In recent months I have written on the dramatic growth of personal insolvencies in the UK over the last decade and of the reasons behind this growth. That is to say it was primarily down to the explosion of availability of credit and other economic factors. I have suggested that it will only get worse before it gets any better. Then earlier this month the third quarter statistics were released by the government’s Insolvency Service. They showed that for both forms of personal insolvency, bankruptcy and individual voluntary arrangements, there has been a fall. Continue reading
iva
IVA is short for Individual Voluntary Arrangement. It is a formal government back debt solution, used as an alternative to Bankruptcy.
Self Employed Workers and IVAs
Over the past few months there have been numerous press articles concerning the increasing level of personal insolvencies and in particular Voluntary Arrangements (IVA’s). IVA’s were introduced in England and Wales in 1986 followed by Northern Ireland in 1989. Initially, they were aimed specifically at trading businesses and the self employed but are now most commonly used by individuals who have amassed uncontrolled levels of unsecured debt. Continue reading
Reducing debts in an IVA
A fundamental precondition for being permitted to be accepted into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) quite simply will need to initially be insolvent. Whilst there are different solutions for the insolvent debtor for instance bankruptcy, this assessment is going to simply look at the advantages and drawbacks of the IVA choice should you be unfortunate enough to find yourself in this difficulty. Continue reading
Challenges to the Irish State on the topic of Consumer Debt
It guaranteed to hit the ground sprinting and the new Irish Government will soon be a hundred days in office. It is fully committed to achieve a lot of adjustments and that being said perhaps now is the occasion to ask various concerns as to precisely what it is providing concerning the ordinary person as distinct from what it is working on in relation to finance companies, builders, NAMA and sovereign interest rates in its admittedly stressful initiatives to meet its committed EU and IMF performance targets. Continue reading
Insolvency while Pregnant
Recently published figures estimate that the cost of rearing a child from birth to twenty one years of age can be up to £200,000. Let us suppose that you are in an IVA and become pregnant. The prospect of trying to sustain your IVA during your pregnancy and especially after the birth of your baby can be a daunting one. The undoubted joy of having a baby must be tempered with the reality that financial pressures will increase. Nevertheless, many debtors in IVAs have successfully overcome the challenges posed in these circumstances. Continue reading
How will my mortgage be affected by an IVA?
An IVA is a formal agreement between you and your unsecured creditors to repay a portion of your debt over a limited period of time – usually five years, but it can be for a shorter period.
Creditors expect to receive the full contractual repayments on their secured loans over the life of the IVA and thereafter. If you have a mortgage, you will be expected to make the monthly mortgage payments to your mortgage provider in full.
Continue readingDo I Include Secured Debts In An IVA
If you are thinking about proposing an Individual Voluntary Arrangement to your creditors, you should be clear as to what debts must be included in the IVA proposal and which debts must be excluded.
Your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) will verify this for you but even before you take that first step of seeking advice you should be aware that not all debts can be addressed via an IVA. Some debts must be paid in full on an ongoing basis and you must make allowance for these when preparing your monthly household Income and Expenditure Statement. Continue reading
What Is The Cost Of An Individual Voluntary Arrangement
If you are insolvent and are considering entering into an IVA you may be worried about whether or not you can afford the fees involved with the process. This is understandable but it should not really be a concern. If the insolvency firm you are using for your IVA is any good at all then they should put this concern to bed quickly and assuredly. Continue reading
Choosing What Bills Are The Most Important To Pay First
People have to live so in assessing which bills to pay first, one must consider the essentials of life – food and shelter.
Making sure you pay your priority debts comes before all your other debt payments and is regardless of whether you are getting pressure from your creditors. Your priority debts are paying for somewhere to live, food and drink, clothing and heat & light, your main necessities. Priority debts may also include your mortgage. So then you must aim to pay these bills first – the mortgage / rent, utility bills including heat, light and water, and of course food, drink and clothing. Even in a situation where there is insufficient income or money to pay all of the bills, these essentials of life must command the most attention from us or day to day living will become impossible. Continue reading