IVA Approved But Will They now take ALL maternity pay?

getdebtfree

Hi all

Well as most of you know my IVA was approved, this was based on my income at the time, and I started the process back in October.

Now I already have had changes to income and tax credits plus more expenditure so things are even tighter.

Now my wife just started receiving maternity pay a month before our IVA was approved. We didnt know we was intitled to it but applied anyway.

So now my worry is will the IVA company take all that maternity pay?

At the time of our income and expenditure we was bringing in 2044 a month...

Now we are bringing in

1892 a month...

Our IVA payment is £100 a month but that was worked out when we were bringing in 2044 a month.

My wife is now going to get £534 a month extra for nine months of course we expect to pay 100 - 200 quid extra a month but will they want ALL of it??

Be handy to be able to buy some baby stuff with it, and maybe live a little better for nine months.

I was told on here that any extra income you keep 10%, then the rest over that you share 50/50.

So if I was now only bringing in 1892 a month which is already £152 less a month than our original expenditure.

Will we say keep £152 a month of my wifes extra £534 a month maternity?

Then give half of the rest to the IVA company?

Just trying to get an idea as its taking ages to get an answer from the IVA compnay.

Hope someone can give me an idea cheers in advance.

UpToMyNeckInIt

Firstly, congratulations on the impending birth of your child.

I recall from your earlier posts that the IVA in your name only, (ie: not 'interlocking' for both your & your wife's debts), and that you are with GT.

If the IVA is in your name only, then your Wife's additional income is irrelevant, although it may be taken into account when looking at overall affordability, but should not be affected by the 10/50/50 rule (one of the benefits of not interlocking if you can avoid it). In which case, you should advise your IP ASAP. Many protocol-compliant IVAs, (which I believe Stepchange / GT's are), allow the IP to reduce payments by up to 15% without calling a variation meeting. One would hope that your payment could be reduced, to reflect your lower income projection. My only cautionary advice is to enquire if this will result in the IVA term being extended.

Saying all that, do you do any regular overtime? If your income varies slightly Month to Month, could you leave it until your first review?

Good luck.

getdebtfree

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

Firstly, congratulations on the impending birth of your child.

I recall from your earlier posts that the IVA in your name only, (ie: not 'interlocking' for both your & your wife's debts), and that you are with GT.

If the IVA is in your name only, then your Wife's additional income is irrelevant, although it may be taken into account when looking at overall affordability, but should not be affected by the 10/50/50 rule (one of the benefits of not interlocking if you can avoid it). In which case, you should advise your IP ASAP. Many protocol-compliant IVAs, (which I believe Stepchange / GT's are), allow the IP to reduce payments by up to 15% without calling a variation meeting. One would hope that your payment could be reduced, to reflect your lower income projection. My only cautionary advice is to enquire if this will result in the IVA term being extended.

Saying all that, do you do any regular overtime? If your income varies slightly Month to Month, could you leave it until your first review?

Good luck.

Thanks for the congrats and your advice as always...

Oh our IVA is joint, it was just most of the debt was mine but the wife still had to enter into the IVA with me because of a small joint debt.

Out of the 26k we owed she only owed 3k in her own name. Well it was all our debt just only applied for in my name.

We are with GT

Its my wifes maternity money we would like to get some of this extra money would be most helpful.

I thought this 10/50/50 rule just applied.

We just thought a lot of this extra money may be absorbed as we were well within our allowance thresholds in the first place.

They have asked for when the allowance started and when it ends and how much.

We were just hoping that we would be able to make use of some of this money for the baby.

Thanks as always

UpToMyNeckInIt

Hi,

In that case you may be right - the 10/50/50 rule may apply (presumably only to the joint net income of £382 though). However, how long are your Wife's payments due to last? Glad to see GT asking about the duration of this enhanced payment. Clearly if it is temporary, then so should any increased IVA payment be.

However, I would encourage you to fight you corner on this one. As you know, an extra child is extra expense, and you could argue that this payment will be required in its entirety to be retained by you for 'baby stuff'.

Good luck.

getdebtfree

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

Hi,

In that case you may be right - the 10/50/50 rule may apply (presumably only to the joint net income of £382 though). However, how long are your Wife's payments due to last? Glad to see GT asking about the duration of this enhanced payment. Clearly if it is temporary, then so should any increased IVA payment be.

