www.iva.co.uk

Hi everyone! I’ve been a lurker for a while but finally joined today after my IVA proposal was rejected at the creditors meeting. I’m struggling to understand what this means and where I go next and also very very worried about losing the roof from over my children’s heads!
Basically have £61,000 of debt and have been going through the IVA process advised by payplan since February of this year. They seemed confident the proposal would be accepted by all creditors. However, they rang me today to say one creditor (NHS credit Union) has rejected the proposal and I need to go back with a higher offer of monthly repayments. I don’t quite understand this or how this works? They wouldn’t advise how much higher to go and the credit union didn’t suggest a figure either. So I suggested an extra £20 to payplan because otherwise I’ll really be struggling if I go any higher.
The guy from payplan said he’d take that figure back to them to ‘appeal’ but it would probably be next week at the earliest before I hear anything back.
I feel in total limbo and don’t know what to do now. It’s taken ages to reach the decision of the IVA and my husband had his approved straight away today, which makes things even harder as it feels like all of this will have been for nothing and we’ll have to declare bankruptcy and lose everything we have worked for.
Has anyone else been in this situation before?
Can anyone advise of any other options? The only other option payplan suggested was an informal debt management plan but that would last 16 years and I don’t really see how that’s viable!!

Credit Unions generally do not go for IVA's, so this might be a sticking point. A Debt Management Plan, if the new offer is still rejected, will, at least give you some breathing space to regroup.

Does the CU hold more than 75% of your debt ? It could be that they were the majority voter on the day but if Payplan could persuade other creditors to actually vote in favour, they could still be outvoted.

EDIT: Miss-typed above .. that should have been: "Does the CU hold more than 25% of your debt ?"

How frustrating for you and now an anxious wait. Payplan need to now do their job and work with creditors that didn't vote to persuade them to vote in favour...

Fingers crossed this is turned around for you.

I don’t think they have over 75% of my debt - I’ve tried to work it out but it’s really confusing! I’m terrible at maths (part of the reason I’m in this mess in the first place!)
My debts are as follows:
Tesco bank: £32,000
NHS credit union: £17,000
MBNA: £5000
Newday: £7000

I was told by payplan that the other creditors voted in favour of the IVA. So I don’t know why the credit Union voting against it would mean it gets rejected. I have gone back with a higher offer but I do think it’s going to be rejected again. I can’t be in a debt management plan for 16 years!!! I wish I’d never undertaken this process in the first place as the whole point was to relieve the stress of my debt and have a clear plan to be debt free in the not so distant future. Now I’m in arrears for the first time in my life because payplan advised me not to make my minimum payments on my debts as I was going in to an IVA anyway! So even if I decided to go back to living in the revolving cycle of debt I was living in (but never missing a payment) I’m so behind on repayments I don’t know how I’ll ever catch up!! My mental health literally feels the worst it’s ever felt right now and this was a process that was supposed to help and make me feel better!

Apologies -- I miss-spoke above.

To get the IVA accepted 75% of those who vote on the day have to say yes. So the credit union, who own 27.86% of the total debt can block a 'yes' vote even when all other creditors vote yes. Hopefully they will go for the increased offer --- to sweeten the deal you could offer to extend the IVA by a year.

Do you own your home, or rent ?

Thank you - that makes more sense!
The proposal already included an extra year anyway as we have a help to buy loan so wouldn’t be able to sell our house to release equity to pay towards the IVA in year 5 as the help to buy loan would need paying back first.

I’ve contacted payplan this morning and asked them to give me another call so I can discuss in more detail. I feel like they haven’t really done their jobs properly as the whole way along I’ve been made to feel like this was the best option and they kept saying “almost all IVAs are accepted so don’t worry!”

That is a lot of debt and how large were your husbands debts? Im not asking to be judgemental but it would help to know why has happened.
Is anything significant going to change in the next few years?
Have the proposed IVA payments taken into account the likely energy price rises in October this year and the fact that you will have to start paying interest on the governments HTB portion and that you mortgage rate is also likely to go up then? As your children get older you usually have higher costs for them for example uniform mobiles pocket money school outings have these all been allowed for?