Lancashire to become hot spot for IVAs?

Many people in Lancashire could find individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) are necessary to help get out of a deep debt problem due to losing their jobs and being unable to pay what they owe.

The latest announcement of redundancies has come from services firm Enterprise, which is to axe another 42 posts after 10 were lost earlier this year, reports the Lancashire Evening Post.

It will make the move from among its 540-strong workforce based at Leyland.

Group shared services and project management office director Martin Rimmer said: "We have carefully reviewed the design of our organisation and overhead costs and, as a consequence, we unfortunately need to make a small number of roles redundant across the business in order to continue to be competitive in our chosen markets."

For those who do lose their jobs, debt can soon mount as bills go unpaid and those who owe £15,000 or more can seek an IVA, which can reduce the amount to be paid, freeze interest and put a time limit on the repayments of five years or less.

Those seeking this should note it requires the agreement of at least three quarters of creditors and is a form of insolvency, meaning it will have future credit file implications.

Enterprise employees are not the only workers in Lancashire fearing for their jobs, with defence and aerospace manufacturer BAE Systems recently announcing 843 posts are to go at its Wharton and Preston sites.

Other sites owned by the firm across the country will also be hit by redundancies as the firm plans to shed 3,000 staff.

Posted by Paul Thacker