www.iva.co.uk

I have just come out of a fixed rate mortgage and my payment has been reduced by a little.

I was going to use the surplus to payoff utility bills. is this allowed or do i have to declare the slightest amount of extra cash.

also My car will be due a clutch in the near future, how are we supposed to save for such things, the quotes i have been getting are £650.00 my car allowance for a month for 2 cars has been set at £50.00 for servicing etc so it will take me over a year with no extra problems to save.

Hi,

Are you in an IVA? Were your utility bill arrears included in your IVA?

If so, then I don't think you will be able to pay them off. As to whether you have to declare the money, it will depend on how much you have surplus.

With regard to your car repairs - ask your IP for a payment break. They should be sympathetic to this.

I am in a IVA, some of the bills were in the IVA but I am already paying the arrears within the Income and Expenditure monthly payments.

the surplus is around £140.00.

Do they ask for mortgage statements when reviewing your case ?

Also we seem to not have enough in our monthly budget for food, they gave us £500 for a family of 5 3 young kids that are eating us from house and home, it looks like we are spending the other budgeted amounts on food each month, can this be upped to enable us to live...

I will contact my IP and see what they come up with.

If the bills are in the IVA, then you cannot make any payments outside of that.

Your IP will have to be informed of that amount of surplus.

As to your I&E, you need to tell them that you are not coping with the allowance and ask if you can keep some of the surplus towards that.

No,they won't ask for mortgage statements when doing your annual review.

You need to try and keep to your household budget for food and meticulously ensure that you do not overspend. It is difficult especially in the first few weeks - but I am sure you will soon be able to cope.

Again it seems that your I&E is too tight and given the choice of feeding your children or paying the utilities it is obvious which one you would choose. Speak to your IP and tell them that £140 savings is needed to address the shortfall in the original I&E and you cannot afford to pay any more. At least you will not run up more utility arrears and your monthly budget may actually be affordable.

Car servicing costs seem very low. £50 a month for 2 cars is not sufficent. For an annual service and MOT it may just suffice but how can you expect things not to go wrong over ther term of the IVA. 4 new tyres for my wife's car would cost £400.