IVA? Be very wary!

Richard_Carver

Tixy wrote: »

That is a discussion that often debated.
But it isn't to do with your IVA, it is to do with how the goverment and student finance currently operate.

But within the IVA process the Government doesn't allow for expenditure to support students whatever the household income.

And within the Student Finance system the Government expects the household income to support/subsidise the student.

If you have been honest within the IVA process you will have little disposable income, whatever you earn. Surplus repays creditors.

If you have an IVA and a decent income your children will receive inadequate University funding.

If you have an IVA and a low income your children will receive a adequate University funding.

Don't you feel that it would be fair for the IVA to consider Student Finance and/or Student Finance to consider the IVA?

As usual people not personally affected don't consider the issues for those that are.

Richard_Carver

DorisTrousers wrote: »

"Actually the Government set the guidelines/limits and categories for allowable expense with the IVA process. The expenses to feed, clothe and support a 20yr old child is NOT allowable, even though as a full-time student they receive no income benefits and the parents no get no child benefit support."


Categorically wrong. The legislation that allows an IVA to exist is of course set by the powers that be, but the calculation of disposable income isn't. IVA payment is set by income minus reasonable and essential expenditure. The guidelines that creditor voting representatives, and therefore by logical extension IP's, use to achieve the disposable income figure are typically those set by CCCS/Stepchange debt charity.

So you are categorically saying that the cost of University accommodation rental and living costs (food, clothing, travel and course materials) for my 20 year daughter are reasonable and essential expenditure allowable against my household income and I can challenge my IVA repayment agreement upon that basis?

Richard_Carver

longtermplanner wrote: »

I am so sorry your IVA is proving such a disaster. 5 years is a very long time to live on a restricted budget and it sounds as though yours was drawn up too tightly at the start.

How long is it until your IVA completes?

June 2017

The IVA itself is fine and I am grateful for the process....

apart from the fact that it leaves us unable to support my Daughter in university.

If the Student Finance loan system was discriminatory and treated all students the same, or if it were was calculated upon the parents disposable income rather than total household income, then things would be fair and lot better.

The difference between my daughter receiving enough funding to attend University, or not.

lulu_92

Richard_Carver wrote: »

Peoples situations differ.

It is possible that your Mother had a lower household income than us.

Despite this, due to the IVA, we (us and your mum) will probably be left with the same disposable income.


However, my daughter is offered the minimum Student Finance package.

She is not offered enough of a loan to cover accommodation or any living costs.

Was this the same for you and your sister?

Did your mother pay for 30% of your accommodation cost and fund ALL of your living costs?

If my daughter was offered the same financial package that you were given, then she would be able to enjoy the same privileges that Student Finance afforded to you and your sister.

I was offered the absolute minimum from Student Finance as well.

I lived at home and worked my way through uni and my mum (and stepdad) funded pretty much all of my living costs (I paid for bus fare)

When her IVA ended her and my stepdad saved up like mad and gave me and my sister a couple of grand each to put towards our futures.

Richard_Carver

dogsrock wrote: »

Hi.

I can totally empathise with your situation, I am in exactly the same boat but a single parent. My IVA is in the process of failing for this very reason. My son is just finishing his second year at Uni, I have only managed to fund him by working a huge amount of overtime, which due to health issues I can no longer sustain.
I have been in my IVA for 3 and a half years but that will all have been for nothing and do you know what? I don't even care. I am a mother first and notwithstanding having to live frugally (what my kids call 'austerity measures') I will not have their future opportunities hampered by my financial circumstances.
My daughter will be starting at Uni next year and I will help her as much as I can too. Sorry creditors, you can have every penny you lent me back but not at the expense of my kids fulfilling their potential.
I am hoping to do a self managed DMP and will probably be paying it til the day I die but it will have been worth it. The people that matter most in the world to me come first, money-lenders are not going to cost them their future.
I think the IVA companies are keeping deliberately tight-lipped about this type of scenario, all they care about is their fee.
I'm not advising anyone to follow my course of action, at this point I have very little left to lose but my kids will have their education/decent food/roof over their heads if it kills me.
Good luck with your daughter and well done for raising the issue, the more people who are aware the better.

