Many people have been mis-sold IVAs when they had a better (cheaper, quicker, less risky) debt option available. These other options were ignored or not properly described by some firms that should have given proper debt advice. IVAs are the only debt solution in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that generates large fees for the firms setting them up. These fees can distort debt advice given … [Read more...]
Insolvency News & Policy articles
Here are all the Debt Camel articles about what is new and changing in bankruptcy, DROs and IVAs. They cover everything from news about IVA firms to statistics and regulatory changes from the Insolvency Service. These articles are mainly of interest to debt specialists.
If you want practical advice on choosing between the different insolvency options, or about what happens when you have gone bankrupt or are in a DRO or IVA look at the following:
Bank accounts for all sorts of bad credit problems, even bankruptcy
In 2016 the major UK banks all introduced new "basic bank accounts". One of the main aims was to widen bank account access to groups of people who have found it difficult or impossible to open an account: people who have gone bankrupt previously found it very hard to get a bank account; people in an IVA, DRO or debt management need to change bank accounts and have the overdraft on their … [Read more...]
The 2021 IVA protocol – what has changed & will it stop mis-selling?
The IVA Protocol 2021 was published in April 2021. This replaces the old 2016 Protocol which should not be used for new IVAs after 1 August 2021. The terms of IVAs already in progress are not affected by the new version. The new Protocol aims to be easier to understand for people in debt - for example "debtor" has been replaced by "consumer" and it has been put into the typical "gov.uk … [Read more...]
Good news – higher DRO limits from end June 2021!
UPDATE 10 May 2021 The Insolvency Service has announced the new limits that will be introduced for Debt Relief Orders (DROs) from 29 June 2021. These are: the total debt allowable in a DRO goes up from £20,000 to £30,000. the level of "surplus income" after paying your bills and everyday expenses has been increased from £50 to £75 per month. an increase in the general assets you … [Read more...]
How to choose an IVA firm
Which are the best IVA firms to talk to if you are interested in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) and whether it is a good debt solution for you? If you put IVA into Google, how do you decide which of the tempting see how much of your debt you can write off links to click on? Or you could choose the person that cold calls/texts you telling you about a little-known government … [Read more...]
Major changes for thousands of customers with Aperture & Vanguard IVAs
In Autumn 2020 two of the largest IVA firms have recently announced the latest in a long line of customer transfers within the industry: all Aperture's open IVAs have been sold to Jarvis Insolvency; and Vanguard's open IVAs will be administered by Ebenegate. UPDATE: In February 2021 Jarvis rebranded and it now calls itself Debt Movement. Sale of Aperture's IVAs to Jarvis On 5 … [Read more...]
Coronavirus & the reform of Personal Insolvency in England
This article builds on the arguments I put forward in Coronavirus – how the debt advice sector should be planning, looking at one area that needs to be tackled urgently - personal insolvency. Coronavirus will cause a large increase in the numbers of people who should choose insolvency over the next couple of years. I am not trying to predict how many, but it is likely to be large enough to … [Read more...]
Holding Money & Debt up to the Light: the Case for Transparency in the Standard Financial Statement
This is a guest post by Dr Joseph Spooner, Assistant Professor of Insolvency Law at the LSE and the author of Bankruptcy – the Case for Relief in an Economy of Debt. He had previously worked at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland, where his papers influenced the enactment of the Irish Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Systems for addressing difficulties of over-indebted households in England … [Read more...]
Aperture – no longer taking new IVAs from June 2019
UPDATE in September 2020, Aperture sold its 25,000 open IVAs to Jarvis. See Major changes for thousands of customers with Aperture & Vanguard IVAs for details. Aperture has told many debt advisers it will not take referrals for Individual Voluntary Arrangements after the end of June 2019. The debt advice firms received an email saying: I write to inform you that Aperture Debt … [Read more...]
Q1 2019 – IVA numbers – the upward trend continues
On 30 April the Insolvency Service published the personal insolvency statistics for the first quarter of 2019. Comparing this quarter to the last quarter of 2018: bankruptcy and DRO numbers were about the same; IVA numbers dropped from 22,943 in Q4 2018 to 20,325 in Q1 2019. The upward trend of IVAs continues It is a mistake to make too much of this fall in IVA numbers, because the … [Read more...]
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