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Getting an IVA

IVA costs, fees and charges

Under an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), you make payments towards your debts based on what you can afford to pay. However, there are other costs involved with setting up an IVA.

No matter who arranges your IVA for you, there are costs and fees involved. However these vary between different IVA companies.

If an IVA is right for you, we can help you set up your arrangement through our own IVA company, StepChange Voluntary Arrangements. We won’t charge you for the advice and support we provide before your IVA is set up.

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What are IVA costs and fees?

Our fees follow the industry standard for IVAs and are agreed by your creditors. You must agree to the basis of the fees before your IVA is approved. We will deduct these fees from the amount you pay into the IVA, so you don’t have to pay any additional costs.

If you set up an IVA through a different IVA company, it’s likely their fees will vary and when you have to pay the fees might vary too. The fees you pay for your IVA should be part of your agreement, so it’s important to check and understand them before you proceed with an IVA.

There are no upfront fees with our IVAs, and if your IVA isn’t approved, you won’t have any fees to pay.

What do IVA fees cover?

The costs involved in an IVA are:

  • A Nominee fee
  • A Supervisor fee
  • Disbursements

The Nominee fee is the cost for helping you to put the IVA proposal to your creditors. This is subject to approval by your creditors. Depending on who your creditors are and the amount of your monthly contribution, it could be either the first five payments into the IVA, or £2,000.

The Supervisor fee is 15% of any further realisations, to cover the ongoing costs of the IVA. So, if you entered into an IVA you'd pay monthly contributions or money from assets to pay the Nominee fee at first. Then any remaining money you'd pay towards it would go towards the Supervisor fee.

What are IVA disbursements?

There are also other costs known as disbursements. These are expenses that are paid to third parties during your IVA and include insurance to protect any money paid to your IVA, system maintenance fees, and a registration fee to register the IVA with the Insolvency Service.

The cost of any legal advice specific to your case may also be charged as a disbursement. If you own a property there will be expenses to cover the cost of any valuations of your property and land registry fees.

If you were able to pay your creditors in full during the term of the IVA or if your IVA fails, the fees would not be refunded.

Your specific fees will be confirmed when your IVA proposal has been drafted. These are also subject to approval by your creditors.

Who provides the IVA?

StepChange Voluntary Arrangements provide our IVAs. They‘re a subsidiary of the Foundation for Credit Counselling (FCC), our registered charity.

The charity is a non-profit organisation and is funded by the contributions from the financial services industry. StepChange Voluntary Arrangements gift aids any profits made from its IVA activities to FCC to help provide its debt advice services for free.

In some cases, we may refer you to another IVA provider called McCambridge Duffy. For example, we may do this if you live in Northern Ireland, or if you’re self-employed.