Annual review shows massive defecit

Sparx71

I have been in an IVA for a year.It helped me out immensely. My annual review has just been done, and due to losing my last job and finding a lower paid one, my monthly defecit between income and expenditure is now showing as £303.
I pay £271 per month into my IVA for a £16k debt.
How Im managing this I dont know, but should I ask my IVA company to lower my payments?
Or am I actually able to? How flexible are these things.?

fiveyearplan

It doesn't hurt to ask.

Charco_2

Of course you can ask but the question I'd be asking is:

If you have a deficit in your I&E then how could you renegotiate to pay anything at all!?
Or do you mean that your contributions were £803 and you'd like them to come down to £500

Sparx71

My contribution is £271, which is fine.
However, on their review, my income/expenditure, including my contribution, was -£303 per month.Which, by my reckoning, means I am already £32 a month down, before I have to pay them.
How can a company helping with debt, allow me to overspend by £303 per month.?

Charco_2

Obviously this can't be allowed to continue, but you have to look now and see is there some way of salvaging this or should you cut your losses.

Thinking about it, I'm surprised you had an IVA in the first place (and I'm not one of the IVA Bashers on these sites). Contributions of £300 a month for five years is £18,000 which would have meant you could have paid your debts in full if your creditors woud have held interest for you! However that's an aside for now!

Now obviuosly it happened due to a change in jobs and you're now on less pay but you DEFINITELY need to discuss this with your IP. Options available are:

1. Fail IVA - my advice would be to keep this as your LAST option!
2. Seek overtime or a part-time job on top of your own - £300 a month would be 15 hours more a week? (Give or take). Not particularly something i would recommend either.
3. Seek some sort of mid-ground with your IP - are there areas of your I&E that can be cut back in one way or another? Food bills reduced. Mobile Phones. Sky/Internet... if you were able to save up to £180 a month you could approach your creditors with a new offer of maybe £150. This would require a creditors meeting again. Your dividend will fall but you'll still have the protection of your IVA and your creditors might agree to it because of the change in your circumstances.
4. Would you be able to ask a friend or family member for a loan - A lump sum offer of £3,000 or £4,000might be acceptable to you creditors due to your change in circumstances and would see you IVA end successfully in a few months time. Your debts would be dealt with and you could repay your friend/family.

Personally I would concentrate on options 3 and 4 before contemplating the others!