I am wondering if you could give me some advice.
My IVA is coming up to the 3 year point, but today I had some potentially catastrophic news that due to the government cutbacks my job could be at risk in the next few months. I work in the public sector in what I considered to be a secure position with a permanent contract, however, the cutbacks are now filtering down and although I have a chance of not being made redundant, I have to make plans in case that does happen.
I would appreciate your advice on how my IVA will be affected if I were to be made redundant?
I am presuming that the position would be that the IVA would as they say ’fail’ if I was unable to continue payments, but would there be any possibility that the IVA could be re calculated at a lower payment rate for the remaining 2 years?
I doubt I could face having to start from scratch for a further 5 years, and I have paid off a large sum of money in the 3 years with no default.
Another possibility would be to offer the small redundancy payment I get to the creditors as a final payment if that was an option? I doubt it would be very much, but it would be all I could afford when facing unemployment in my 50’s.
Finally, would it be the better option to go for bankruptcy?
I really have no idea what is going to happen, but I would like to have some options to consider.
Don't worry - as you point out, there are lots of options. Keep your IP up to date and I'm sure they will do everything possible to help you out.
I'm sure that if the worst happens and you do lose your job, your creditors will agree to a payment break while your situation stabilises. Then you can look at your income and expenditure again and decide whether or not you can still afford the full contributions.
Your IP should be able to advise you on all the options available depending on how it pans out. Variations can be proposed for all kinds of different situations and as mentioned above the possibility of a payment break to allow you time to find another job could be looked at. As long as you keep your IP informed as soon as you know what is going to happen I'm sure they will be able to sort something out.
Being in the public sector too I share your concerns. Best thing to do is to sit it out and see where it heads - we too were told our jobs are at risk, but actually in real terms it will be at least 12 months before anything happens.
Speak with your IP and let them know - if you aregiven a definate yes to redundancy then I would see whether they would except the payments to date as an end to the IVA as you will need your redundancy money to live on whilst you locate yourself new employment and with the vast level of unemployment this may not be so easy to do quickly.
Best of luck
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Thanks to all of you who posted a reply......the thing that is really annoying is that I have kept to the IVA religiously for 3 years without missing a payment and as I pay back around £1,100 pm I have already paid nearly £40K back and was quite content to continue with the full 5 years as I had a lot of debt so I was lucky to have a 'secure' job to be able to do so. Now to get so close to the end of the tunnel this redundancy situation occurs and blows the whole thing up in my face!! The trouble is I know that I will not be entitled to that much redundancy pay as my employers have just decided to cut it by half as soon as they realised they would be making a lot of redundancies....nice touch that!! So what I am really hoping is that my creditors will accept that the amount I have paid so far and call it quits??....at 54 years of age, there are not going to be very many jobs out there for me! My wife is also in this IVA, she only works part time but I really dont want her having to return to full time working and shift work to compensate. I will contact my IP at Grant Thornton and see what they can advise. Does anyone think that I should just go bankrupt if the worst comes to the worst???
They probably wouldn't accept a full and final payment to start off with. You would be able to retain up to six months worth of redundance money whilst you looked for another job. If you found one then you would have to pay across anything that remains.
I also work in the public sector and we have just started our 90 day consultancy period.
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
As we are carrying vacancies at the moment and mine is a very specialist role, I think I will be ok.
Hopefully everyone else posting on here will be as well.
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