However, I would encourage you to fight you corner on this one. As you know, an extra child is extra expense, and you could argue that this payment will be required in its entirety to be retained by you for 'baby stuff'.

Good luck.

Hey

Yeah I have given them details but they are taking forever to get back to me. Plus they have not asked about extra expenditure, regarding baby stuff plus my already reduced income.

£534 is quite a lot extra I guess since our IVA application, but with reduced income and extra things to pay for it would be nice to receive extra income.

Its only for nine months the maternity, we have already spoent a whole months worth before IVA was approved really worried have to pay some of that to.

I was hoping there was someone on here with the same experience to enlighten us.

I tried joining that other IVA forum you mentioned but it just will not take the authentification code.

Cheers

rabbit_burrow

Don't look at it as 'an extra £534', as you have said that your income is lower than the original declared income, the extra amount should only be reviewed as £382 (as that is the amount over the original income)

I haven't done it myself as didn't get more money than I originally earned when I went on maternity, but you could try this:

As a pregnant woman, you could argue that the food expenses be increased by, say, £45 per month, the clothing allowance be increased by £30 per month (for maternity clothes and bras). This takes your residual amount to £307 pcm.

You could argue that you need an extra £125 in your contingency allowance due to baby essentials (a total of £1000 for the remaining 8 months of payments - the payment you used before your iva was agreed should not be counted, only income received during the actual iva term should be counted). You may be able to argue for more, but baby essentials shouldn't be more than that really (yes, we could spends thousands really, but they will only allow for the essentials, at low prices rather than the latest maxi-cosi car seat or the best pram out there). This takes you down to £182 pcm.

You will also need extra transportation for those midwife checs and scans. So allow £10 for fuel/bus fares. Now you're at £172 pcm.

Now if they allow you to apply the 50/50 after all that, you may only need to pay an extra £86 pcm.

If there are other expenses that you need to allow for, then include them too.


As I said before, I don't know for sure as I haven't done it, but it seems reasonable to argue any extra expenditure incurred against any extra income received. And only allow for the amount that is on top of your original proposal amount, not on the payment that you wife is getting.

Congratulations on the wonderful news. :beer:

getdebtfree

rabbit_burrow wrote: »

Don't look at it as 'an extra £534', as you have said that your income is lower than the original declared income, the extra amount should only be reviewed as £382 (as that is the amount over the original income)

I haven't done it myself as didn't get more money than I originally earned when I went on maternity, but you could try this:

As a pregnant woman, you could argue that the food expenses be increased by, say, £45 per month, the clothing allowance be increased by £30 per month (for maternity clothes and bras). This takes your residual amount to £307 pcm.

You could argue that you need an extra £125 in your contingency allowance due to baby essentials (a total of £1000 for the remaining 8 months of payments - the payment you used before your iva was agreed should not be counted, only income received during the actual iva term should be counted). You may be able to argue for more, but baby essentials shouldn't be more than that really (yes, we could spends thousands really, but they will only allow for the essentials, at low prices rather than the latest maxi-cosi car seat or the best pram out there). This takes you down to £182 pcm.

You will also need extra transportation for those midwife checs and scans. So allow £10 for fuel/bus fares. Now you're at £172 pcm.

Now if they allow you to apply the 50/50 after all that, you may only need to pay an extra £86 pcm.

If there are other expenses that you need to allow for, then include them too.


As I said before, I don't know for sure as I haven't done it, but it seems reasonable to argue any extra expenditure incurred against any extra income received. And only allow for the amount that is on top of your original proposal amount, not on the payment that you wife is getting.

Congratulations on the wonderful news. :beer:

Thats a great reply thanks for the congrats,

I phoned GT and it does not come under the 10/50/50 rule as its classed as extra income

I have written out a long 4 page essay of figures and extra expenditures plus a page of baby stuff.

I just have to see what they come back with.

In my original IVA agreement I pay £100 a month at only 10p in the £.

Although im getting another 500 quid a month, because of expenditure I worked out that I would be paying them £250 a month for nine months.

It remains to be seen, as my original expenditures were well within average and below the usual spend.

