What jobs are affected by an IVA?
IVAs are great debt management solutions for many people, but they do affect your life in various ways, some of which are unexpected. To keep up with the demands of your IVA, it’s essential to be able to hold down a job. A fact that many people are unaware of is that Individual Voluntary Arrangements have an impact on your employment, depending on what your job is. In this article, we cover some key points about how IVAs can affect employment and which employment types are affected most severely.
Do I need to tell my employer about my IVA?
The short answer is: no, you don’t have to tell your employer about your IVA. This is personal financial information that only you need to know about and your employer wouldn’t be able to learn about your arrangement without doing a credit check on you. You would also need to give your employer permission to perform a credit check, so there is no way for them to find out without your foreknowledge and say so.
There are some businesses that have rules surrounding their employees and IVAs, such as those involved in accountancy, insolvency and banking. We will discuss these jobs at length below.
Which jobs are affected by IVAs?
Some jobs come with strict financial vetting procedures and others come with fiscal responsibility. In either case, an IVA would be viewed as undesirable by people recruiting for such jobs. Here are some points of concern regarding IVAs and employment:
An IVA might be problematic for you if you work in the following industries:
- Property conveyancing
- Legal
- Accountancy
- Financial services
The following jobs also have strict financial vetting procedures, through which an IVA would almost certainly be picked up and viewed as problematic:
- The police
- The fire service
- The prison service
While IVAs are an issue in these roles and industries, most people will have no problem using this debt management solution.
How else can an IVA impact my life?
IVA debt can affect your life in other ways, too, but they are typical of many debt management solutions. For example, your credit rating will be impacted and you might have trouble securing credit throughout the duration of your arrangement. This fact is negligible for most people, as being heavily indebted is bad for your credit rating anyway.
Your assets may be affected because an insolvency practitioner will evaluate your financial position thoroughly, meaning they will value your assets and decide whether you need to sell any. It’s also a crime to hide assets from an insolvency practitioner, so there is no way around this once you enter into an IVA.
Income you receive in the future may also be impacted by your arrangement. For example, if you sell a property you may have to pay some of your capital gains into the IVA. You also have to declare any increase in income, such as a pay rise, to your insolvency practitioner.
If you have any queries about an IVA or would like advice on how to get set up, reach out to us today.
