“If you’re living with a partner or spouse and are applying for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, also known as an IVA, then you will have to declare your partner’s income. This is because your creditors base your repayments on what you can afford to pay after household expenses and if you’re sharing the cost of these expenses with a partner, then this needs to be taken into account.
Your creditors will examine the case carefully to ensure that you’re paying a reasonable amount towards the household expenses and that your partner is contributing a fair amount towards your joint costs.
If your creditors believe that both you and your partner have benefited from the expenditure that has led to your debts, then they will probably only accept your IVA application based on the disposable income of your household, which is the amount remaining after your total household expenditure is deducted from your total household income.
If you have only just started living together, and your creditors believe that you have not both benefited from the expenditure that has led to your debts, then this would not be the case and they would base your repayments solely on what you can afford to pay after your household expenses.”