We will be a family of 6 on just a postie wage and tax credits.

I thought we were gonna get at least half the money as per the 10/50/50 rule, so we started buying baby stuff plus paid off a family member.

Now we are worried GT will want most of it.

The worry never ends eh!!!

Marcus

UpToMyNeckInIt

Hi Marcus,

Sounds like you are dealing with a total idiot of a case worker. (Not the first time I have heard of such idiotic advice to an IVA customer sadly).

I am fairly certain that you are in a 'Protocol Compliant' IVA, and therefore your assertion re: the 10/50/50 rule appears quite reasonable (as is rabbit_burrow's subsequent advice).

Para. 10.4 of the protocol states that:

'...the debtor must report any overtime, bonus, commission or similar to the supervisor if not included in the original surplus calculation, where the sum exceeds 10% of the debtor’s normal take home pay. Disclosure to the supervisor will be made within 14 days of receipt and 50% of the amount (over and above the 10%) shall be paid to the supervisor...'

I would guess that the above, which is clear as day in my book, almost word-for-word will be in your IVA agreement.

So, you have done the right thing, advising GT of your temporary additional income, and they now want to welch on the contract, before the ink is dry.

Do persist, with your complaint, and demand that, as is your right, the actual IP, not some case worker, looks into this matter.

If they are still insisting on taking 100% of the additional income, ask for that to be put in writing, with an explanation of why they can run rough-shod over the IVA protocol, (particularly when you can justify the additional expenditure) so that you can forward this to the IP's regulatory body when you make a formal complaint. (Which in turn should be your next consideration).

You have my sympathy, it's the last thing you need 5 Minutes into an IVA with the imminent arrival of the new baby (if it's a boy, I bet you won't name him 'Grant' ).

Good luck.

getdebtfree

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

Hi Marcus,

Sounds like you are dealing with a total idiot of a case worker. (Not the first time I have heard of such idiotic advice to an IVA customer sadly).

I am fairly certain that you are in a 'Protocol Compliant' IVA, and therefore your assertion re: the 10/50/50 rule appears quite reasonable (as is rabbit_burrow's subsequent advice).

Para. 10.4 of the protocol states that:

'...the debtor must report any overtime, bonus, commission or similar to the supervisor if not included in the original surplus calculation, where the sum exceeds 10% of the debtor’s normal take home pay. Disclosure to the supervisor will be made within 14 days of receipt and 50% of the amount (over and above the 10%) shall be paid to the supervisor...'

I would guess that the above, which is clear as day in my book, almost word-for-word will be in your IVA agreement.

So, you have done the right thing, advising GT of your temporary additional income, and they now want to welch on the contract, before the ink is dry.

Do persist, with your complaint, and demand that, as is your right, the actual IP, not some case worker, looks into this matter.

If they are still insisting on taking 100% of the additional income, ask for that to be put in writing, with an explanation of why they can run rough-shod over the IVA protocol, (particularly when you can justify the additional expenditure) so that you can forward this to the IP's regulatory body when you make a formal complaint. (Which in turn should be your next consideration).

You have my sympathy, it's the last thing you need 5 Minutes into an IVA with the imminent arrival of the new baby (if it's a boy, I bet you won't name him 'Grant' ).

Good luck.

Hey

They have told me it counts as an extra income

I hope that works out better then the 10/50/50 rule

I wrote out a 5 page essay, on how my circumstances have changed already. Plus all the baby stuff we need, just waiting now.

Its just that when our IVA was in its first stages we had to lower certain expenditures, and played around with the figures just to give us a surplus to have enough for an IVA payment.

I wish we had this maternity pay before we applied to go into an IVA, it would of made things easier.

We pay £100 a month now

With all the changes with expenditure, we was thinking our new payment would be no more than £250 a month.

Thats more than double our existing payment.

They also have not asked for my payslips or given me a new expenditure sheet. what they gonna do just guess a new monthly payment?

we cant spend anything as we dont know what they are gonna take, money is tight and we need stuff for our baby.

oh well just have to wait.

Cheers

getdebtfree

I was going to say our IVA company have been fantastic, its just they are not so clear on things after the approval.

FiatFan_2

Congrats on the pregnancy

Is the maternity allowance included in the 1892 or is it 1892+534?