Then while gardening, he got a back injury and was off work for 16 months and had to use credit cards to supplement the social security benefits he was receiving. When he got to the limit on one card, he would resort to the next. On returning to work, he took out a consolidation loan to clear the debts on the credit cards, but made the mistake of not cutting up his credit cards and continued to use them.

Mr B found that he was in a spiral of debt with no immediate exit route and his debts had reached £39,300. He consulted Phillip Allen and an Individual Voluntary Arrangement ("IVA") was proposed with 29 monthly repayments of £389 and then, having repaid the hire purchase on his motor vehicle, he could afford to pay £632 for the remaining 31 months of the Arrangement.

Being in a rural community, he wanted to avoid the stigma of bankruptcy and not risk losing the vehicle to the hire purchase company as he needed it to get to and from work; the IVA provided this opportunity as well as freezing interest on the balances of £39,300 and clearing these completely with a payment of £30,873 over five years.