www.iva.co.uk

Hi all. Sorry if this is a bit lengthy, but I have a bit of a dilemma. I currently live with my brother in his guest house. I pay him a board which covers utility bills. He has the guest house for sale, so I may have to move out soon.
I have an acute illness that has no cure, basically, I have it for the rest of my life. Recently, I have had regular flare ups of my illness, the most recent put me in hospital for 4 days, I am still off work at the minute since my stint in hospital. It is now getting to a stage where I may have to pack up work altogether. I have been staying at a friend's house for the past few days and she has been caring for me whilst I am ill. With my brother selling his guest house, we have spoke about making this a permanent arrangement. My friend is currently on benefits and has most of her rent paid plus receives JSA. My question is, if I do move in permanently, how will this affect her benefits? Also how will it affect my IVA? I have around 19 months remaining. We would not be able to afford to live together if she lost her benefits. In the future, this would not be a problem if I have to finish working due to my illness as I would claim sickness benefits and she would be my registered carer. Is there any way around this? I am not trying to cheat the system, I'm just trying to keep my options open as I may soon become homeless and jobless. Just for the records, we would be living as a couple. Another question, what happens in my IVA if I do go on the sick?

Hi, I'm sorry to hear of your situation. However, don't put your life on hold because of the IVA. In respect of the benefits I feel that these would be affected Luluj may be able to help advise on this one as this is her area of specialism. I'll signpost her here for a later reply.

If you have to give up work I would suggest asking your IP to ask your creditors to accept your payments to date to conclude the IVA.

Thanks Lesley.

As your health is deteriorating Lesley's suggestion of asking creditors to accept payments made to date is a good one. Have a long chat with your IP, as it might be worthwhile considering this now, with the imminent homelessness and the real possibility of losing your job, the iVA would, understandably, be one less thing you want to be worrying about.

A visit to your local CAB or local authority debt advisor (if they have one) would be useful.

Asking for creditors to accept payments to date never even crossed my mind. I guess it's an option to consider when the time comes. I have never been out of work for 35 years and I plan to continue to work for as long as I possibly can. As far as my IP is concerned, I am a victim of the recent Creditfix take over and I have had not much contact with them, I would find it a lot easier to speak to one of Mel's team. If only.

Sorry only just seen Lesley's message.

Sorry I am unable to offer benefit advice on an open forum.
Your local Jobcentre will be able to advise or you will find more info about benefits on www.gov.uk or as foggy suggests the CAB have benefit advisers.

Thank you for replying luluj. I'll do some research whilst I'm off.

Hi Huddo - sorry to hear about your illness. I agree it may be best to ask IP to bring IVA to early end in completion based on payments made to date. I appreciate that your IP firm may not be good at communicating with you so if they do not respond I suggest you put your 'early completion' request to them in writing. Allow them say 2 weeks to come back to you with a written response after which you can move up the complaints procedure but hopefully it will not come to that. They should then call a meeting of creditors to vote on the position.