Thursday 15th of April 2010
If you’re self-employed and find late payments are having a detrimental effect on your business, individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) answers could offer a helping hand.
According to new figures from NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, 71 per cent of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have suffered from invoices not being paid on time by others in the last year, which may have caused debts, cashflow problems and even bankruptcy.
Stephen Alambritis, head of public affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, says: "Figures from [the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills] show that late payments were responsible for some 4,000 business failures in 2008 alone."
And many owners of SMEs may have attempted to plug the issue by dipping into their own savings or taking out personal loans - something an IVA could help with if these desperate measures resulted in unsecured debt worth over £15,000.
That’s because IVAs can freeze the interest on the money you owe and merge your debt repayments into one, controllable monthly outlay, which could get you back on track if you can prove your business makes enough money to cover the IVA repayment.
By Chris King
- House price rise 'may not indicate recovery'
- Equity release 'needs to be increased'
- Need for IVA help could increase as expert predicts reduction in lending
- Government announces 'breathing space' for those needing IVA help
- Lack of subprime lending creating need for IVA help, expert suggests
- IVAs could relieve your overdraft burden
