www.iva.co.uk

My ex husband lives over 100 miles from where myself and our daughter live. He's a brilliant dad and a supportive ex and has been very hands on, visiting our daughter whenever he can on the weekends or drives down to take her to his place.
I found out recently that he has an IVA and we've talked about it. He has always had problems with managing money. I think he's doing the responsible thing but I'm shocked at the way the IVA provider has dealt with it.
Recently his car (which is very old and has 120,000 mileage) broke down and its going to cost about £800 to fix. Or he can buy another car for about £2000. Obviously he doesn't have that kind of money and coincidentally he's just been contacted by a bank to say that they're going to award him £1000 for PPI miselling. He got in touch with the IVA providers to ask if he could use the money to get his car fixed. He had evidence including from the AA who towed his car and the garage. But the IVA peeps have flatly refused. Isn't this short-sighted and unfair? I live in a very rural area with the nearest train station about 30 minutes walk. It costs a fortune to travel by train to visit.
I don't understand why they can't allow for this? They were really rude to him when he asked if he could get his car fixed with the money and he's now sunk into a depression.

I had a look at the StepChange website and they say the following - In the result of a successful PPI claim we may allow you to keep some money if you provide evidence why this is needed.

Sorry for the long post but would really like to get some advice so I can help my ex and support him somehow. I never take maintenance for him and would lend him the money if I had it but I'm on a zero-hours contract with my job so it can be tricky some months.

Stepchange can call a variation meeting to allow your ex to retain the funds to fix or purchase a vehicle. Creditors are usually sympathetic as without a vehicle he may not be able to get to work never mind visit his daughter. The creditors may ask for an extension to the IVA to address any shortfall but it is rare they reject outright.

Your ex should go back to his IP and ask for a variation to be called. Stepchange are funded by the banks so should be able to help and the variation seems reasonable to me.

I agree with Michael and think StepChange are being short sighted here, as well as a mite unreasonable.

I was allowed to retain a refund £1680 related to PPI to replace my boiler but had to agree a plan to repay it all by the end of the IVA. I am making small additional monthly payments along with an additional wedge out of my bit of the annual bonus I am allowed to retain this year and next. Maybe suggest a repayment proposal to the IP if they could accommodate his request.

Sounds like you have a commonsense IP Mikey. Pity all are not like that.

Hi

Ask him to write to his actual IP outlining all the facts etc

Regards

Just a note here. I was with Stepchange and can re-call receiving a letter from them stating that if I claimed any PPI I would be allowed to keep £499.99 as they considered it a windfall. Anything else over and above that figure would have to be paid to the IVA.

Its worth having another chat with them at "STEP" again because there seems to be a few people leaving the company and us with IVA's will be getting new case workers.

PPI I would have thought keeping the first £500 seems quite fair?

We are taking a payment break to address the car issues at the moment.
Funded by the banks makes no difference to me, its how the compant treats you as a client!!!

Clearly there are some companys on here not funded by the banks who are clearly out to treat their clients like S**t.

Yeah there are times when we will all disagree with some dissisions but that's how it goes.

Baldy

"Clearly there are some companys on here not funded by the banks who are clearly out to treat their clients like S**t."

I am afraid that stance is not confined to the non-bank funded firms. To be fair, we get very little criticism regarding StepChange. However they pass all but the most straightforward IVA's to "private sector" firms (who do get some stick).

"Clearly there are some companys on here not funded by the banks who are clearly out to treat their clients like S**t."

Baldy. We are not funded by the banks, we have a representation on here but we treat our clients with the utmost respect they deserve. There are not many other firms who regularly post so hopefully no one thinks it is us to whom you are referring!

I think it more those that do not post but get flack that are being referred to, Michael.

Hey Michael, no im NOT including your company in the s**t service league!!!!
You do a good job on here helping people who are in need of help from those bad companys and its extremely appreciated.

Its just really not nice seeing some people on here who are trying their very very best to address their debt issues and they are being shafted by some of these companys.

I do except that sometimes we as clients do not always do the right thing from time to time! and some companys do have to make sure that the terms of the IVA are followed.

"STEP Change", yeah they don't seem to get a lot of bad feedback and maybe they do tend to stick to the straight forward cases but most of the time they seem to be pretty fair.

I do find it a bit sad when we read about clients sometimes being treated
very bad on here but I also know there is always two sides to every story.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Baldy

Thanks Baldy. Have a good one too.