www.iva.co.uk

HI EVERYBODY, ONCE AGAIN THANK-YOU TO EVERYBODY TO REPLYING TO MY PREVIOUS POST.SORRY TO BE A PAIN BUT I HAVE A FEW MORE QUESTIONS.
I'M HAVING A MORE POSITIVE DAY TODAY I MUST SORT THIS MESS OUT,SO I'M TRYING TO COMPILE AN 1NCOME/EXPENDITURE BEFORE I MAKE ANY CALLS.I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THIS FEELING WILL LAST THOUGH BECAUSE ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE AND YOU GETTING A RISING FEELING OF PANIC THAT TRAVELS UP FROM YOUR STOMACH AND YOU FEEL BACK TO SQUARE 1.ANYWAY HERE GOES-
WHEN WORKING OUT YOUR INCOME,IS YOUR BASIC WAGE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT AS MY PARTNER'S DIFFER EACH MONTH.SOME WEEKS HE MAY DO A COUPLE OF HOURS OVERTIME OTHER WEEKS THE CHANCE MAY NOT BE THERE.MINE IS FAIRLY CONSTANT.ALSO WE STILL RECIEVE CHILD BENEFIT FOR MY ELDEST SON,BUT HE IS DUE TO LEAVE COLLEGE IN THE SUMMER AND JOIN THE FIRE SERVICE SO THAT WILL STOP.
WHAT ARE THE ALLOWANCES FOR EMERGENCIES OR THINGS LIKE MOTS WHICH, WITH OUR CARS CANNOT BE PREDICTED(THIS YEAR THE TWO COST OVER £650).ALSO ARE WE ALLOWED TO HAVE SOME WAY OF SAVING FOR BIRTHDAYS,XMAS? I KNOW WE HAVE TO MAKE OUR DEBTS PRIORITY AND I THINK AN IVA IS THE WAY WE WILL TRY AS I REALLY WANT TO PAY BACK WHAT WE HAVE BORROWED,BUT IT'S MY SONS 18TH THIS YEAR AND I JUST FEEL TERRIBLE THAT BECAUSE OF OUR STUPIDITY WE CAN'T GET HIM ANYTHING.ALSO MY YOUNGEST SON PLAYS FOOTBALL.FOR THE WEEKLY TRAINING AND MATCHES IT COSTS US £15 PER MONTH.WOULD THIS BE ACCEPTABLE ?
ONE MORE FOR NOW AS I DON'T WANT TO GET ON ANYONES NERVES,HOW DO YOU WORK OUT DENTISTS,GLASSES PRESCRIPTIONS ETC.MY PARTNER GETS FREE PRESCRIPTIONS DUE TO HIS CONDITION.I HAVEN'T HAD TO GET ANYTHING FOR MONTHS BUT THATS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE.
ANY ADVICE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED
THANX TREES

Good questions trees57

This is how i would approach your I&E

1. If his income fluctuates then we would normally take an average over a three - five month period. Overtime is not normally included in the calc but when your creditors vote it is likely they will ask for 50% of it.

2. If you make your IP aware of the change in your income (when CHB stops) this can be calculated in your monthly payments and is likely your payments will reduce.

3. Normally £50 a month is set as a budget for the emergency money but there is also a fund of Car Maintenance (£20 per car) Car tax (£15).

4. Savings are not allowed however if you set yourself a food budget of £350 per month for example and you only spend £300 then there is nothing wrong with you putting the extra away.

5. £15 for childrens activites is acceptable

6. A budge of personal hygiene is allowd normally £10 per adult and £5 per child, per month.

hope this helps.

Carl

Hello -

On your "Overtime" point -

Variable overtime is not normally taken into account when your monthly payment is calculated. In my case - and I believe most others - you are required to pay over 50% of any net overtime payments but you can keep the other 50% to save or spend. I get regular overtime at the moment and send in a cheque each month for half of what I receive.

Hi Trees it should be worked on your basic income, overtime is never guarenteed, the usual is to poy 50% of overtime, at least you get the 50% of it. Prescriptions just make an allowance per month, just because you are ok one year you may need three all in one go. I think we put £10 per month for prescriptions and £15 for the dentist thats just for two of us and I , like your hubby get all mine free. Xmas and birthday are not a general allowance, but i think a lot put a £50 miscellaneous down for the unexpected, you can save overtime and things for xmas. You will see most managed this year and felt great for doing it. Child benefit, tell them that it will stop, they can allow for that.
Dont panic your company will advise on what is too high or too low, you put it as it is. Write down all your questions and then ask them all when you speak top someone, none are silly or too much to ask you need to understand it all, at least writing them down you can go down the list, I had 2 pages and they answered every one.
You are doing great it is always the hard bit sorting out, how much owed and the I and E.

Hope that helps a bit.

