Paying Son's Student Loan

[LuciluS]

My husband is paying his son's Student Loan (Loan is in husband's name) of $115.20 auto withdraw from our checking account each month.

Is this monthly amount allowed as an expense when determing your Monthly Gross Income Vs. your monthly expenses to derive at your 'Net Income'?

Luci

[AngelinaCatHub]

If it is in his name, it is not your son's debt. It is his. So yes that should be included. 'Hub

[HHM]

Nope. Student loan payments are not an allowed expense.

[LuciluS]

Nope. Student loan payments are not an allowed expense.

OMG! That's Not Fair!!! Crapola! O I am So THANKFUL to have found this Forum and delayed the filing of our Bankruptcy.

When we first met with our Attorney for free consult (back in 9/08), I went in there with A Spreadsheet of My Husband's Income, My Monthly 401K Income and My Monthly Disability Income. Then I did a Spreadsheet of our Itemized Expenses and a ReCap of Our "NET" Income Vs. our Expenses to derive at $110 a month leftover. He said Yes....You qualify for Chapter 7. Of course, at the time, I didn't even know the difference between Chapter 7,12,13 or 20 LOL!

He gave us a Packet and I have spent a Portion of Every Day since then (well except for this last week..I had surgery Monday), working on this Bankruptcy. I inherited quite a lot of "Old" (not antique LOL! learned that term on this forum) Furniture and Jewerly and have researched until I found every Piece sold along with our other material Assets. I printed each item so I would have proof. Albeit I've printed 500 pages.

Well, thankfully, because of finding this forum...researching, asking questions, etc., and not filing in 12/08, my 401K income went kaput & I found out I have skin cancer in Feb., we will be waiting until I get the 'ok..no more skin cancer' and by then, 6 months will have passed since I received my last monthly 401k payment and our Gross Income will be below the AR Avg; now, I just have to figure out if our expenses will be enough.

Attorney told us to quit paying credit cards, so I did the end of Sept. 08; except, for a Care Credit card which I was able to charge my $4,664 dental bill (many visits Oct-Jan) to and received a Car Accident Settlement in 2/09 of $5,000 to pay it off. Just hope and pray we don't get sued or hubby's wages get garnished before we can file hopefully 9/30/09. Our Attorney only files bankruptcies the last day of each month (small town..I guess the reason why?).

Make Sense?


Luci

[lrprn]

Nope. Student loan payments are not an allowed expense.

Hang on, HHM. This blog post on the Bankruptcy Law
network would seem to contradict this in some circumstances - http://www.************************/...means-testing/

And just so everyone is clear, student loan payments might be allowed as expenses when filing Ch 13. Our monthly Parent Plus student loan payment for our son was included as a monthly expense when we filed Ch 13 back in 2006 - not a peep from our trustee who peeped plenty about other things - see my sig . From prior discussions in the forums about this topic, this practice does vary between different local courts. Some allow it, some don't.

The best thing to do is to discuss whether your student loans can be included as an expense or not with your lawyer who is familiar with your unique financial circumstances. Just be prepared that if you are filing Ch 7, the answer is almost always going to be no because the loans will be placed in forebearance or deferred between filing and discharge.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Since it is a non-dischargable debt, I would think it would go on the minus side of the paperwork. It is an expense in any case. 'Hub

[jennordhavn]

I did not include them on my means test, but I did include them as an expense on Sched. J and it wasn't questioned.

[LuciluS]

I did not include them on my means test, but I did include them as an expense on Sched. J and it wasn't questioned.

Thanks Jenn and Hub. I'm going to email my Attorney in the morning and ask him.

Luci