Family Planning in an IVA

DragonKeeper360

Morning Folks,

As stated in a recent post, my wife and I are in the early stages of IVA application (our courier collected the required paperwork on Tuesday).

We've made some radical changes to our lifestyle and approach to money in the past month, including the ceremonious cutting of the cards... that felt like a re-birth! We've set up a clean bank account and have a propper household budget in place, which for the first time in my life, includes provision to cover 'unexpected' bills, and annual things like car tax. Ive also made allowance for an IVA payment built in, so once (hopefully) its in place, the new 'bill' won't be a shock. We now draw 'cash' out of the bank and spend real money at the tills, we've agreed with ourselves to not even use a debit card, as I'm of the opinion that that was the root of all our evil. (its easy to spend a couple of quid on a debit for your lunch, but those couple of quids add up, before you know it the monthly statement comes and you're overdrawn.... time to borrow)

So, my question...

We were married in Feb 2008, and had a sort of 'plan' that we would start a family after 5 years of marriage. Numerous reasons for this, we wanted to be sure the marriage was 'sound' before bringing a child into the equation, and I wanted to get us out of debt before we had the added expense of kids (look how well I managed that one!)

What will happen in the future re our IVA when we have a kid/kids? Are we expected to simply manage, or will the IVA be adjusted to make allowances for child care, nappies, stress counselling (joke) etc?

Thanks in advance for your replies, I think i'd be in a much more fragile mental state if it wasn't for the advice recieved here, or the wealth of information to read through.

DK

FoggyBrain_2

HI, DK, many people have babies whilst in an IVA --- five years is a long time to wait to start a family. Hopefully you have a supposrtive IP, who will carry out a new I&E at the time. They can reduce payments by up to 15% over the term, without going back to the creditors. They can also agree a payment break ( which will be added to the end of the term, to allow you to pay for essentials like cots, pushchairs etc.

As said before, there's lots of help and support over at https://www.iva.co.uk and IPs post there, so well worth canvassing opinion there too.

Best of luck.

choclover87

Hi, I took out IVA nearly 5 yrs ago (nearly at the end...) and asked at that time what would happen if I fell pregnant. I was told in no uncertain terms that if that was the case and I couldn't meet the payment, that the IVA would fail.
HOWEVER - I asked the same question more recently and was told that I would be allowed a 6 month payment break, to be added to the end of the IVA term. When I asked why I was advised differently at the start, they said that it was just to ensure that I didn't do it on purpose straight away, and after my creditors could see I was serious and paid in for a couple of years then they would be fine with taking the payment break.
As it happens, I haven't got pregnant (nor tried!) but I was curious to know the 'what if' scenario.

BTW - you may have made a budget plan, but the IVA may well dictate different figures, so be warned to keep an open mind and be prepared to haggle! (eg our elec bill was much higher as heating had broken and only had elec heaters, but there was a max allowed per month, but we were given an allowance for things we didn't even have like pets! - so there were swings and roundabouts within the budget planner. You are not allowed to buy christmas presents etc etc within their plan, so you have to 'find' the money within the budget elsewhere. If you are allowed an 'allowance' for something, then ask for the maximum allowed....)
I hope this all helps!