What happens after bankruptcy when your circumstances improve?

Sandwich

Some very good advice in this thread. I just have one more issue that I'm unclear about.

I've read conflicting reports about how much of your extra income the OR will take if your circumstances improve while you're still paying into an IPO. Some websites say they will take all of your extra disposable income and others say they will only take around 50 to 70% of your extra disposable income. Does anybody know which it actually is?

tigerfeet2006

It's all of your disposable income. It used to be 50-70% but that changed 18 months ago, so some websites are VERY out of date.

foolishboy

Sandwich wrote: »

Some very good advice in this thread. I just have one more issue that I'm unclear about.

I've read conflicting reports about how much of your extra income the OR will take if your circumstances improve while you're still paying into an IPO. Some websites say they will take all of your extra disposable income and others say they will only take around 50 to 70% of your extra disposable income. Does anybody know which it actually is?

IIRC it used to be a sliding scale % wise of your surplus (regardless whether it was 'extra' compared to the originally agreed figures) but now it's 100% of your surplus - harsher than it used to be.

Plenty of people try to swerve the IPA (for obvious reasons), at least you were honest enough to ask the question and not dance around it :-)

FB

Edit: Beaten to it :-)

Sandwich

Ah, I see. Thanks for the information.

This raises a couple more questions though. Based on my current income, I don't actually have a disposable income surplus of more than £20 per month. So if I was to declare bankruptcy tomorrow, am I right in saying that I wouldn't have to pay into an IPO?

Also, how is my income calculated as far as the OR is concerned? E.g. do they just take your last few months' worth of pay cheques?

And lastly, what happens if there is an actual deficit (i.e. if my necessary expenditure on things like rent, utilities, etc exceeds my income)? Am I refused bankruptcy, or would the OR just tell me to reduce my expenditure somehow?

foolishboy

Sandwich wrote: »

Ah, I see. Thanks for the information.

This raises a couple more questions though. Based on my current income, I don't actually have a disposable income surplus of more than £20 per month. So if I was to declare bankruptcy tomorrow, am I right in saying that I wouldn't have to pay into an IPO?

Also, how is my income calculated as far as the OR is concerned? E.g. do they just take your last few months' worth of pay cheques?

And lastly, what happens if there is an actual deficit (i.e. if my necessary expenditure on things like rent, utilities, etc exceeds my income)? Am I refused bankruptcy, or would the OR just tell me to reduce my expenditure somehow?

How do you arrive at the £20? I'm assuming you've removed debt obligations from those figures as of course they won't exist once you're BR.

If your SOA checks out and you really don't have > £20 then you would not currently have an IPA set up for you. If things stay like that until discharge then you are done. If things change you have to inform the OR and resubmit figures .. if they find you then cross the threshold then they can set you up and your 3 year IPA begins.

If you're still insolvent without the debt obligations then I'm not sure what they do with you to be honest - you would have to make lifestyle changes in that instance.

Posting your SOA here for people to check would be a wise thing to do, need to know if it's realistic before you get a decent idea of whether you'll get the IPA or not.

HTH
FB

PS: I was made BR in 2008 so I have some experience of this, although the surplus system was kinder back then.