In an IVA & just found out I am pregnant!

lolastar

I wander if anyone can give me any advice I am in an iva with my husband it was all agreed in June this year. We have been paying it and everything is fine. Last week I found out I am pregnant! We are thrilled and it is our first child. What happens with IVA? Extra payments we will get? We are with Payplan and I am trying not to stress and worry as I am not at 12 weeks yet so should not be getting stressed. Any advice would be fab

Charco_2

First of all, congratulations! New baby - may i suggest not calling your child Ivan (boy) or Eva/Ivy (girl)!

As regards the changes to your lifestyle and therefore perhaps your affordable repayments, there's no need to panic just yet (or at all).

The first thing you'll need to do is sit down and re-think your Statement of Affairs (your Income and Expenditure - might be easier to do this WITH your IP). Work out whether or not you'll be able to afford monthly repayments and how much they may be. Then you'll be looking to speak to your IP about whether or not you can get a variation done to your proposal. This might involve re-working the numbers, extending your proposal by a year to make up the difference, or seeing if your creditors to have a heart... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha :rotfl:sorry, couldn't resist!

No big hurry, but the sooner you speak to your IP, the sooner you'll know if you can continue with the IVA, the less money you'll have spent on IP fees if you cannot continue, and of course if a variation is accepted the sooner you'll have that peace of mind.

Lastly, try not to let it worry you too much. Even when it seems terribly bleak there's always a solution. Sometimes the worse the situation, the easier the solution.

Good luck!

(Let us know how you've gotten on once you've spoken to payplan. If things go well it may be of help to someone else in your situation, if it doesn't go to plan then somebody might be able to suggect something else to you!)

Nick700

Good morning,

Congratulations!

Any extra payments you will receive such as child benefit and child tax credit are likely to be needed for the additional costs such as food and equipment for the baby. Therefore it is unlikely you will be asked to increase your IVA payments as a direct result of having the baby.

However, if your income will be reduced due to maternity leave, and therefore you will be unable to afford your current IVA payments, contact your Supervisor and they may be able to approach your creditors to allow you to reduce your payments in an IVA to a more affordable amount. Creditors tend to treat variations like this sympathetically if there is a genuine change in circumstances where you are not able to afford your payments.

Hope that helps.

Nick

shelene

I wouldnt panic i had my 2nd child - planned whilst in my IVA i certainly was not putting my plans for a family on hold due to the IVA.

Find out what ur creditors have agreed as the minimum payment throughout the term, and as suggested if this payment will be too high for your new family/maternity leave then you will need to ask for a meeting of creditors. Usually just as long as you can meet the minimum payment they arent generally bothered.

U get extra considerations too at your annual review - ie more expenditure due to baby which they take into account - child care costs, extra travel costs, nappies, milk, wipes, childrens activities, new clothes - first 2 years usually expensive due to needing clothes every 3-6 months!, pram etc i add it all cost up and divide into 12 with an paragraph explaining what the costs are for, christmas/birthdays - im with debt free direct and they were pretty good.

If you in ur first year though give them a ring after you do your new income/ expenditure and u would struggle with the minimum payments thay have accepted.


Keep all reciepts for purchases for little one though - i heard payplan like to know everything every month (dont know if this is true though)
Hope all goes well

lolastar

Thanks so much for my replys, that is all really helpful. I am trying not to worry about it all as have enough to worry about at the moment (getting to the all important 12 weeks!)

Will speak to payplan and see what they say

IVA_administrator

Hi and Congrats,

First thing I would do is contact your administrator and tell them the situation, then you will need to discuss with your employer as to your Maternity leave entitlement and find out exactly what money you will receive when. I would then recommend you go through what you need to buy with your partner and really look at what your financial requirements will be and when. Once you have established what period will be the toughest for you (usually when the Maternity Pay drops) then you can go back to your IP and ask them for a variation if required. I currently work on variations to the Arrangement and have personally never had a payment break due to Maternity rejected you will have to extend the Arrangement in order to cover any missed payments but at least you will have peace of mind through that difficult financial time. And hopefully it will also give you the opportunity to keep a little aside for the future expenses.
Personally I recommend at least around a six to eight month break for maternity, however discuss these things with your IP as they may have their own restrictions, for example we only offer a max of 12 month extension except in certain circumstances

Hope this Helps