Being faced with debt that you feel is no longer manageable can be unbelievably stressful. However, there are various options for people who feel that they simply cannot meet the demands of their debts any more. An IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement is one of these options, and given the right advice, could well get you into a better and less troublesome financial state.
IVAs are basically an agreement between you and your creditors as an alternative to the agreements that you have with them at present. Using an IVA, you commit to paying a certain amount back over a period, an amount that you can realistically afford. Your creditors are likely to receive a better financial return if they agree to an IVA than if you go bankrupt, and for this reason there is a good chance that they will indeed agree to one.
An Insolvency Practitioner will help you to decide firstly whether an IVA is the right option for you, and secondly on the detail of the IVA itself. They will look at your income, outgoings and your assets and work out how best to move forward. As long as you get the right agreement, an IVA can make debts manageable, letting you get on top of them while retaining a level of control over your assets.
There is no restriction on the maximum and minimum amounts of debt that an IVA can cover, nor on the repayments that you propose to make as part of it. However, whether or not an IVA will help really does depend on your own circumstances, and there is no one fix for all debt and insolvency problems. The best way to move forward is to seek the advice from a qualified Insolvency Practitioner and take it from there.