OR interview from hell

lisahelp

Hi,
I have had my or intrerview and i am really worried,she said she would not go to much into my i&e today but said i will have an ipa put in place in around 4 months time,i am really worried she will not allow me christmas and birthdays at all,save for holiday,lesiure activeties amongst others,when i asked how i will fund christmas and birthdays for my kids she said they can't have what i haven't got,i feel really ill with it all,i feel in limbo 4 month is a long time,i am the only one working part time and the rest of our family income is made up of benefits.
Can anyone offer reasurance as i am feeling pretty low right now.
thanks

PixiePie

Lisa,

Sorry, but I don't really understand - is your income due to change in 4 months time? If not I don't get why you would be getting an IPA then, and not now or never (If that makes sense).

I think a couple of people have been allowed amounts for B'days and Xmas, but I didn't think you were allowed anything for them, so haven't put anything down, and have absorbed it (only a small amount) into my household amount and things like travel etc (by putting £1 more onto travel for eg a month, that's £12 right there! ). There are so many ways for your kids to have a lovely B'day or Xmas without hundreds and hundreds of pounds, you just have to get creatiev and to be honest, depending on their age they either won't notice (hands up who played with the cardboard box the toy came in more than the toy itself when little?) or will appreciate your efforts over commerciality. I remember when I was growing up and one year things were really tight and we had a hugely smaller Xmas for us, and it was fine, didn't even notice due to my parents explaining that things were going to be tighter when things first went wrong, and then not mentioning it again and carrying on as normal as possible, just without buying lots of things. I must have been about 12 until I was about 14.

If you don't understand why the 4 months thing as well, call the OR back and ask her to explain it - the point of BR is for a clean start, and if you're feeling like you do thats not a clean start at all...

Hope that helps a little
PP

rog2

Wow Lisa - you certainly seem to have gone through the mill - sorry to hear that.
The Insolvency Service DOES state that it is reasonable to include an allowance for holidays, Christmas and Birthdays.
I don't have the link to hand, but will try and find it (unless someone else has it) - but, implicit in their guidelines they state that bankrupts should be allowed to budget for just such contingencies. I'm off to look for links for you.:grouphug:

NekoZombie

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles - sadly it goes this way sometimes with overzealous ORs. Mine would let me have christmas or birthdays or emergencies either.

regarding your IPA, did she say how much for - maybe you could post you I&E so we could take a look and maybe offer some help? The reason why its four months is to give them enough time to send the paperwork out to you, give you a chance to read it all, send it back, and get the payment schedule in place. Its annoying, I can imagine, as you would like to get things sorted quicker than that, but ORs work at their own (snail) pace.

Fermi would back me up on this (if I'm right), but I'm not sure she can take any of the benefits into account as income.

Keep your chin up

lisahelp

Hi pixie,
I don't know why in 4 months time,she also said she would be knocking £100 off my £500 household for a family of 5,do you think i would be mithering if i called back to ask why in 4 months i really feel in limbo.

NekoZombie

lisahelp wrote: »

Hi pixie,
I don't know why in 4 months time,she also said she would be knocking £100 off my £500 household for a family of 5,do you think i would be mithering if i called back to ask why in 4 months i really feel in limbo.

Ah, you haven't got my OR have you? She knocked mine down too. :rolleyes:

rog2

lisahelp wrote: »

Hi pixie,
I don't know why in 4 months time,she also said she would be knocking £100 off my £500 household for a family of 5,do you think i would be mithering if i called back to ask why in 4 months i really feel in limbo.

Hi Lisa, as with most things on the Insolvency Service Website, it is difficult to get a straight answer. However, I have found the following link, which details exactly what should and should not be allowed for the purpose of calculating an IPO/IPA:

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/freedomofinformation/technical/techmanvol1/ch25-36/chapter31/part7/part2/part_2.htm#16

Whilst I could find no specific mention of Birthdays/Christmas etc. the whole of the manual keeps referring back to the words 'reasonable' and 'flexibility' neither of which would appear to have been taken into account by your OR.

I also think that, if your OR does not send you your IPA/IPO for 4 months, you would be quite correct to question this. The process allows a 14 day, 'cooling off' period once you receive your IPO/IPA.

PixiePie

Ah, thats why the 4 months then - thanks Neko, didn't really get that.

Richard, Fermi, Neko, any of the wise and through the mill lot, is there any sort of appeal procedure for cases like Nekos and sounds like Lisas? I can understand it being totally abused, but in these cases it seems like wuold be essential - or should be personally petition the Gov to set a Quango up and of course get huge funding from them to pay ourselves an obviously fair salary to administer the thing?

Pop down your SOA Lisa, like Neko says, will give us something concrete to be able to work from

NekoZombie

Hmm, sadly Rog, that link is inconclusive - it would be very difficult to argue your case on the back of that info...

lisahelp

hi rog
she hasn't even set an ipa she just said that i will be getting one in around 4 months time,she didn't disscuss how much or anything just what she probably wouldn't allow.
this is what i am finding difficult.
thanks

uther_2

Copied from a link on the insovency site above:
31.7.26 Holidays

Previous guidance stated that an allowance for holidays should not be included in the calculation of funds available for an income payments contribution, other than in exceptional circumstances, for example where a dependant was sick or disabled. Whilst extravagance is not endorsed in this respect, it may be considered a reasonable domestic need to allow the bankrupt and his/her family to benefit from a non-extravagant holiday as a break from routine. Expensive or luxury holidays (particularly if the holiday is abroad) are likely to cause offence to creditors but an allowance of between £60-£80 per month (amounting to £720-£960 per annum) for a household of 4 people should allow the bankrupt and his/her family sufficient funds to take a moderate annual holiday. Should the bankrupt consider this allowance insufficient to fund a holiday, he/she should be informed that any additional holiday cost that he/she may wish to incur must be funded from the amount of surplus income left with him/her after deduction of the assessed IPA/IPO contribution.



We put down £40 P/M for holidays for a couple with one child.This was not questioned,or even mentioned by the OR.
Also if most of your income is benefits,and you only work part time I wonder about your IPA at all.Maybe you could post your in/out figures here for some of the more 'clued up' folks to have a look at.
And we put down £420 for housekeeping,also not questioned.