Reply to Credit Card Suing for Non-Payment

Forum Index » Family Relationships

Reply to "Credit Card Suing for Non-Payment - Brother on Disbility"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]brother has a series of mental health issues and is unable to work.  he lives in a small condo bought with money inherited from our parents, and receives SSI and Food Stamps.  Owns an older car in pretty bad shape but works okay.

before going on disability, he had been working sporadically and thus had ok credit and such, and managed to amass about $8k in credit card debt.  recently, he was served by the sheriff that the credit card company is suing him for the $8k in debt.  it was spent frivolously, as a means to cope with his mental health issues.

how will this play out most likely? from what i read, they probably can't take the car or house, though a judge may put a lien on his property?  can they force the sale of his condo to pay the debt?  can he declare bankruptcy (but we are really confused as to how to pay a bankruptcy lawyer when you have no money to begin with....??)

he lives in maine, so i know that defines some of the excepted assets that can be protected in bankruptcy, I think his condo just exceeds that exception, by like $10k -- maybe. after realtor fees it would be wiped out.

if this gets really ugly, he may attempt suicide again, which is another worry.[/quote]

Criteria for getting SSI is less than $2k in assets. He owns a house. Inheritance counts as an asset. Did he lie in his application or are you talking about some state disability benefit?[/quote]

Op, don't listen to this poster. Policy is clear, but convoluted. There are asset exemptions and exceptions. There are grace periods during which lump sum income is not counted against you. I'm not even going to try to specifically state the policy here on dcum, and neither should this pp. Don't accuse someone you don't know of lying about something you know little about.[/quote]

+1. Accusatory PP doesn't know anything about SSI. A house you live in is not a countable resource towards the $2k maximum. If there was cash inheritance, it may have been spent down within 9 months, placed in ABLE account or Special Needs Trust, or led to a period of suspension of SSI until the cash was spent.

If there's an SSA issue, contact legal services.
For the debt issue, contact legal services. If they can't help, making sure that the lawyer for the credit card company knows that your brother gets SSI and is collection-proof could be useful. Creditors don't want to spend money on legal fees to get judgments they'll never be able to collect.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics