www.iva.co.uk

We have just recieved a letter to say that unless i can increase my hours at work we will lose our wftc. With only a few months left is it reasonable to ask for our iva to finish now.

Hi,

Not good news Teresa.

How long have you been in your IVA now?

Since may 2007.

You need to speak to your IP about this - they might be able to help you.

What's wftc? Will it have a big impact on your income/job?

I believe it's working family tax credits BOL.

That doesn't seem to make sense to me, so the letter says if you increase your hours at work (therefore have more income) they will continue to pay you this benefit, but if not they won't?, I admit to not knowing anything about wftc, but that just seems totally wrong that the more you earn the more wftc you can claim????

It is working family tax credit. I have no idea why it works this way. I think it's because our income is so low we are not at the minimum threshold. We will loose aprox £180 every four weeks. I cant increase my hours at work. I have 4 different small jobs which can't increase.

The new rules for WTC eff 6/4/2012 say that you must work at least 24 hours between you with one person working at least 16 hours. It is currently a total of 16 hours.

Teresa, do you both not work more than 24hrs between you?

No i work 17 and he doesnt work at all as he is at college full timw and looking after the kids the rest of the time. I have asked if i can increase my work but i am training as well and it doesnt give me enough hours in the day. We are due to finish our iva in june. We only needed two more months and then it wouldnt matter.

Hi Teresa, all is not lost, speak with your IP, I am sure with your change in circumstances and the fact you will only have 2 payments left of your IVA once this change comes into force that your IP could approach your creditors to see if they could accept payments made to date to conclude your IVA, speak to them tomorrow and let us know how you get on.

More to the point though, without the IVA, how will you manage with such a huge drop in income?

Our iva payments are almost the same as the amount we will loose so we will just live like we have over the past five years. It has been hard especially with three kids but hopefully i can get a new job when my training finishes and my husband is hoping to go to uni in september to be a paramedic. So there is light at the end of the tunnel just not with the finish of the iva as we first thought.

Teresa, as you have managed so well to get to this point over the last 5 years then once your IVA is complete, I am sure you will do a sterling job budgeting for a little longer while your husband completes his studies, it will be worth it in the long run for a better life for you all, well done on getting to the end (almost!) I am sure your IP will be able to sort this for you

How ridiculous that this much needed funding for low income families is only available if you work over a certain amount of hours! I despair!