My wife & I each have an IVA, a small propotion being for joint debts(which was the only reason my wife had to be involved) originaly we both paid the same amount every month. Following a review last year (the new IP company) increased my payments from £800 to over £1300 and reduced my wifes payment.
Saying the old company made a mistake in treating the IVA's as joint and I was in arrears as some of my payments had been put in my wifes account.
As a result I now have £600 income left after making the IVA payment, when I deduct 50% of the mortgage,council tax, gas/electric and petrol to get to work this leaves about £20 for food,insurance car/house/ repairs clothes, medical etc. I objected to this and did not originaly make the increased payment, they then said I would be in breach if I did not. After almost a year and loads of letters & emails (several changes of staff) they now say 'all our costs are totaled jointly'and because I have a higher debt figure I have to pay a high proportion of the debt.
I have argued that this is wrong, but they say not. What can you experts suggest!
Many Thanks
Who are you with Mike? My understanding in an interlocking IVA then the income is looked at and a % of the outgoings are appropriated accordingly not the level of debts.
It doesn't sound right but I may be wrong. Hopefully Mel may be able to help on here but I don't really understand how this has been worked out.
Without seeing the paperwork it would be difficult for me to advise in any way to be frank. My best advice is that you arrange a meeting with the IP personally and have him/her take you through your case from day 1 to where they believe it is now.
Thanks Kazza & Mel.
I have a better chance of a meeting with Santa Claus than my IP! it has taken almost a year to get to this point!
They also inflated the gross amount of my IVA by over 40k ! - that took 2 years to sort out! I was looking for some independant advice before going and knocking on their door!
I can not recall dealing with such generaly obdurate people, they are very quick with threats of 'breaching conditions' but when they make mistakes they
a)Ignore the question / facts
b)Deny it.
c)Lose the letter / email
d)Pass the case on to a new case worker - 8 so far!
The paperwork Mel, is I think fairly straight forward in that there are two seperate IVA's.The gross debts listed also differ, mine has the whole amount on, my wifes a smaller amount (just debts that were in our joint names, its about a 25/75% split).
All the other terms seem to be the same as other people on the forum have - review every year, any overtime to be declared etc etc etc.
The terms do differ slightly in that my wife's has a windfall clause & mine has a default bankruptcy clause.
But there are no references to specific repayments only that a review be carried out annualy.
Originaly with Debmatters all the income & costs were grossed together a figure arived at then divided into 2 - thus two payments made each month of equal amounts.
The new IP then said this was wrong & I was in arears due to not paying enough - but my wife had paid too much!
So following the review last year they decreased my wifes monthly payment & increased mine to such an extent that I do not have sufficient funds to cover my monthly out goings.
It would appear that they have added both monthly repayments to-gether then apportioned them according to the % debts we have as individuals.
My argument with them has been that they have failed to take account of our individual costs.
Kazza - I would agree with your comments - on the review forms we had listed joint costs (the household costs only)but all other costs were seperate - as was revenue.
Any further help would be greatly appriciated, thanks.
Hi
Sounds very poor service and administration on the onfo that you supply.
As Mel states it is only your actual IP that can sort this out. I suggest asking for a face to face meeting armed with all the info, failing that a letter to your IP clearly stating your situation and the fcats
Good luck
Thanks Andy,
Would you know if there are any rules or procedures for the way the level of repayments are calculated?
There seem to be lots of rules or allowances for expenses, but once they are deducted from the income, how is it decided what should be repaid from the balance?
Many thanks
agree with Andy, as difficult as you are finding this, you really need to speak with your IP as we can't give specific advise about your case on here.
we have an interlocking IVA though and although we make one payment per month between us, we work our budget out jointly, so we just both pooled all our income together, worked out exactly what all our bills come to every month and what was left became the IVA payment, even though we have indivdual costs like insurances etc, we just pooled everything into one pot, much easier that way.
If your wife's payment has now gone down and yours has gone up, is your IVA payment still the same as it was?
Mike, I was under the impression that the payment was not worked out on proportion of debt but proportion of income brought into the household, so if you bring in 70% of the household income your allocation for the household bills is 70% of them.
If they are now asking you for more for the IVA payment that would mean you are paying less for the bills, has your wife's income gone up so she pays more of the bills which means less disposable for the IVA payment.
If I am wrong I am sure an expert will correct me
If life is what you make it, I must have been in a strange mood when I made mine
Thanks Lem,
The overall payment has gone up in total- which is subject to another dispute!
Like you I understood once the costs had been deducted the balance was the repayment.
However they have reduced my wifes payment which now leaves her a positive surplus.
Have also just thought, in year 2 & 3 I had an increase in pay - they asked for 50% therefore I should have a surplus of 50% of the increase ?
Have now sent upwards of a dozen emails, so will try again with a recorded letter to the Supervisor!
(A visit means a day off plus travel could do without the cost!)
Because I am now in year 5, I think they are being more belligerent than normal - I even asked why I had not had the review documents through - they said not required this year !
Thanks Pandy
No, no change in income for almost 2 years, although I had a 10% pay cut for 6 months off it !
For previous reviews have always listed houshold costs in total then split 50/50 - never been an issue until review last year (yr4)
I just think they are trying to extract as much as possible for the last year.
Thanks Melanie
They refused to see me once before saying there was no need!
Also as I have now learned - get everthing in writing! So many things in the early days were done on the phone & denied !
I am now into year 5 and would like to ensure closure at the end of it.
**** By the way wish I had found this forum 4 yrs ago its very helpful.
Thanks
