Income increase of £225, IPA increase of £374!!

Rosey321

Ok, so I sent a letter to them a couple of weeks ago asking them to review the figures and stating that surely by working more hours, we shouldn't be a couple of hundred pounds a month worse off?
A week had passed without anything and I was worried that the letter may not have arrived and I would get ticked off for not returning my revised IPA. Therefore, I also sent an e-mail earlier this week attaching a copy of my letter and workings out. I sent it to the RTLU and to the original OR office so I knew that they would know I was making an effort to resolve this.

So today, got home from work to find a letter stating that they are sticking to their guns and that 'due to the increase in the households' monthly income, the percentage of disposal income has risen from 66% to 70%. I can appreciate your cause for concern and also your query why it appears that the rise in the household income does not reflect the increase of both IPAs, but I can assure you that this amount has been agreed with my manager'

So there we have it. I'm stunned. What is the incentive to work more hours and aim for promotions etc? I knew most of our additional income would be swallowed but I thought we would get a bit extra which would be nice.
Instead, my wife is working longer hours and we are going to be £200 worse off each month.
It doesn't make much sense when your only incentive to make more money is to drop your hours again. My wife couldn't just drop her hours anyway as she is a teacher and wouldn't just disrupt the year.
I'm just finishing a qualification and was hoping to go up the career ladder a bit more this year too but suddenly I don't feel so inclined to spend my evenings studying anymore and I'm sure my wife's desire to spend all her evenings marking books will drop as well.

Sorry to have a vent but aaaaaaaaahh!! - where's the logic????.

DON79

sorry to hear that rosey321. I don't know how they see the logic in this. But like Fermi said, you can challenge it further as if you do not agree to it, they must take it to the court to have the figures checked and justify why they want the increase before a judge. Do you feel you can fight on?

LilyBart

Sorry Rosey, what a mess! Of course you should keep on studying. However this turns out, it's only 36 months, and a career is a career. It really does seem unjust though, and I'm surprised at how briskly they've dismissed your objections. I guess it's just a question of whether you're prepared to take it all the way to the judge, and whether the OR is calling your bluff.
Lily

peachyprice

Bit of a long shot Rosey, but as they no longer seem to be treating your household income collectively do you think it might be worth asking for a review on your own IPA based on the fact that your OH can no longer contribute as much to the household because they are robbing off her.

Have you had a play with the calculator to see if it has been calculated correctly? Might also help to see if yours can be reduced. This is what they actually fill in to work out your IPA

http://bankruptcysupportersclub.com/images/Income%20payment%20Calculator%20final%20nov%2006.xls

LilyBart

Peachy, you're a genius.

blind-as-a-bat_2

Did they supply a breakdown how they reached that discision?

Whether they believe its right or wrong, i would want to check it myself;)

Rosey321

Thanks all for input.

Peachy - that spreadsheet looks amazing so I'm going to have a go of that tonight!!
Lily - yes, I'll keep the study up. As you say, it is only three years and in the 'grand scheme' of things I still never lose sight of the debt that we left behind so in that sense, I will always remain with a positive attitude (despite the tone of my last posting). This will be the first New Year in years where I will feel like we are going in the right direction.

I might try one more bit of bargaining. I think the 66% to 70% quote is a bit of a smokescreen. That would mean an IPA raise of £4 for every £100 disposal income that we have which would suggest we have thousands of disposal income (oh if only!)
Also a good point by Peachy in that our IPOQ suggested that we previously paid £325 each, but have they for example changed my the IPA and bits on my IPOQ properly having raised OH's IPA etc??

My last plea might even be to suggest that as the raise in IPA was as high as it was, and something we could never have budgeted for, the 'current logic' in this instance discourages us from earning any more and furthering ourselves. The same logic therefore would suggest my wife would surely only have to go back to part time in order for the previous IPA figure to be reinstated. This would create more money for us and put less in the kitty.

I'm sure they would be keen to avoid that so as a bargaining tool, maybe I could suggest that they take 100% of my wife's latest pay rise, therefore not leaving us any more out of pocket for her going full time, whilst also discouraging us from lowering our earnings and returning to our former state. I think you can't say fairer than offering 100% of the increase!! Or am I being a little optimistic...?

Anyway, I'm off to try Peachy's spreadsheet.

fermi

Rosey321 wrote: »

but I can assure you that this amount has been agreed with my manager'

This is the Civil Service here.

That probably means their manager signed it off without looking at it properly, and this person would now rather they don't look at it more closely.:rolleyes:

Call me cynical, but..........

Rosey321

OK, I've tried Peachy's spreadsheet and I think this might boil down to one factor now!

This is...should other halves IPA payments be included in the calculation or not?
Without including them, the figures are pretty damn close to the proposed amounts given to me recently by the OR.
However, by including them in the calc, a more realistic figure of what I thought would be calculated came out. My wife's went up by about £170 instead of the £276 extra that she has been quoted. Mine actually went down by £40 after typing her new salary and new IPA figure in as I guess it would do due to the negative values! That would mean a household rise of about £130 on the £225 declared rather than a rise of £374!!!!

So, would this be an inclusive factor? After all, an other half's IPA is a household expense and they are certainly keen enough to include other household income. I couldn't see anywhere on the spreadsheet to include IPAs for OHs, so I added it as a negative amount on the 'monthly income - other sources' spreadsheet.

Fermi - interesting theory you have there, especially plausible as I had to chase him for a reply to my letter when it is normally them who would do the chasing!! Maybe he saw my letter, realised what he had done and has been sitting tight hoping for my signed agreement to come back!!

chelseabun_3

Hi Rosey,

I haven't got anything useful to add, unfortunately, just wanted to say I hope this gets sorted for you. What you've calculated in the post above seems to make far more sense to me! CBx