www.iva.co.uk

Hey,

Received letter regarding 1st review which is shortly due and in it was a copy of my I & E. looking back some of the figures are way out and I will need to amend them.

For example food and household is £350. I have a partner who doesn't work as she looks after our 2 year old. As hard as we have tried a family of 3 struggles to spend only £350 on food. Also she takes the baby out a couple of times a week so has to use the bus which is about a tenner a week. Prescribed medication is also something I am paying for but isn't on the sheet. Hair cuts for the 3 of us is listed at £50 a month but costs more than that unfortunately

Is it ok to add these costs to my I & E sheet and submit it to ip for review?

Hi Rob. My first thoughts are that £350 for the three of you is pretty tight and should be looked at.

When we were a couple I had the car and the ex used public transport to get about while I was at work -- we were allowed £28 per month for that.

I get a pre-payment certificate for medications at around a tenner a month, which was allowed.

Where are you getting your hair cuts ? I think £50 per month for two adults and a toddler should be sufficient. Your IP has been more than generous here.

No where fancy I promise. £10 for me, £8 for child and the misses has gone from wash cut an dry at £90 to just having it cut but they still charge £55!! London prices at there finest. Maybe an imvestment in some clippers and 3 head scarfs is a possibility.

Thanks for confirming about the food allowance. Even by cutting out the goodies we are still over every month. I'm sure if we lived on frozen meals and processed rubbish its achievable but every time we go up the shops it seems that fruit, veg and chicken or mince meat has gone up.

Ah -- good old London prices !! Get those clippers --- If Jesse J can do it .....

Who are you with, Rob ?

Dfd, I went with them long before finding this site and it did worry me to read all the negative reviews on here. I've had a couple of small issues but no different from trying to speak to someone at bt, British gas

I think that it is fine to add these new figures to your i & e sheet and see what the response is.

Ths only figure that seems a little excessive to me is the £55 for a haircut but then I dont live in London !

Sometimes you can find mobile hairdressers that will do it for less.

Good luck with it !

Hi, I use a mobile hairdresser every 6 weeks cut and coloured for £40...often college level 2 students can do a cut and colour for a fraction of the price our local college is only £23.00...to be fair the salon in the college is always busy and I do use it for beauty treatments but never have for hair so there is a possibility maybe to consider in respect of the hair allowance.

All the best and as seagulls says put it down and then discuss with your IP.

Thanks everyone, I'm not sure she would let anyone else go near it but ill have a chat with the ip and see what happens. She has made many sacrifices in the last year so can't deny her a haircut when it's needed. I'm sure she would stretch it to 6 - 7 week appointments rather than the 4 - 5 week appointments.

We get £32 a month for haircuts for 4 of us so I think what you get is already very generous, I do understand where you are coming from but I doubt your creditors will understand and be happy to pay out for what they would probably class as a luxury haircut that could be done a lot cheaper, they may say you will have to fund this out of your other allowances, have you had a payrise to enable you to add in these extra allowances?

Totally understand hence why I don't go to the college salon. I've had the same hairdresser for many years now.

No pay rise unfortunately. Wish there was. I'm commission based income so iva was worked out on an average and is reviewed each year so payments can either be increased or decreased. Some months are slightly over and some are slightly lower. It's just a case of putting a bit by when over to support the months it's under. It's hard but slowly getting used to it.