An IVA is a legal agreement between you and your creditors (the people or organisations you owe money to), to help pay off all or part of your debts. You’ll make regular payments, typically over 5 or 6 years to an Insolvency Practitioner, who will divide the money between your creditors. You can only arrange an IVA through a licensed Insolvency Practitioner like Debt Movement.
An IVA may not be the best solution if you have very low levels of debt, you can only afford a small payment each month, or your income is mainly made up of benefits.
We will help you work through your monthly income and outgoings. They’ll work out how much you can comfortably afford to pay each month. If you get any disability or caring related benefits, make sure you include all the costs related to the disability or caring needs. We will review your income and outgoings every year. If your financial situation has changed you may have to increase or decrease your monthly payments. We will always help you to find a solution that will work for you, however you must co-operate with the review or your IVA may be cancelled.
Like all insolvency practitioners we charge a fee for our work, which is included in your monthly payments – not upfront. An Insolvency Practitioner must explain what fees will be charged before you agree to the IVA. Your creditors vote to approve the fees and typically, your first monthly payments will cover more of the fee than the debts you owe.
You may have read in some adverts that an IVA can write off 80%, or more, of your debts. But here's the actual facts based on a sample of more than 10,000 of our recent IVAs:
The average total unsecured debt level is £18,530.48
The average total scheduled contributions are £7,644.92
Our average total Nominee and Supervisor fees are £3,469.14
Which means:
The total amount paid into an IVA with us is typically just ~41% of the debt owed.
The actual debt written off after all fees in an IVA with us is typically ~77.5%
The creditors included in your IVA will stop asking you for payment once your IVA starts and will not be able to take any further legal action or collection activity in relation to the IVA debts during or after the IVA successfully completes. Although they may still write to you from time to time to confirm account balances or statements, though typically we'll ask for all correspondence to come to us. Once you’ve made all the agreed payments, you’ll receive a ‘certificate of completion’ and you will no longer owe any of the debts included in your IVA. If you have joint debts with someone else, the creditors can still pursue the other person for payment of the debt. It may be helpful for them to get free regulated debt advice too.
Your IVA will appear on your credit file for the 6 years from the date your IVA starts. Most people entering into an IVA already have missed payments and negative financial information showing on their credit file. Typically a year after your IVA completes your credit file will be 'clean'. You must not try and obtain more credit whilst in the IVA without written approval from your Insolvency Practitioner.
If you own your home you will not need to sell or use any equity in your home to pay for your IVA. However, if your home equity is £10,000 or more, your payments will last for 6 years instead of 5 to compensate your creditors.
If you receive a pay increase or inherit some money, you must tell your Insolvency Practitioner so they can complete a review. Again we will work with you to find a solution that works for you. In some circumstances you may have to increase your monthly payments or pay some, not all, of the money into the IVA. You must also contact us straight away if you are at risk of redundancy. You can usually keep up to a total of 6 months redundancy pay, any more than this should typically be paid into your IVA.
If you can no longer afford your IVA, speak to us as soon as possible to discuss your options, such as reducing payments, a payment holiday, or cancelling. Your creditors may need to agree to any changes. If you take a payment holiday, your IVA will be extended to make up the missed payments.
You must keep up with your monthly payments or your IVA may be cancelled. Speak to us as soon as possible to discuss your options. Your IVA can be extended to make up any missed payments.
Speak to us if you do not want to continue with your IVA. We will advise you on the best course of action. You will not receive a refund of any money you’ve already paid.
If your IVA is cancelled, creditors can start to chase you for repayment again. They may claim interest and charges that were frozen during the IVA period. If the IVA is cancelled early, you might find you’ve repaid less debt off than expected. As more money goes towards your IVA fees initially, creditors receive a smaller share of your payments.
Like all formal debt solutions your IVA will be added to the online public register for the duration of your IVA and it will then be removed 3 months after it has ended.
IVAs are by far the most popular formal debt solution in England & Wales. More than half of every going into personal insolvency choose an IVA. Typically 5,000 - 8,000 people will enter into an VIA every month. In March 2026 the statistics for new individual insolvencies were 654 bankruptcies, 4,523 debt relief orders (DROs) and 7,075 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs).
If your circumstances are likely to change in the near future and/or you need a more flexible solution then an informal solution may be the best way to go but you will likely repay all of the money you owe and interest and changes may not be frozen so your debts could still increase https://www.gov.uk/options-for-dealing-with-your-debts/debt-management-plans
