IVA, Bankruptcy or something else!

MillyCat_2

Hi there - in 2009 I had a breakdown and haven't been able to work since. My husband set up a DMP through CCCS for us because we were getting deeper in debt. We paid £300 on a total debt of £30k for the first 10 months or so but had to reduce this when our mortgage fixed rate ended and our mortgage increased by £200 and when the Employment Support Agency decided to make me go to Tribunal to prove my illness, which in turn kept me at the standard sickness rate of £65 rather than £95. We reduced our CCCS payment down to £69 which CCCS explained they could only let run for 6 months as the payment was too low and wouldn't be paid back within a reasonable length of time. They said if things didn't improve then we may have to consider alternative options such as selling the house. Thankfully I won my case and my payments increased by £120 per month. However, by then electric, oil, diesel, food and just about everything else had gone up and we were not able to increase our payment. I have put off the review with CCCS as I know they are going to ask me to consider an alternative way of paying off our creditors. I'm not sleeping at night and just can't put this off any more. I am wondering whether it might be best for us to consider an IVA or even bankruptcy. I really don't want to sell the house (there's not that much equity in it anyway) as we have 2 young teenagers that don't deserve all the mess that's coming out of this debt which is our fault not theres. Any advice would be most welcome to help me make a decision. Thanks in advance.

FoggyBrain_2

Hi. Might I suggest that you pop over to https://www.iva.com where you will find a list of companies with reviews. Have a chat to a couple of them to discuss your options in full. It's free and impartial and will help you get your head around things.

MillyCat_2

Thanks for that suggestion I'll take a look at the site.

chirpychick

Hi,
I can't tell you what is best for you, but I can tell you what worked for us.
We also own our own home and we wouldn't even consider selling as rent where we live is just as much as a mortgage and we would never find anywhere that would take us on with our 3 dogs. For us this ruled out bankruptcy.
We contacted CCCS & Payplan. CCCS took 3 months to get back to us! Payplan the same day, we read through all of the information, spoke to various people and other debt management companies and decided to enter into an IVA, it meant we could keep our house and have our debts clear in 5 or 6 years time.
(It is 5 years if you can release equity at the end of the term or 6 years if you can't the latter is more likely for us).
It was hard work, we actually had to face up to the extent of our 65,000 debt!
I didnt sleep, it was very very stressful and hardwork.
We got approved in December last year.
It was a massive relief, it is still hard work every month as i now dont work compared to when we took out the IVA which has made it even harder. But the lessons i have learned have been life changing.
I wont recommend it as such but from my perspective this was the best thing for us. It does get easier but its not an easy option if that makes sense.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
1 word of warning from someone who has been there - dont put off speaking to cccs, the more you put it off the worse it gets.
if you need any advice or anything feel free to pm me. Im no expert but i have been there and understand how scary it is.