What documents do you need for an IVA?
Expect to prove who you are, what your household earns and spends, what you owe and what you own. That usually means ID, payslips or benefit letters, recent bank statements, your mortgage or tenancy details, and the latest letters from each creditor.
No law sets out a fixed list. The IVA Protocol 2025 says the insolvency practitioner (IP) should make “proportionate” checks on your income, spending, assets and debts, run a credit history search, and draw up a budget for your whole household using the Standard Financial Statement. In practice, that means paperwork for five things: who you are, what comes in, what goes out, what you owe and what you own.
Your document checklist
| What it proves | Typical documents |
|---|---|
| Who you are | Passport or photo driving licence, and proof of address such as a recent utility bill |
| Your income | Recent payslips, your latest P60, benefit and pension award letters, maintenance you receive. If self-employed: your latest tax return or accounts and business bank statements |
| Your household’s income | Evidence of your partner’s income, or what they contribute to household costs, where the budget covers the whole household |
| Your spending | Recent bank statements for every account, your mortgage statement or tenancy agreement, council tax bill, energy, water and phone bills, childcare costs, insurance, and any car finance or hire purchase agreement |
| What you owe | The latest statement or letter for each debt, including credit cards, loans, overdrafts, catalogues, arrears, overpayments, money owed to family or friends, and any court or debt collector letters |
| What you own | An estimate of your home’s value and your latest mortgage balance, savings, vehicles, pensions, investments, insurance policies, and anything valuable |
| Anything coming your way | Details of any expected money, such as an inheritance, a compensation claim or a pay-out from an insurance policy |
Identity checks are standard because insolvency practitioners are covered by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Your IP will tell you exactly what they need, how recent it must be, and how many months of statements they want.
Why do they need so much paperwork?
Three reasons.
First, your monthly payment is built from these figures. The budget uses the Standard Financial Statement, which sets out spending guidelines updated each April, and the payment must be sustainable for the whole term without causing hardship. If your real costs are missing, the payment will be set too high and the IVA is more likely to fail.
Second, your creditors vote on the basis of what your proposal says. By law you must give the IP a statement of your affairs, listing your creditors, debts and assets. The proposal also has to say whether anything in your past could be challenged if you were made bankrupt, such as giving something away, selling it for much less than it was worth, or paying one creditor ahead of the others. Tell your IP about anything like that.
Third, getting it wrong has consequences. Giving false or misleading information, or leaving out something important, is a breach of the IVA. So is your debt turning out to be 25% or more above the figure in your proposal. Making a false statement to get creditors to approve an IVA is a criminal offence.
Never leave out an asset, an account or a debt, and never move money to keep it out of an IVA. It can end the IVA, leave you owing everything again, and in serious cases lead to prosecution. If something is complicated or embarrassing, tell the IP anyway and let them decide how it should be dealt with.
Does your partner need to provide documents?
Your partner is not part of your IVA and does not sign anything. But the Protocol says your budget should reflect your whole household’s income and spending where appropriate, so the IP may ask for evidence of your partner’s income or how much they put towards bills.
If you own your home jointly, the IP will need to know the value, the mortgage and your share. Under the 2025 Protocol, each person’s share is assessed separately. If you have joint debts, the IVA only deals with your side: the other person stays liable for the whole amount. See how an IVA affects your partner.
What if you cannot find something?
- Missing statements: ask the creditor or its collection agency for an up-to-date statement of the balance.
- Debts you have forgotten: the IP’s credit history search will show many of them, but it will not show money owed to family or friends and may miss some other bills, so list those yourself.
- Payslips or P60s: your employer’s payroll team can usually provide copies.
- Uncertain balances: give your best estimate and say it is an estimate. Guessing low on purpose is the mistake to avoid, given the 25% breach rule.
Want to know whether an IVA could work for you? Answer a few questions about your debts and income. It takes about 3 minutes, and it is free and confidential.
What documents will you need during the IVA?
The paperwork does not stop once the IVA starts. Under the Protocol’s standard terms:
- Annual review: on or just before each anniversary of the IVA starting, you provide an up-to-date income and expenditure statement with evidence, such as P60s, payslips and bank statements. If your spare income has gone up, your payment rises by 50% of the increase.
- Overtime, bonus or commission over 10% of your normal take-home pay: tell your supervisor within 14 days of receiving it, and pay in half of the amount above that 10% within 14 days of telling them.
- Redundancy: tell your supervisor within 14 days of being given notice, and again within 14 days of receiving the payment. You can usually keep up to 6 months’ net take-home pay.
- A windfall, gift or inheritance worth more than £500: tell your supervisor. It can be claimed for the IVA, but only up to the amount needed to repay your creditors in full plus costs.
If you do not engage with the annual review, the IVA can be ended. Keep a folder, paper or digital, for payslips and statements from day one. See pay rises, bonuses and windfalls for what you must declare.
Mistakes people make with IVA paperwork
- Leaving out a friend or family member you owe, because you want to pay them back yourself. They are a creditor like any other.
- Forgetting irregular costs such as car repairs, school uniforms, glasses or annual subscriptions. If they are not in the budget, they will not be affordable later.
- Not mentioning money you expect, such as a pending claim or an inheritance. The Protocol treats a likely lump sum as a sign a standard IVA may not be suitable, so it needs to be known at the start.
- Sending statements for one account and not the others. Your IP needs the full picture.
What to do next
- Before you gather anything for an IVA, get free, impartial advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline, who can use the same paperwork to compare all your options. See where to get free debt advice.
- Start a folder and work through the checklist above, one row at a time.
- Read how to apply for an IVA so you know what happens to your documents next, and compare an IVA with the alternatives in IVA or debt management plan?. All our IVA guides are on the IVAs explained page.
Common questions
How many months of bank statements will I need?
There is no fixed number in the rules. The IVA Protocol only says checks should be proportionate, so each insolvency practitioner sets its own requirement. Ask them, and include every account you use, not just your main one.
Do I need a formal valuation of my home?
The IVA Protocol says any property you own, alone or jointly, should be valued by you and that valuation checked by the insolvency practitioner. Ask them what evidence of value they will accept.
What if I am self-employed?
Expect to show your most recent tax return or accounts, your business bank statements and a realistic forecast of your income, because your payment is based on what you can sustain through quieter months as well as busy ones.
Can the insolvency practitioner check what I tell them?
Yes. They run a credit history search and are expected to verify your income, spending, assets and debts, so gaps or differences are likely to be picked up and questioned.
Related guides
- How to apply for an IVA The application process from first advice to the creditor vote, and the questions to ask.
- How does an IVA work? Step by step: assessment, creditor vote, monthly payments, reviews and completion.
- Pay rises, bonuses and windfalls in an IVA Overtime, bonuses, pay rises, redundancy and windfalls: what to declare and how much you keep.
- Will an IVA affect your partner? Joint debts, joint accounts, the household budget, a shared home and your partner's credit file.