In London working, living with relative, Family two hundred miles away, still see them of course, weekends and that, Love them all so much, Love my wife, She loves me and maybe soon we’ll be back together, hope so.
Waiting for creditors meeting, date not set yet we want to keep the joint IVA going, want to pay back as much as we can, just neeed the payments not to increase, we are over £600 a month worse off than when we started, If we can keep the payments at £265 it’ll be hard but I’ll do it, We owe 26k I think, will pay an extra year, don’t want to but will, very tired all the time, so’s my wife, God she tries so hard. Miss her.
Blair Endursby not making very encouraging noises, have become quite hard with them, FIGHT OUR CAUSE !! Please.
Bankruptcy an option? Really don’t want to do it, Still writing letters, gathering evidence, am praying we can sort it out then maybe we can sort ourselves out.
Must talk to work the baby is due in five weeks, I want to be there, but work don’t pay when I take time off, very dickensian but a fact never the less and bills have to be paid, mouths fed, the kids will never suffer I will not let that happen, started to look on web see if there is any IVA advice, look on IVA.CO.UK, Very helpfull, put on a post, can’t believe that I get an answer at 10 at night, phone wife and we talk about it, will reply tomorrow, set up a blog never done that before.

Thats it, your all up to date, I’ll post as often as I can and keep you informed, hope any one in a similar situation as me finds some solace ion this, you are not alone and we will win.

We have moved house, what with the new baby we had to, my wife is still unwell the back operation has not fully worked and is pregnant again, how did that happen ? Two step children, a baby and another due just after this ones first birthday !! Still the IVa is being paid, life is still a struggle, had to stop the weekend work I was getting ill and my wife needs help at home, still cleaning in the morning but not for much longer the work is to be contracted out and they don’t want me after that, still we’ll cope, my main career seems to be flourishing, things will be fine. My step daughter reaches sixteen and we celebrate, I’m leaving school she announces, we have words but she is determined, we did’nt particularly think of the consequences until it happened, A letter from the CSA arrives, and one from the child benefit office, we’re six hundred a month worse off and there is’nt much we can do.
Anoth letter arrives from Blair Endursby, don’t forget that under the tems of your IVA it is to rise by nearly £100 a month.
Don’t worry love I’ll phone them explain the change in circumstances, see what can be done, they were really nice remember, told us it would not be a problem.
A phone call made, not such a sympathetic voice though, you are risking your IVA, It could fail !!! What but you said ???
More income forms filled in, even less sympathetic voices heard, stress mounting, wife going through another difficult pregnancy, baby teething, bolshy teenage girl leaves home, step son struggling with learning difficulties, marriage beginning to fall apart, head hurting !!! Still talking to wife mostly about debt though, can’t believe it still haunts us, trying my best to support her as best I can we still love each other but the stress of debt is destroying our marriage, just want it all to go away, be like it was before.

We got up early, I took time off work but not to rest there was lots to do. Statements had to be found, information gathered, forms filled and long phone calls made, How long will this take? Not long we were told, and it was’nt, the day of the creditors meeting came, God we were nervous, What if it does’nt work ? Doubts were in my mind, Why are they including your benefits I said to my wife they will not last for ever, more phone calls, offers made, not accepted, a figure suggested, not what was origionally stated but manageable? Don’t worry it will be reviewed regularly, just the same if your income goes upand you pay more if it goes down so can your payments, well thats ok then !
Worries subside, IVA agreed standing order set up, letters still come but slowly ever so slowly stop, there are no more phone calls. That’s it then it’s all done, the end is in sight.

 As a young man I never believed that I would end up in the situation that I have now found myself. I have always worked, for years I never had an overdraft, credit card or anyform of credit. The housing market collapsed and I took full advantage buying a one bedroomed maisonette and watched the equity rise and rise, the morning post that I received always contained flyers for this credit card and that loan and I never even opened them, my mortgage was low, I was working and only had myself to support, I use to tell my friends my pension is sorted I have such a large equity then slowly over time changes at work began to squeeze my income, a bill arrived and I couldnt pay, I walked into Natwest and asked for an overdraft of £50, Sorry the kind young man said the minimum overdraft is £200 and I have now given it to you.Sorted then I paid the bill. Whilst talking to the kind young man he offered me a credit card, I always pay cash I replied, he was very persuasive though, what about unforseen circumstances ?? Very sensible to have a card just to fall back on ?

I obliged and signed up, unforseen circumstances came and went and three years later I realised I was never actually paying the card off any more, Transfer the balance the adverts screamed and I did, suddenly I had two cards then three, Consolidate your debts with a loan the kind young man said at the bank, it makes great financial sense. I did. Five years ago I met my soon to be wife and inherited two lovely step children all of whom I love dearly, I sold my maisonette and invested the equity just as the kind young man at the bank said I should, life was good we had two incomes and a rented house, we would save and get a house my wife and i agreed. Then my wife fell pregnant, we were over the moon, the pregnancy how ever was very difficult and my wife quite ill unable to work, the saved money began to go, but wait, the kind young man was still there to offer loans and credit cards, dont spend all the equity, your wife will soon work and you’ll be ok, the debts got bigger the equity money smaller, a beautiful boy was born, my wife how ever could still not work, things were getting difficult, the kind young mans attitude was changing, letters it seemed cost money and charges had to be paid, the equity was all gone now spent paying interest and yet we were even deeper in debt, my wife had an operation and it became clear would not work again for a long time, things were critical, I was doing three jobs, a cleaning job starting at 6am a full time job involving shift work and a weekend job on saturdays and sundays, surely my creditors could see i was doing everything i could, but no if anything they became harder to deal with, stress at home was intolerable but we battled on, nights were spent working out how to pay people, if i could keep going we will make it i assured my wife, thr truth was plain though, I was nearing breaking point, constantly tired, never seeing my family just working.

Some one said just make them offers, don’t pay, go bankrupt, my morals balked at the idea, what about an IVA one said, a what ?

I contacted Blair Endursby, sympathetic ears listened, sounds like an IVA will sort you out, a kind not so young man visited the house, it all seemed so simple, he could not believe nor understand why I was flogging myself at the workplace. An IVA is definately the answer he said. For the first time in months we slept peacefully.

An IVA is the answer.