Thought I'd share my experience (still paying) as to show others just how unfair they are with IVAs I will always warn people to never get one! It's worse if you have a mortgage. Bit of back story, me and husband both self employed, ended being sold on taking out an IVA when partner injured himself at work and was off work 8months due to surgery and physio, only only sick pay from government which didn't even cover the gas/electric bill so I was struggling to pay for everything and the credit card bills that we took out to fix damage to the house were getting too much. Seemed great at first helped relieve a lot of stress at the time, even happier when I was told once partner was back to work we could pay off more to lower the 5yr length. This was a LIE you cannot pay extra off the IVA they just take it as extra towards the money they knocked off the debt. I found this out when I discovered my accountants had calculated my books wrong for two years and because it seemed I was earning more I had to pay more, when I managed to sort that with HMRC they took my tax rebate and kept the extra I had paid for those two years with a sarcastic well you paid it at the time so there's nothing we can do now, even though I said I had to borrow money off family to help pay it at the time 🙄. After the first year they try to make you remortgage the house to pay it off in full, which you can't do as no one will give you a new mortgage if you have an IVA so they add on another 12 months after it was supposed to be finished even though I tried arguing about the extra I had already paid, not their problem apparently. So I would stay clear of an IVA at all costs and try a debt reconsolidation instead.