well). £15 per month for car maintenance seems very low to me as that only works out at £180 per year and I presume that is to include servicing, tax and the MOT?

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[ivoriva]

Well, to put that into perspective I need £192 for NHS dentist treatment next month! I will have to borrow from my wife and repay her over the next 19 months from my £10 allowance in the IVA. I do need a monthly prescription also, and so they allowed me that in my IVA. But I guess each case is different. You can always pop these things in on your yearly I&E review if need be.

[coco]

Hi Maize,

Please be cautious about not allowing the extra expenditure, this happened to me and when it was time to tax and insur the car we realised that there is no income available as our oringinal expenditure had not been done accuratley and consequently the IVA failed and i am now BR having paid nearly 4k in IVA payments which the creditors nor myself will see again. I know how desperate you feel that you will agree to anything just to get the IVA approved and will say yes to anything the IP will tell you

(I apologise for my keyboards poor spelling and grammar)
http://coco.blogs.iva.co.uk

[maizie]

Im actually struggling to know what to do. If they put my meeting back it could take another couple of weeks.. plus will Accuma charge me for this? I have a couple of other outgoings which Accuma said I couldn't include. I pay my dad £30 a month for a old debt (they said he could be included in the IVA but I didn't want him to know about it) so they have told me I have to stop paying him!!! Another is £60 a month which I pay for storage (I split with my ex and its the contents of the house - people have said to sell the stuff but the majority of it is sentimental - stuff passed down my family - I also have no where else to store it)so I am resigning to the fact that this IVA isn't going to work before its even started!!!!

Life is far too stressful!!

[Skippy]

As the others have said, please be cautious. I am in the same situation as Coco - I went BR as I couldn't afford my IVA payments. Please, please make sure that you can live off of your allowances for the next 5 years. To put the car thing into perspective I had to have over £500 worth of work done on mine last month. I was lucky that my mum could help me, and I am paying her back out of my BR car allowance, which is £70 per month including tax, maintenance and breakdown cover. I also have £30 per month for my car insurance.

I wish you well Maizie, but please think carefully before agreeing to anything.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[scaredkez]

maizie i agree with coco, make sure you can go the next five years on the expenditure they set you, its a long time, in regards to NHS dental treatment, if you go regular every 6 months this will only equate to £2.65 per month to save, for your 2 early examinations so it is not as much as you think, again ivorivia, your dentist maybe able to offer you a payment plan to pay for your dental treatment, a lot have the consumer credit licensce now and can offer this to you on an interest free basis, also with the NHS a lot of them will allow you to pay upfront over a couple of months before treatment is received to help you out, there are way round things, i am lucky i have all my dental treatment free, perk of the job lol, what i am trying to say if it is only these small things putting you off there are ways round it for you to budget, but you must in your own heart of hearts know that you will be able to stick to the budgets you have been set before you embark on a journey you feel will fail.
good luck
kerri
sorry with the consumer credit licensce it may be deemed as obtaining credit so you would have to speak to your ip on that one, its just something a lot of dentists are being required to have so we can accept monthly payments, because of new NHS regs saying charges must be collected before treatment commences.
Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[Skippy]

Just bear in mind that if you need any treatment on the NHS the cost will go up - I went for a checkup and the dentist decided that I needed a tiny filling (it took about 5 minutes) and the cost had jumped from around £15 to £43 (and boy did I begrudge paying it!). I'm not trying to cause you worry, but I just wanted to point out the things that might crop up - the sort of thing I hadn't budgeted for.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.

View my blog at http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[ivoriva]

Thanks for this info Kerri, I'm sure there is a way round in my case as my wife will bail me out on a informal basis. I didnt know about the credit thing for NHS dentistry, but like you said, it probably will be frowned upon by my IP. I also didnt know they demand payment before treatment commences these days.

[scaredkez]

yes skippy if you need a filling it goes up from 15.90 to 43.60, there are only 3 bands of dental treatment now band A = 15.90, band B= (fills, rct , extractions, deep scaling) 43.60 irrespective of how many treatments needed, ie 10 fills = 43.60, bandC = 194.00 crowns, bridges and dentures, what they don't also tell you is if you need treatment within in 2 months at the same band or lower its free!
hope that helps any of you.
kerri
ivo - fraid so our new regulations state charges must be paid for before treatment commences.
Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/