Saving for overseas trips while bankrupt

023456789

Hi all

I have an issue rattling around in my head with regards going bankrupt.

How flexible is the OR in regards personal family travels overseas? Especially saving up for them.

My wife is american and as such the flights for the family work out to be around £2000. Would the OR be understanding enough to allow such a level of savings going on or would they say that money should be going into an IPA?

Although with out current income / expenditure it makes that level of savings hard anyway I still need to look at this issue.

tubby210

023456789 wrote: »

Hi all

I have an issue rattling around in my head with regards going bankrupt.

How flexible is the OR in regards personal family travels overseas? Especially saving up for them.

My wife is american and as such the flights for the family work out to be around £2000. Would the OR be understanding enough to allow such a level of savings going on or would they say that money should be going into an IPA?

Although with out current income / expenditure it makes that level of savings hard anyway I still need to look at this issue.

you should be paying off your debts before you go on holiday

MikeJO

tubby210 wrote: »

you should be paying off your debts before you go on holiday

If you're bankrupt you don't have any debts.

Once you've agreed your SOA with the OR and are paying (or not) an IPA what you do with the money you have left is your own business I think.

So if you can budget well and save for a holiday or family trip I see no problem with it.

I did it myself.

Action_Jackson

If you have more than £20 disposable income per month, then an IPA would take 100% of of it for 3 years, so not much left to save for an expensive holdiay under normal circumstances.

However, each case is treated on it's own merits, so you might get some flexibility if it is to visit family. Of course, if only one of you is going BR, there is nothing stopping the non-BR paying for anything.

TheGardener

Although its not in the same league in terms of cost - I was allowed extra petrol money to visit my very elderly parents once a month (Its two hundred miles round trip. I help with some domestic stuff while I'm there - cleaning, gardening, the sort of help that they don't need doing every day but needs staying on top of).

The OR might allow an allowance to save for emergency/compassionate flights just for your wife in case the parents are very elderly and/or fall seriously ill perhaps? but otherwise I would say it would be quite hard to make a case for that level of savings over one year - if your IPA is for 3 years, then you might be able to do it. If you are paying an IPA - if there was an emergency, then your OR might just tell you to ask for your IPA to be suspended/reduced for a while to cover the cost of a flight for your wife if such an emergency happened.

The IPA is an agreement/negotiation on what is reasonable for you - it will depend on how you argue your case and how your OR views it. If you are talking about a family holiday then I would think your chances are slim.

tigerfeet2006

You will most likely be allowed a small amount for a family holiday in the UK. Not a lot but every little helps. If you can then juggle the rest of your money you may be able afford to go

dojoman

Action_Jackson wrote: »

If you have more than £20 disposable income per month, then an IPA would take 100% of of it for 3 years, so not much left to save for an expensive holdiay under normal circumstances.

However, each case is treated on it's own merits, so you might get some flexibility if it is to visit family. Of course, if only one of you is going BR, there is nothing stopping the non-BR paying for anything.[/QUOTE/]

That is wrong , they now take any surplus amount that you have.

alastairq

That is wrong , they now take any surplus amount that you have.

When did the rules change again?

As I understand it, last week the rules were....one could have a surplus up to £20...but anything over resulted in an IPA being sought......the IPA being for the total amount of surplus [not...as I suspect has been read, any surplus over £20?}??

Action_Jackson

dojoman wrote: »

Action_Jackson wrote: »

If you have more than £20 disposable income per month, then an IPA would take 100% of of it for 3 years, so not much left to save for an expensive holdiay under normal circumstances.

However, each case is treated on it's own merits, so you might get some flexibility if it is to visit family. Of course, if only one of you is going BR, there is nothing stopping the non-BR paying for anything.[/QUOTE/]

That is wrong , they now take any surplus amount that you have.

Yes, they do collect 100%, but only after you have passed a £20 threshold:

From the OR Technical Guide:
http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/casehelpmanual/I/IPA%20(ISCIS).htm

From 1 December 2010 in all new IPAs, where the bankrupt’s surplus income is £20 or more, official receivers will seek the full amount of any surplus income , by way of monthly payments under an IPA (or an IPO if an IPA cannot be agreed).

To me, this implies that if you have a £19 surplus, you would keep it, but if you have £20 or more, they would collect all of it. I presume this is down to the fact that the costs of collection are not worth it for amounts less than £20.

dojoman

Action_Jackson wrote: »

dojoman wrote: »

Yes, they do collect 100%, but only after you have passed a £20 threshold:

From the OR Technical Guide:
http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/casehelpmanual/I/IPA%20(ISCIS).htm

From 1 December 2010 in all new IPAs, where the bankrupt’s surplus income is £20 or more, official receivers will seek the full amount of any surplus income , by way of monthly payments under an IPA (or an IPO if an IPA cannot be agreed).

To me, this implies that if you have a £19 surplus, you would keep it, but if you have £20 or more, they would collect all of it. I presume this is down to the fact that the costs of collection are not worth it for amounts less than £20.

My humble apologies you are indeed correct, I thought they had implemented the changes to have parity with an IVA, however this is not the case, good job this forum is self "policing" :o:o

Copied from the IS website,
Is there a minimum amount that can be paid under an IPA or IPO?
The official receiver will only ask for an IPA or IPO if you can make a minimum payment of £20 per month. Where the payment would be below this amount the cost of collecting the payments would be more than the payments made. - See more at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/income-payments-orders-and-agreements#6