Ang

HELLO, THANK-YOU FOR THE PROMPT REPLIES,I REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING ANY REPLIES(WITHOUT SOUNDING WEIRD IT'S COMFORTING,AS BEING THIS MUCH IN DEBT IS VERY HUMBLING).I'VE BEEN LOOKING AT BASIC BANK ACCOUNTS THIS AFTERNOON,DOES ANYBODY KNOW IF I CAN OPEN A JOINT BASIC ACCOUNT?IT WOULD BE FAR EASIER TO HAVE BOTH OUR WAGES PAID INTO THE SAME PLACE.I THINK MY MAIN FEAR IS CANCELLING THE DIRECT DEBITS ESPECIALLY DEFAULTING ON MY NAT WEST LOAN.I'VE BEEN WITH THEM SINCE SCHOOL(20+ YRS AND THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN GOOD TO ME,I FEEL SO GUILTY.AS I SAID AT THE MOMENT I'M UP TO DATE WITH ALL MY PAYMENTS BUT NXT MONTH WE JUST CAN'T DO IT.I ALSO HAVE A LOAN WITH WELCOME FINANCE WHICH IS DUE THE 9TH MONTH,DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW THEY ARE WITH THESE SITUATIONS.I SURE WISH I HAD ADOPTED MY DAD'S ETHICS "IF YOU CAN'T PAY CASH YOU DON'T HAVE IT" HINDSIGHT, WHAT A WONDERFUL THING.
THANKS IN ADVANCE TREES X

Hi
Once you speak with several companies and decide on an IVA your IP will advise you to top making payments to all unsecured creditors.
This is always a stange feeling and you will get calls and letters,you just need to be strong and state that you are taking professional advise with a view to proposing an IVA and pass on your IPs name and contact details.This will only last for a few weeks and will get easier.
All calls and letters should stop once the IVA is agreed.
There is no problem with opening a joint account
Regards

Hi Trees,

I will be honest the first few weeks whilst the IVA is hard and you need keep possitive through out and keep in touch with your IP for support.

Creditors have a duty to write to you once you default but you can foward these to your IP who will advise if you need to take any immediate action (I.e Make a payment or not)

I agree it is far eaiser for you to have one account and it is not a problem to have a joint account.

I would suggest either Co-Op cashminder or Natwest Step account which do not normally credit check and will allow you have a joint account, providing you dont owe these accounts any money if you don you will need to go elsewhere.

Carl

Hi.You have to put it all down. I recently had to ask on her about university fees because I had not considered them. My IVA will last 6 years. My eldest will be un i ready in 4.What was I thinking of? Nothing. I was panicking and relived and stressed all in one go and just felt grateful that it was being sorted.
My allowances for 4 of us
housekeeping/food-£500
gas/lecky/water-£150
phone/broadband-£50
clothing-£110
car tax etc-£100
petrol-£150
medical and dental-£30
glasses-£30
sky-£60
mobile -£60
contingency-£150
Don't forget childcare, insurances etc
Hope this helps.Cat

hi cat 1

Are these figures suggested allowances or actual expenditure some of them seem very high compared to my figures submitted at my last review especially sky and contigency fund

I think some of the guidlines Cat has qouted are a little high it depends when Cat's arrangment was apprved as creditors have tightened up over the last 12 months and think the maximum you will be allowed for Contingency will be £50 and Sky £21.

The rest of the expenditure i see as acceptable.

Carl

This was put together by CS in Oct 08 and approved after further mods and a 6 year IVA agreed to. Hope it's not considered too high when my annual review occurs.There are 4 of us.I was surprised about sky, but not the contingency as others talk about hobbies, childrens activities and I have to take this from the contingency.I've managed to save it so far.Cat

i meant[:I] oct 07

Expenditure should be based upon what you actually spend rather than standard industry guidelines, although the majority of creditors will look at the guidelines to see if what you are saying is reasonable. In my practice we have adopted the CCCS guidelines, but we never restrict someone's expenditure to this if they spend more, and merely disclose this by way of exception. So long as the expenditure can be justified, we very rarely have requests for adjustments or increased contributions.

Your salary should be based on your basic salary only. It is dangerous to take averages over a sample period, or include overtime, as this may not be typically representative of the complete picture. Most IVA proposals will now provide for 50% of any additional earnings to be paid over by way of additional contributions, so using the basic salary alone is the fairest way of assessing your income for the purposes of presentation.

If your son is due to leave school in the summer of this year, then personally I would not include the child benefit monies at all. Does he intend to continue to live at home? In which case you will no doubt be taking a board and lodge payment from him which will need to be disclosed as income.

And finally you are most definately allowed to have a savings account whilst subject to IVA proceedings, indeed I feel that this is essential for budgeting purposes and to lodge your contingency monies into. Things like the car service and tax are not payable each month, and if you do not put those monies away you may be tempted to spend them, leaving you to struggle when the actual bills do come in.

And as a personal favour to me - would you mind not typing in capital letters. It is quite difficult to read your posts, and we do want to be able to give you the very best advice we can!