To qualify for an IVA, you must: Owe at least £7,000 in unsecured debt to your creditors Have a sustainable income (this can include employment income, benefits, pension etc) Be able to afford to monthly payment of at least £50 Reside in England, Wales or Northern Ireland

Your state pension will not be affected by an IVA. If you are paying into a private pension, you may be asked to reduce or suspend payments into the pension for the duration of the IVA. If you are receiving income from a private pension, this will be considered when establishing your overall monthly income [...]

If you don’t owe your bank any money (overdraft facility, loan etc), then proposing an IVA should not affect your account. If you do owe money to your bank, we recommend opening a new account with a bank you have no previous connection with as soon as possible. We can help get you a new [...]

Your creditors will need to be informed about your IVA however, your IVA will not be advertised anywhere. In this respect an IVA is much more private that Bankruptcy as all bankruptcy appointments are advertised in the London Gazette. Basic details of the IVA will be available on the Insolvency Register held by The Insolvency [...]

An IVA should not affect your partner. If you reside with your partner and have shared expenditure (rent, council tax, utility bills etc), your proposal should confirm ‘household’ income and expenditure. Your creditors will be keen to see that you are not subsidising your partners standard of living however, your partner does not need to [...]

A payment break is where the Insolvency Practitioner agrees to suspend your IVA payments for a specified period. You may ask for a IVA payment break in the event of an emergency, for example, if you are made redundant and are looking for a new job. Depending on the terms of your IVA proposal, the [...]

This will depend entirely on your individual circumstances. The monthly payment you make is based on your affordability rather than what you owe. We will help you work out your monthly income and expenditure; this will identify how much you could afford to pay into your IVA. If your circumstances change dramatically after your IVA [...]

In some cases, the only way a person can obtain finance is by having a third-party ‘guarantee’ their application. A young person may have been turned down for a loan as they have not yet built a good enough credit score. A family member may have agreed to guarantee the debt thereby reducing the lenders [...]

The law that applies to joint debt is called ‘joint and several liability’. This means that both people named on the debt are jointly liable for the full amount; i.e. not half the balance each. In most cases we deal with where there are joint debts, both people will move forward with an inter-locking IVA. [...]