An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (or IVA) is a payback agreement between an individual and his or her creditors.

If you can’t afford to repay your debts, you can use a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner to negotiate an agreement with your creditors.

An IVA agreement can help you reduce your monthly repayments and after a certain period (usually 5 years) any outstanding debt can be written-off. Creditors will also be prevented from adding any further interest and charges to the debt and as they cannot take any further action to recover the debt, the letters and phone calls will stop.

The agreements can be flexible and there’s no limit on how much debt can be included in an IVA, but only certain types of debt can be included.

Most types of debt can be included in an IVA, including:

• Catalogue debt
• Personal loans
• Overdrafts
• Credit cards
• Gas and electric arrears
• Council tax arrears
• Water arrears
• Payday loans
• Store cards
• Income tax and National Insurance contribution arrears
• Tax credit or benefit overpayments
• Debts to family and friends
• Other outstanding bills, including solicitor’s costs, building invoices or veterinary bills

There are certain types of debts that cannot be included in an IVA. These include:

• Mortgages and secured loans
• Hire purchase agreements
• Court fines
• TV licence arrears
• Student loans
• Child support arrears

These debts are treated as separate to an IVA. This means that you need to be able to make the repayments on any of these debts before you pay money into an IVA. If you won’t have any money left after paying off these debts each month, then you may need to look at an alternate insolvency solution.

Can joint debts be included in my IVA?

A joint debt is a debt that you entered into with another person. A joint debt can be included in an IVA, but the other person named on the debt will still be responsible for making payments. This means that even if your debt is written off, the other party will need to continue making repayments.

For more information about IVAs and other personal debt solutions, speak to a member of the team today. Call: 0800 611 8888.