IVA - 1st annual review - new partner - DRO?

claireh2412

Hi All,
I have an IVA with CreditFix which started in March 2021. I have approx £24k of debt with them. Just after my IVA started, I met someone, and as of November, he started living with me. He earns 2.5 times more than I do - he earns 60k a year, whilst my income is 24k. 
CreditFix have emailed me today saying it's time for my annual review. I've emailed them back disputing this as it's not been 12 months yet, but I noticed on the IE form they sent that there is a box for partners income. They don't know that I am now living with someone. 
My concern is that they are going to drain his finances if they discover what he earns. As far as I'm aware, an IVA is exactly that - an Individual arrangement. The only thing that should count is what he pays me towards the house, surely?
I'm really not liking the restrictions that the IVA comes with either and I'm wondering if it's worth enquiring about a DRO? Any help/advice appreciated! Thanks in advance. 

flipflopflo

Do you rent your house or do you own it?

Lin850

Hiya,
Im in the same situation as you regarding my partners high earnings.i am also approaching 1st. Annual review and am wondering if i should cancel my iva an apply for a dro.( now dro criteria have changed i am now in the limits) . My circumstances changed and i do not see my low earnings changing for the better for quite some time so think that a dro would be better for me.  
And regarding  your partners earnings , whenni applied for my iva with stepchange, they explained they jus lt need to know his side as a rule i guess, i was worried also the would be liable to pay but this has not been the case at all. Guess they just need to be awarecor everything. 

Hope helps,

claireh2412

flipflopflo said:

Do you rent your house or do you own it?

it's rented

fatbelly

A DRO has lots of advantages if you meet the qualifying criteria:

• not a property owner
• debts <30k
• assets <2k
• car<2k
• surplus income under £75 per month

On the last point that's where your partner's income comes in. Your income is your income but your share of the joint expenses is the ratio of the incomes.  24k/60k = 2:5 so you would be allocated two 7ths of the expenditure in working out your surplus income.

flipflopflo

claireh2412 said:

flipflopflo said:

Do you rent your house or do you own it?

it's rented

Can I ask given that you had no assets to protect why you went for an IVA in the first place and not a DRO or were there other factors in play that meant you didn’t qualify at the time. 

Looking at fatbelly’s excellent post above would you qualify now?

claireh2412

I had no idea DRO's even existed until I came on here! Looking at the criteria though, when my IVA started in March, the criteria for DRO's was debt under 20k - which mine was 24k. 

Looking at fatbellys response - which is very detailed, thank you - i think my surplus income would be too much?

flipflopflo

Yeah! I went and looked at the CreditFix website and it’s not very good, they are definitely an IVA factory. I always thought that if you didn’t have any assets to protect then in general IVAs weren’t recommended by most reputable debt advisers and they probably would have advised to hold off a few months. Still what’s done is done. 

@fatbelly advise you as they are the expert in all this but I do know that one of the things he’ll ask is for a SoA. This is the one that is used on the boards. Format to MSE at the end and then copy and paste to the thread. 

https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php

fatbelly

I believe Creditfix are the largest provider of IVAs - most of the lead generators seem to use them.

claireh2412

I'm guessing I am kind of stuck now for the next 4 years. The job I had when I entered the IVA is different to the job I have now. I now earn over 3k a year more than I did when I entered the IVA.