As those of you who have read my post and kindly offered advice and information, I am in the process of considering an IVA. There are a lot of factors that mean it isn't a simple decision for me at present but hopefully will become clearer over the coming months.
One of the things that has become clear from reading the posts on here is that if and when I do propose an IVA I will be very clear about including my actual expenditure on there, rather than tweaking figures in an attempt to get it accepted. I don't condone what the person described in this posting has done, especially not the bragging part, but do wonder whether there is more of this kind of thing going on than perhaps we realise and how much of it is related to people not being realistic with themselves to start with about what they can afford to live on for 5 years?
Can I check with the experts who it is that has the final say with the income / expenditure put forward - the client, the IP or the creditors? Do they get changed often?
No one should agree to an income and expenditure that is unsustainable as the IVA would fail. The main thing is affordability and the allowances are there for you to spend as you please. No one will check bank statements to see if your contingency etc was spent and after the first year things do tend to get easier. At the annual review you are entitled to keep 50% of additional income after allowing for cost of living increases and together with 50% overtime/bonuses this does improve affordability.
I accept your point that where the income and expenditure account has been squeezed it could force some clients to not declare things just to try and survive. However, if your income and expenditure account has been properly drafted it should be affordable but ultimately it is your decision. Creditors can try and increase contributions by disallowing or reducing expenses but you do not have to accept these increases if they are not affordable.
I'm not too sure who has the final say but I can say that through reading this forum before I contacted cleardebt that I knew that I had to put down everything that we spent.I was a little concerned that creditors would think that we were being cheeky but reading about Max's expenses that Melanie was able to quite rightly justify, I put down the money that we spend every month supporting our child who plays a certain sport to a very high standard that cleardebt were able to also justify as an allowable expense and since starting the IVA he has moved up a class too - and I know that e'd have really struggled to support him without the extra money. I guess what I'm taking a long time to say is select your IP carefully and be honest. A good IP should be able to justify any reasonable expense!
Couldn't agree more. We put down exactly what we spent and our I&E, whilst frugal, is enough for us to live on. I have no need to fudge the figures.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
