{"id":11697,"date":"2011-03-30T17:04:48","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T16:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/?p=11697"},"modified":"2019-10-17T17:15:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T16:15:27","slug":"what-is-it-like-in-an-iva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/what-is-it-like-in-an-iva\/","title":{"rendered":"What is it like in an IVA?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A good Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) proposal will have at its heart a sensible, realistic and well constructed Income and  Expenditure Statement (I&amp;E). A concern for anyone who is contemplating entering an IVA is whether creditors will look for the last penny of disposable income to be contributed, leaving nothing for emergencies or for \u2018rainy day\u2019 events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In truth, a proper and fair I&amp;E should include a reasonable \namount set aside each month for emergencies and contingencies. If the \ninsolvent debtor is single with no family commitments then the amount \nwill be smaller than where the family consists of two adults (partners \nor spouses) with or without dependent children. In such a case, I&amp;E \nis a statement of family income and family expenditure. How much is a \nreasonable amount? One yardstick used is that the family I&amp;E should \nallow a single debtor to retain a contingency amount of \u00a315 per month, a\n couple \u00a330 per month and each child \u00a312 per month. Creditors may \nsometimes decide that in all the circumstances of the case, such \ncontingency amounts are too generous and may seek to reduce them \nsomewhat. In the end however, the debtor will have control over a \ncertain amount of the disposable income and can retain that amount each \nmonth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"424\" height=\"283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fotolia_253299206_XS.jpg\" alt=\"What is an IVA like?\" class=\"wp-image-11710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fotolia_253299206_XS.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fotolia_253299206_XS-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The important thing however is to ensure that all sources of income \nand all family expenses are listed on one\u2019s I&amp;E Statement. When the \nIVA is approved it is rather late to realize that a certain recurrent \nexpense item has been overlooked. It is in the interest of the debtor \nand his or her responsibility to ensure that this does not happen and to\n make sure that the insolvency practitioner (IP) who is acting as \nnominee includes all reasonable expenses in one\u2019s I&amp;E statement in \nthe IVA proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is obviously essential that all\n sources of income are included: wages, salaries, housing benefits, \nchild benefit, tax credits, pensions, dividends and interest earned on \nsavings accounts, lodger rental or other income from letting property \nand so on. Household or family income should include the income of both \npartners and the contributions of any non-dependent children to the \nhousehold budget. Income should be net of all taxes &amp; national \ninsurance deductions and any mandatory contributions to pension schemes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spending should include all reasonable living expenses. Start with the \u2018must pay\u2019 bills such as  mortgage or rent or cost of lodgings and car HP. Next summarize all food  and housekeeping expenses for the family and the cost of utilities such  as water, gas and electricity. Then list all the normal items of  expenditure one by one: council tax, water rates, telephone, mobile,  internet, sky, TV license, life and property insurances, vehicle costs  (fuel, parking, car insurance, car tax, repairs &amp; servicing),  medical optical &amp; dental costs, clothing &amp; footwear, costs  incurred by children (school meals, school trips and activities, sports  &amp; hobbies, pocket money, transport), laundry &amp; dry cleaning,  hairdressing, newspapers &amp; magazines. If you have a pet you must  allow for insurance &amp; upkeep. If you smoke than unless you are sure  you are giving up the habit this expenditure must be listed. Modest  contributions to church or charity should be included if applicable. Any  special unavoidable expenses (e.g. special diet for a family member)  should be included. Last but not least, an appropriate amount is  included for sundries, contingencies &amp; emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If done properly, life is indeed bearable in an IVA and the debtor can look forward to a debt free future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A concern for anyone who is contemplating entering an IVA is whether creditors will look for the last penny of disposable income to be contributed, leaving nothing for emergencies or for \u2018rainy day\u2019 events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iva-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11715,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697\/revisions\/11715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}