IVA advice please :)

clh2016

Hi everyone

I'm in an odd place with my IVA, and having read through a lot of the really helpful info on here I thought I would pluck up the courage to ask for some advice.

I am currently 18 months away from finishing my IVA. This IVA started because I was previously on a DMP and the IP advised me to switch to the IVA as a better solution. I am paying about £120 per month into the IVA and it's also had £1400 in PPI payments.

I have now been signed off work with stress-related illnesses for several weeks and was getting very stressed about making the IVA payments. Because of that a friend recently offered to gift me the money to get a F&F, and I made some enquiries from the IP about doing that. Unknown to me at the time, a further PPI refund was on it's way to the IP - this one is much bigger, and would pay off about 65% of the original debt on it's own. I found out about this refund because I got a letter from the financial institution involved informing me of the payout - when I spoke to them they said they had made payment to my IP. That was nearly a month ago and I have still to receive any notification from the IP that they have received the payment and applied it to my account. I am now wondering whether the IP would be able to treat the PPI payout as a F&F but I have no idea how to approach the IP about this or what to say - I am a bit p***** off with them for not telling me about the PPI payment as yet, and don't want to get into an argument about it with them.

On top of that, the more I read the more I am convincing myself that an IVA wasn't the right choice for me. At the time I was advised to take out the IVA I was (and still am) a single mum on a low income (and getting some benefits). I have no assets - no mortgage or property - and reading sites like debtcamel makes me think I should have been advised to go bankrupt instead. What do others think? I know I am going to have to go and speak to CAB or someone about this but I'd like to be able to have an idea of what to say - at the moment the whole thing has got me in a spin and some common sense words would go a long way to getting my mind straight!

Thanks, C

Johnsmith2016

1. See the positive - you are 18 months max from completing the IVA regardless.
2. You may get a F&F settlement

Do not beat yourself up as to weather bankcruptcy would of been better, it doesnt matter now - you did an IVA and are 18 months from completing.
But on a side note - yes i do think a lot of people are swayed into a IVA were they make a ton of fees, when a bancruptcy can be better if your on low/no income no assets and it will take longer than 5 years to repay via other methods. But forget about that now.
Your off work, so your main objective is to ensure the IVA doesnt fail so close to finishing and they make you bankcrupt anyway taking extra years to get straight.
Book a slot with CAB
And you can only ask about the PPI F&F settlement, if not there cant be much left to pay if this PPI clears good chuck and you get maybe a 50% settlement figure and use your friends money.

Lincsdebt

I have had a number of PPI refunds while in the IVA. One was very large, and it was a claim I made myself before I was in the IVA. Out of the £24k paid, I got £500.

I've been told that PPI refunds are not considered as part of the IVA payments, but additional payments. I don't know if this is correct, but in my case it's meant the debt management company has received well over the original amount of my IVA, in fact now over the total debt. But, as in all this, I have no way to challenge them.

I hope you feel better soon and that things work out.

chocolate1

Hi, is anyone else in this situation, I completed my IVA 6 years ago, during which time I had a ppi claim for £12000! Unfortunately all of this went to IVA, hey ho, anyhow I have just received a letter from bank saying that they reviewed my claim & owe me another £7000, great! However this money has been sent to IVA company who are holding this money until after a court hearing in May where it will be decided whether the debtor or the creditors get this money. Does anyone have any advice. Thanks

clh2016

Thanks everyone for your comments :T

I have plucked up enough courage to email the IVA company and ask them to consider the PPI payment as F&F, I guess they will say no but for now it's all I can do.

C