Why is my IVA reviewed each year?

In order to comply with standard IVA conditions, we must conduct a review of your income and expenditure every year. This is also your opportunity to let us know of any changes and review how the IVA is working for you.

During your IVA review, we’ll look at how well you're managing on your personal budget and make sure that your household has enough to live on. If your budget or payments need to change, we'll make the appropriate adjustments. This means your IVA payment could go up or down, depending on the outcome of your review.

Where possible, any requested increases to your costs will be included in your budget. These may need to be reduced to keep within accepted industry expenditure guidelines. 

We'll also review your income using payslips and your P60 to see if you’ve earned anything above your additional income threshold. If you have we’ll let you know as 50% of any amounts earned over the threshold are due to the IVA.

Please remember that you can review your IVA at any time. If you have a change of circumstances, we’ll be here to support you as best as we can.

What’s an additional income threshold?

As part of the terms of your IVA, you’ve agreed to make additional payments into your IVA when you receive additional income. This could be overtime, bonuses or commission. You must contact us within 14 days of receiving any extra money. We’ll calculate if any additional payment is due.

When an additional payment is requested, you must make the payment to us within a further 14-day period. The amount you’re allowed to earn before any additional payment is due will be shown on the letter that we send to you after your review. If you earn above this amount you must declare it to us and pay 50% of the amount over this threshold into your IVA.

The additional income threshold is recalculated each time a review of your budget is completed, and you’ll be notified of any change in this allowance.

What’s a ‘net surplus adjustment’?

You may have an area on your budget called the net surplus adjustment. Under the terms of your IVA, you’re allowed to keep 50% of the difference between the IVA payment last agreed by creditors and any increased IVA payment.

The 50% you’re allowed to keep is called the net surplus adjustment and you can use this to cover any expenses not shown in your budget before your next review.

Why is an annual report sent to me and my creditors?

Every year, your IVA supervisor is required to report to your creditors about how your IVA is doing.

This annual progress report includes details of: 

• the payments made into the IVA 
• the fees and costs of the IVA 
• changes to the IVA
• the payments made to your creditors 

A copy of the report is also sent to you for your records.

I’ve received letters from creditors - what should I do?

You may receive letters from your creditors while on your IVA, sometimes around the time of your last IVA review. This is quite normal and not something you need be concerned about.

Under the terms and conditions of your IVA, creditors can only claim from your IVA the amount owed to them at the date of your IVA’s approval. They can’t claim any additional sums for interest or charges.

During the lifetime of your IVA you may still receive annual statements from creditors. However, the balances on these statements may not accurately reflect the amount claimed in your IVA. Please file away any future creditor correspondence for your own records.

You must let your IVA Supervisor know if a creditor writes to inform you that the debt has been sold to another company or is being administered by another company. It's common for collection agencies to take over a debt after a certain period of time, so please don't worry too much about this. 

Please forward any letters you receive of this nature to your IVA Supervisor so they can contact the new company and discuss your IVA.

Want to know more about your IVA? 

There are lots of great articles on our website that can help you get the best out of your IVA. They include: