IVA - Bonus paid - clarification on ambiguous wording

hoagie

HI All,

There are various posts surrounding bonuses etc but most people talk about their bonus in terms of monthly pay.

My girlfriends IVA states the following:

"Where at any time during the arrangement, I receive any overtime, bonus or commission payment from my employer which was not included in the original surplus income calculation, and if this sum exceeds 10% of my normal take home pay then I shall disclose the receipt of such monies to my Supervisor within 14 days of receipt and pay 50% of the amount over and above the 10% to my Supervisor...."

She has just been given a bonus in February's pay cheque which is 8% of her annual gross salary. The text above is slightly ambiguous, does "normal take home pay" refer to her monthly net salary or her yearly net salary?

I hope it refers to her yearly amount, if so, it would obviously be less than 10%, if it refers to her monthly net monies then she will need to pay some back.

Any clarification????

Thaks

Ben

anniecave

It says normal take home pay so it's 10% of monthly (if paid monthly) - 8% of annual pay at once is a lot - that's like double the usual amount of pay in a month - well done to your gf!

which means money to be paid - sorry!

hoagie

Hi Anniecave,

By the end of yesterday I was leaning towards that as all references to pay in the contract describes her monthly amount and not her yearly figure.

We are moving so we have move costs and indeed higher rental and she has taken a new job paying more so should be able to off-set the bonus against the cost of moving. The higher cost of living and rent of living in London swallows up her increase in salary so all in all she doesn't have any more disposable income to give back to the creditors.

Thanks,

Not_so_wise_one

It is meant to be anything over and above the disclosed income and expenditure. This 8% is classed as a bonus and as such should be partially paid over to your creditors. However, speak to your IP, explain the situation and see what they say. If you just decided to keep it and not pay the extra, then you may find that when they review payslips etc, they spot the difference and ask for it to be paid to them. Always best to check