New member, new problem!!

[Clare73]

Hi everyone,

Having been a 'silent observer' for the last few months, I would just like to say that I am truly amazed by the advice and support you give to people who are going through the hell of clearing their debts. I hope that you all feel very proud of yourselves for giving such inbiased and invaluable support to so many people. Well done!!

My husband and I entered into our IVA in May 2006 so we are almost entering our third year. Our IP is DFD. We were advised that an IVA was the best solution for our debts of 38,000.00 as we were able to pay back 100% of what we owed and we have no assets. So, our payments began at 750.00 per month and everything was running fine until my university course ended in September 2007. My student bursary of 543.00 per month was included in our monthly payment, but end of course equalled end of bursary so our payments had to reduce to 207.00 per month. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in securing a job as Registered Nurse in and around my local area, mainly due to NHS defecits. I have tried to register with nursing agencies but they will not take me on their books until I have had six months post registration experience. I have also contacted nursing homes but there are no vacancies, even though I continue to ring them on a monthly basis.

I received a letter from our IP at the end of December saying that they were issuing a Certificate of Non Compliance and I needed to provide an answer to cover the shortfall in payments. Obviously I can offer no solution at this time. I only hope that at the start of the new financial year when the local trust receives its budget, I will have the opportunity to apply for the job that I have studied three years for. I have looked at the original chairmans report and it states in there that I was employed part time! I failed to notice this and I wasn't employed part time as I was a full time student nurse! When we carried out our first review in April 2007, I sent a covering letter explaining that my bursary was going to stop and therefore our payments would have to go down until I found a job.

Sorry if this is a bit boring!

Anyway, I had a letter from the IP in May 2007 to say that the review had gone ahead without any problems. There was no response to my covering letter so wrongly, I assumed that they had made provision for the shortfall in payments. We were not made aware by our IP at the start of the IVA that this would be a problem. Having said that, I also did not think I would be struggling to find work as a Registered Nurse!

After receiving the non-compliance letter, my husband and I sat down to review our I & E and by getting rid of our childminder, stopping all my medications and reducing our monthly fuel budget, we estimated that we could increase payments to 546.00 per month which is still under the 750.00 we were originally paying. With IP fees, we owe 45,000.00. We have already made nearly 14,000.00 in payments. Despite sending this info to our IP in January and phoning them every fortnight to see what is happening, we have still had no response other than to say that it is 'under review'.

What will happen to this 14,000.00 if our IVA fails? If they do fail it, can we apply for another one? My husbands job doesn't allow us to go bankrupt so I don't know what we will do.

[Lisa2009]

Hi and welcome.

DFD, i have found, are not very fast at replying to anything.

How awful this must be for you.

I find it very unfair that you have been reduced to stoping medication that you must need.

Im sure one of the IPs will be along shortly to offer you some advice.

[MelanieGiles]

Hi Claire and welcome to the forum

It is hard to believe that qualified nurses cannot find work these days, but I know in my own area of South Wales there are many seeking employment. When I left school in the early 1980's, nursing was a job for life.

Firstly, I have to question the advice you were given to enter into an IVA when you are going to be paying back 100p in the £. A DMP with one of the "charities" ie CCCS or Payplan, would result in you paying off your debts much quicker, as there would have been a saving in IP fees - although you do have to counter this somewhat with the risk of interest being charges and legal action continuing.

In hindsight, a DMP would be now giving you the flexibility you need given your reduced income, but I feel that you will have no problem in getting the IP to apply for a variation of the arrangement by reference to your creditors. At then end of the day you can still effect a very good return to creditors, and this can increase when youdo manage to find work.

The money you have already paid to the IP is held to the order of your creditors and is partly used to fund the costs of the IVA to date. If you have paid over that much, there should also have been some dividend payments to creditors by now.

Press your IP for a suggested solution, and keep us informed of developments as you go along. Good luck with this and the job search.

[Clare73]

Thank you Mrs S and Melanie.

I only wish that we had been told about a DMP in the beginning. Yes, I am naive but I had little knowledge of what one was and hadn't even considered it as an option because we 'gently pushed' down the IVA route. Not that this was a bad thing at the time because it seemed the solution to our problems.
Anyway, that was then and this is now. It is comforting to know that we may be successful in securing a lower payment as we really do not want the IVA to fail.

Thank you for your advice. I will keep you posted.

Clare x

[Adam Davies]

Hi
Your creditors should agree to a reduced payment and DFD should be more understanding.Don't screw your expenditure too far down as you will make your life unbearable and make sure that you allow for all the medication that you need.
Write to your actual IP at DFD with an upto date and realistic income and expenditure statement and keep this forum advised of the response
Regards

[chris.g]

Hiya clare73 and welcome.[:)]
I'm with Andy and agree you shouldn't cut things back to the bone as you don't want to end up really struggling. Try and get in touch with your actual IP, not one of the assistants and things might start moving.
I hope that you find a job soon, a lot of my friends are student nurses at the moment and their future is very unsecure because of the NHS not recruiting. It is ironic that you are qualified but need experience to gain employment!! Could you possibly do voluntary work to gain the experience? i know you won't be getting paid but at least you are gaining experience.
As for you being naive, I think we were all very naive at first, I know I was! [8)]
xx

[dev92]

Hi Clare, I have worked for the NHS for 17 years and have never seen the job situation so dire! Has your local hospital got a Nurse Bank Scheme? it won't be a regular income but it will get your foot in the door and able you to gain post-reg experience. I am a ward manager but luckily my staffing levels are not too bad compared to other trusts, hopefully things will improve with the new financial year coming up. I was also in an IVA last year with a debt of £45,000 but thankfully I was able to remortgage my property to offer a F&F settlement, thank goodness it was accepted. I fully empathize with you but you need to inform your IP to reduce payments, my philosophy in life is 'if you don't ask, you don't get'. Keep positive, i'm sure things will work out in the end and you will get a job within the nursing profession to fulfill your dream.

[sjw]

hi i am also a reg nurse and i work for the nurse bank for my healthtrust as there is a job freeze in my area give your local hospital trust a call i would have thought all trust would have them, ive been lucky and i get full time shifts cos there's always someone on the sick or there short staffed. It actually give you great experience as you tend to work in a variety of areas so it increases your confidence.

[cat 1]

I manage a team of RMN's and SW's.Don't forget when we use agency/bank we're on the look out for long term investments and your manager will be able to keep your contact number and let you know when vacancies arise.Cat

[cat 1]

oh...and what I meant to say was that alot of vacancies only become internal now so as a bank person you would be eligable.Cat

[chris.g]

My friend got into auxilary nursing that way, she started off in the autoclaving dept and then she had access to internal vacancies. She went onto bank and then applied for jobs as they came up.
xx

[Clare73]

Thank you to you all for your replies. I will definately ring my local trust and enquire about the bank situation at the hospital. I know that when I qualified last year, we were told we couldn't join the hospital bank until we had completed our six month preceptorship. How are we supposed to do this if we can't find a job? It seems a bit of a vicious circle but as it is April next week, I will keep my fingers crossed that some jobs may be advertised.

By reading other posts on here, I have come across the e-mail address for my IP which Melanie gave to another member so I will also pursue this on Monday and hope that I get a speedy reply. (Wishful thinking!!)

Thanks again to you all for your comments and advice. It's good to know that there is such a fantastic range of support and I will keep you posted on how things progress.

Have a good weekend!

XX

[Skippy]

Good luck, I hope you find a job soon x

[Clare73]

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