www.iva.co.uk

This was explained twice by a really great advisor but my head was spinning a little -

In my proposed IVA my wife is redundant. She isn't part of the IVA.

If in the future she got a job, am I deemed as having an extra disposable income of roughly half her take home salary after extra expenses have been deducted?

So for example, if she earns £2,000 a month after tax, but our expenses go up by £1,000 for child care and £200 for her commuting (leaving £800) my disposable income (and IVA payments) go up by roughly £400.

Is this right?

Finally (because we're both 40+ but my spouse has almost zero in her pension so far) could she make BIG pension payments into an employer's pension scheme so that her take home salary (after child care, commuting, etc) isn't that much.

Hi, if your wife gets a job you will be asked to do a joint income and expenditure form to ensure yu are both paying a fair share towards the household bill so your expenditure may go up (due to additional childcare for which you will be deemed to pay a share) or down of you wife gets a cracking salary. If your expenses go down you will be asked to pay more into the iva, if they go up your ip may reduce your payments. I don't know about the pension as it affects the net income she has to contribute towards bills bit would err on the side of thinking that it's her money and her decision.

That's interesting - so if she gets £2,000 she is responsible for her £200 commuting but only half of the £1,000 child care? Call that £1,300 she has left then.

So I'd have to pay £500 for child care but my wife would be expected to pay £650 towards bills(half of her £1,300)... so my payments would go up by roughly £150?

So at the end of the day,instead of her job giving us £800 a month we'd get an extra £650 after we'd payed extra into the IVA?

H Estel,

This concept is really hard to explain clearly as a debt adviser so it cannot be easy to understand.

Think of your new expected incomes.
What percentage of the total income will you be earning?

Think of your new total household expenditure as it might be calculated using IVA expenditure guidelines.

Your share of this household expenditure might be calculated to be the same percentage as your income percentage.

From your personal income subtract your personal share of the household expenditure.

Hopefully this will get you close to the new payment.

Apologies if this has just made it more confusing!

Thanks for your reply Andrew.

Did you see my question about pension payments for my wife? She has almost nothing saved in a pension so far (aged 40+. Is it permissable to pay large contributions into a pension scheme and so reduce net income? Or is the calculation worked out from gross income?

Your wife can spend her disposable income as she pleases, but only after she has paid a fair share towards the household bills,in line with Andrew's explanation