IVA and DLA payments

Vita_Brevis wrote: »

I have a similar situation and wonder if someone could clarify the position for me.


I am two years into an IVA and we have just started receiving DLA for my daughter and it is also annual review time. The IVA is in my sole name and the DLA is in my husband's name.


The article linked above suggests it's my choice whether or not to include it in the review, is this correct? My daughter is autistic and the expenses it will cover are largely intangible, especially as we have only just started receiving it. It will enable us to do/purchase things we have been doing without until now but they won't necessarily be fixed or regular expenses.


Secondly, if I do have to declare it, can I just offset it with 'miscellaneous care & support expenses' to the same value and provide no documentary evidence? I'm worried that the weight that's been lifted by the DLA award is going to immediately be offset by having to send a chunk of it to the IVA, which seems unfair on my daughter.


Thanks in advance.

See my post (2) above for clarification.

You should report it as i assume your payment is based on household income, this is what debt camel has to say about it :


You need to discuss your disability expenses in detail with the Insolvency Practitioner (IP) you are talking to. This is not like discussing your debts at a Citizens Advice Bureau – the person you are talking to at the IVA firm is unlikely to know much about benefits or disabilities – they aren’t going to prompt you for things you might have forgotten because they don’t know enough about the area.
Too many IPs seem to start off by assuming that the standard guidelines for expenditure should apply to all families. It may help if you have a think about your additional costs before your phone call and make some notes to work though.
You need to think about things which you and your family do that wouldn’t be needed if it weren’t for the disability. A few examples:

• Your utility costs may be high, but electricity powers your wheelchair, your electric bed, your hoist etc and the heating has to be on a lot.
• Your IP may not think that you need to take your autistic son swimming several times a week, but you know that being in the water is relaxing for him and lets him work out the stress that being at school tends to induce.
• Your IP may think your expenditure on hairdressers is excessive, but your arthritis prevents you from washing your own hair, etc.

Although there are standard guidelines for acceptable expenses in an IVA, there is no reason why your expenses can’t be higher than the guidelines and additional expenses can be included if there is a good reason for them.