Current Iva payment problems due to change of circumstances

samb65

Hi 
I currently have an Iva, I’m two and a half years in. Six months ago my personal circumstances changed from married to separated. I am now living in a rented flat. I work 32 hours a week and am 60 years old. I carried on paying the same payment to my Iva after my separation and when I emailed to tell them of my separation I voiced a concern on affordability. I pay 200 a month. They said my Iva would have to be recalculated and my affordability looked ok. I have a take home wage of 1770. Recently I have had a lot of health issues and there is a strong possibility that I may have to stop working or reduce my hours by quite a bit. I have a very manual job. Reason im here to ask you lovely people’s advice. I’m wondering, due to a possible big drop or my income stopping can I change my Iva to a bankruptcy? I live alone with just one income. Many Thanks! 

Grumpelstiltskin

If you can't afford to pay then just stop and let your IVA fail, it will take some time to fail but don't worry.

Was an IVA the best solution to your debt problem? Did you check it out with a debt charity or did you just jump straight in with an IVA  company?

I am asking this as many IVAs are mis sold and many people end up in this situation.

samb65

Hi
i sat and worried for a while then stupidly tried to get a loan to fix the debt. I rang this company and they said I couldn’t get a loan but they could help with different solutions. All the options were put to me and, as I wanted to pay the debt off I opted for Iva as I didn’t own property or vehicle. They said a DRO wouldn’t be suitable. 

Grumpelstiltskin

OK From what you have just said you didn't do enough research and you fell for the IVA company's spiel.

Did you not check out a DMP with one of the debt charities who don't charge you or run a DMP yourself?

It does look like your IVA  was mis sold and you are one of many people who this happened to.

If you look on this section of the forum you will find posts by many people in the same position.

Like I said if you can't afford to pay just stop and wait for it to fail, nothing terrible is going to happen if you stop paying.

samb65

Will they just force bankruptcy? Thank you for your advice, you’ve made me feel like a weights been lifted. Do I just contact them to tell them? They take my payment via recurrent card payment so I have frozen my card as payment is due tomorrow. Thank you 

sourcrates

samb65 said:

Hi
i sat and worried for a while then stupidly tried to get a loan to fix the debt. I rang this company and they said I couldn’t get a loan but they could help with different solutions. All the options were put to me and, as I wanted to pay the debt off I opted for Iva as I didn’t own property or vehicle. They said a DRO wouldn’t be suitable. 

Ask an IVA seller what the best debt solution is, and you can guarantee they will say IVA.

How much debt did you start off with OP?

samb65

25k approx 

ManyWays

There is little point in saying you should never have had an IVA at the start (except that it may warn other people off).

However, at the moment it sounds as though you have two better options than bankruptcy. First is asking the IVA firm to propose to your creditors that because of your age and health problems the IVA should be "completed on the basis of funds paid to date". And the second is a debt relief order. 

Either of these is likely to be easier when your income has actually dropped, not just saying that it might. 

Do you have any debts outside the IVA? Are you renting privately or a social tenancy? 

samb65

I rent a social housing flat. I am trying to work with various health issues but I can see the time is near to either reducing my hours or giving up altogether.

samb65

I have no debt outside of the Iva I am currently in.

samb65

My income went to a sole income six months ago. This is without considering health issues. Is this enough reason to ask for a change to dro? I will look into this and use a debt charity this time. I feel as soon as I contact this company it’s not going to be favourable. 

Many thanks for all your help