I guess you have to be in this situation to appreciate it. My IVA is directly affecting the entire outcome of my daughters life and she is a 20 year old adult in her own right.

I am devastated, I feel so disillusioned with my life, my country, my government.

I've paid tax since I was aged 16; I spent years in the army.In the 80's the Falklands took my innocence; Ireland took my soul. In this century, Iraq took my hearing, the sight in my left eye and use of my left arm. In civilian life I worked six days a week and 12 hours a day and lost everything due to failed business venture in 2008. Now I work two jobs during the week and deliver pizzas at night to repay my bank.

But this is not about me, I don't expect or seek sympathy of any kind.

I just desperately wish for my daughter to be treated the same by this Government as other peoples sons and daughters.

If I'd just arrived from Poland or was incarcerated in prison or had never worked, then my 20 year old daughter would be fully funded in her University course.

Because my wife and I work double shifts to repay our debts and pay the taxman, my daughter is not offered adequate (the same) funding as she would in scenarios above. Because the IVA restricts our disposable income we cannot subsidise our daughter University education to the extent required.

This is not directly about me, this about my 20 year old daughter, deprived by this Government of the opportunities that other 20 year old sons and daughters are readily offered... because of me.

DorisTrousers

Richard_Carver wrote: »

So you are categorically saying that the cost of University accommodation rental and living costs (food, clothing, travel and course materials) for my 20 year daughter are reasonable and essential expenditure allowable against my household income and I can challenge my IVA repayment agreement upon that basis?

No, not at all. Your daughter is 20 and could reasonably, by your creditors at least, be expected to support herself, even if only through part time work. If they were reasonable costs, and I do sympathise by the way, I have kids coming to university age soon myself, then they would be allowable expenses. If your creditors, via the guidelines used from Stepchange and your IP, were effectively funding your daughters further education by taking less money against their debt, that would be just as unfair to them as you argue it is unfair to you that you cannot support her as your IVA payment leaves you little room to help.

Richard_Carver

lulu_92 wrote: »

I was offered the absolute minimum from Student Finance as well.

I lived at home and worked my way through uni and my mum (and stepdad) funded pretty much all of my living costs (I paid for bus fare)

When her IVA ended her and my stepdad saved up like mad and gave me and my sister a couple of grand each to put towards our futures.

We are not local to a University, and not one that offered the course to my daughter. Accommodation and travel aside, how is it possible to fund all of the living costs when an IVA screws you down to bare essentials? We haven't been out for a meal, to the cinema or had any kind of holiday or break for four years (no adult birthday or Christmas celebrations in the two and a half years the IVA has been in place). I'm currently saving up for a new pair of shoes and to get the car serviced.

We need to find £90 a week (shortfall in accommodation, travel, course materials and living costs for my daughter). I can't find £9 a week at the moment. We shop for food frugally, the mortgage, the household bills, commuting costs and the IVA repayment take the rest.

I have rediscovered spam (of the tinned variety).

Richard_Carver

Tixy wrote: »

That is a discussion that often debated.
But it isn't to do with your IVA, it is to do with how the goverment and student finance currently operate.

I am not debating how the government and student finance currently operates, I am questioning whether that operation is fair and non-discriminatory.

I am also debating how the IVA operates because it makes no consideration for how Student Finance currently operates.


I merely wanted to alert people considering an IVA that their restricted finances won't be taken into account when their child applies for university funding and this may affect their lives, especially if like me they assumed a principle of equal opportunity would apply.

Are you saying I don't have a valid point?

Anaheim

Have you approached your IP at all to ask if a variation meeting could be called to allow you to contribute to your daughters costs? we asked and the creditors asked the following

Does the child have a student loan/bursary. If so please detail the amounts.

· Does the child reside away from home? If so, how much is the rent?

You can but ask......

whodathunkit

If your daughter's 20, presumably she's had a couple of years' working to save up to fund her education. In addition, if she works for another year she'll be considered to be an independent student and her finance package won't be assessed on your income.