I posted about a week ago

[nad]

I posted about a week ago as me and my wife have been really struggleing with our iva. We've had our 2nd review now and i recieved a letter in the post saying that their findings were that we were in fact struggleing but for the meantime continue with the payments and they will be in touch shortly. The problem is now ive properly gone through our i&e i can see exactly why we've been struggleing. I bring home £398.52 per week, my wife does not work so all she gets is £33 per week child benefit. So between us that means £1726.08. Our expenditure is: rent £400,Food/household 360, mobile phones 40, housephone 30, council tax 135, gas 50, water 50, elec 40, petrol 160, car tax 10, car ins 27, home ins 12, tv lic 12, son pre-school 40. Our iva payments our set at 382.50. Total = 1747.50 when income is only 1726.08!! We had debts of 33k. The first yr we paid 450 per month and this yr we've paid 382.50per month. I want to tell the company to call a creditors meeting. what monthly payment do you think we should put forward to them? at the moment we live by the penny and cant afford anything other then bills. My wife is so stressed, crying most days about our situation and as she only had a baby 4 weeks ago everything is really taking it toll on her. Do you think bankruptcy would be better for us? many thanks

[kallis3]

Hi,

So sorry that things are going wrong for you. Your IP can reduce your payments by up to 15% before calling a meeting. After that it is down to the creditors to agree a reduction.

If you are in rented accommodation or negative equity, then bankruptcy could be an option for you. Speak to your IP in the first instance. You've done well to get this far, but you and your wife should be enjoying your new baby, not stressing about finances.

[thefsg]

This doesn't sound right at all - keep up the pressure on your IP to act sooner rather than later - at the end of the day they won't want you to go BR.

I hope you both start to feel better about this soon - and congratulations on the new addition!

[Pennyless]

nad looking at your expenditure, were you not allowed or informed of the following:

Hairdressing Allowance...£18 (couple)
Childs Pocket Money....£10
Newspapers....£5
Charity......£2
Laundry......£10 (couple)
Household Repairs....£25
Meals at Work
and the list go's on.

To tell the truth looking at your total debts and the amount you will repay combined with the fact that you are struggling and do not appear to be getting your just allowances, it looks like another case where the person has been made to fit the IVA come what may.

[kallis3]

You can try and contact your IP direct via this link:

http://www.insolvency-service.co.uk/newipsearch.htm

You may find you get something sorted out quicker, rather than trying to get past the office staff.

[nadakuss]

thank you for your replies. I am going to try and call them today to try and speak to someone. We are in rented accomodation and have no assets, only household furniture a tv and laptop. If i went br would we loose any of these?? we already had our payments reduced from 450 to 382.50 without the creditors meeting which was meant to be the 15%, however the person i spoke to on the phone that did my review said they had got it wrong and it was meant to be 390 something!!! Also we missed this months payment due to my paternity pay and had asked to have it as a payment break but were told we'd have to pay extra each month to make it up! We were so desperate to get out of debt back in 2007 we just jumped straight in with the first company that offered an iva to us. If only we'd known more about it all we could have done some more research. With bankruptcy you have to pay a monthly amount for 3 years dont you? As im 2 years into my iva im wondering if it would be silly for me to take this route. Going on my income and expenditure can anyone give me any idea of a monthly amount that they think i could pay that would be likely to be accepted??
Thank you Nathan

[Michael Peoples]

Make an application for tax credits immediately as you have approx 90 days from the birth and it will be backdated. Your child is more important than your IVA and your IP should be able to help you through this. You could request a meeting which will hopefully resolve everything for you.

[orchid5]

Blimey Pennyless i didn't know that you could claim for all of those things, I have a cat which i haven't claimed for so his food comes out of my weekly food and it's not cheap either to be honest, property repair etc blimey maybe i need to speak to my IP too!

[nadakuss]

well i phoned my iva company today to speak to them about my payments as we really cant afford it and I was told the lady dealing with it wasnt there. I asked to speak to someone else and was told nobody else could speak to me as she was the one dealing with it and she wouldnt have asked me to continue with my monthly payments for the time being if she didnt think they were affordable. When i told the person i was speaking to that id recieved a letter saying they could see we were struggleing with the payments and it said they'd be in touch to sort something out but i was calling as needed it sorting asap she said there was nothing they could do at the moment as the person dealing with it was away on holiday!!!

Im now thinking the best option would be bankruptcy. I'm paying something i cant physically afford, everytime i speak to a person from the company im with they seem to be more and more clueless, and I can't sort out an affordable payment because apparently the only person that can deal with this is away on holiday!!!

[orchid5]

Hi there Nadakuss this company surely doesn't rely on one person to do all the work do they. I would ask to speak to a supervisor or someone with a bit more authority to be honest. Take care and be safe and good luck.

[kallis3]

Email your IP direct via the link I posted earlier. You may find they are easier to deal with.

[nadakuss]

Thanks jan, I am going to use that link now to email. I thought it would be quicker to speak to someone, but obviously I was proved wrong.

[kallis3]

I hope you get some answers nad.

Let us know whether or not you get a reply.

[nadakuss]

Hi all
just to let you know i emailed my ip last night and got an email back first thing this morning as well as a phone call from a manager as my ip was out of the office today.

The guy I spoke to however was very nice and seemed to know what he was talking about. I did say to him Im not sure even if the payments are reduced we are going to be able to continue with the iva and im really considering bankruptcy. He said he'd get someone to go through the figures and if we want to proceed with bankruptcy they have a sister company that can help us do this. Would this be normal proceedure to use a company to go bankrupt or do you just do it yourseld?? Want to make sure im properly informed before making any decisions this time!!

Nathan

[kallis3]

Hi Nathan,

Glad you got to speak to someone at last.

As regards bankruptcy, you do not have to pay anyone to help you do it. That money would be on top of the fees themselves which are £510. You can fill the forms in online and there are plenty of people on here and on the sister site who can help.

See how you get on with your IP first though.