More than a year left but may need to call it quits! What are my options?

[codingirl79]

We have roughly 18 months left in our chapter 13 bankruptcy plan. My husband is unable to find a job due to his past history he has been unemployed for about three months, and I am becoming behind, but not completely behind on our trustee payments, if he cannot find a job soon, I am afraid what will happen I cannot afford to pay the trustee alone and pay for our mortgage as well as other bills. We are current on our mortgage and most of our utilities we do owe on medical bills, and I cannot pay those what will happen to our home if I convert to a seven, what will happen if I leave the bankruptcy plan with the creditors can I contact them just to pay? I really don’t know what to do. I do not want to lose our home and we are current on our home payment. Very stressful. I don’t know how much more I can handle.

[shipo]

Sorry about your situation, your best bet here is to talk with your attorney; he or she can look in detail at your financial picture and help you come up with a plan.

[Carmella]

Agree, you need to talk to your attorney as soon as possible when something like this happens, they can give you the best advice. Don't give up or stop making the payment on your own. Get advice from the attorney.

[codingirl79]

I’m so afraid I’m going to lose everything. My mortgage s current. No one will hire my husband due to his past. My attorney states to pay what I can. Why can’t someone give him a job??? He has 40 applications, interviews and no one will hire him. Im going to have to get another job myself just to pay the trustee.

[justbroke]

Go back to your attorney. This is a hardship and the attorney should be seeking an temporary abatement in payments and preparing to convert or do a hardship discharge if it is that dire.

Note: other factors could be at play such as you have arrears in your Chapter 13 and that could be problematic.

[Barbisi]

One thing concerning is that "no one will hire my husband due to his past history." Now, unless he is a felon on parole, surely, he can't have such a past that he is unemployable. What did he do? (Not prying, just trying to lighten up an over -dramatic statement, Lol! )
In Nov. 2002, my husband was laid off in Dallas, and remained so until we moved to NH in Feb.2004, so he had a stretch of around 15 months without employment.
Of course, we were not then in an active BK13, so your predicament is more precarious, and I wish you only the best.
My husband was let go from one job in Jan. 2019, and re-employed the very next month by a different company, in mid-Feb. 2019 during our own BK13. Luckily, he saw it coming and started the interview process in Dec. 2018 before the official separation date. Fortunately, he received three and a half months' severance pay which allowed us to get some pressing medical services done and to buy a few necessary items (like a decent mattress, for one!) before the trustee reckoning arrived in 2020 in the form of a hefty payment increase.
You must not give up and both you and your husband must persevere until your BK13 ends and you can enjoy your fiercely- won freedom.

[justbroke]

I agree with Barbisi. Don't give up.

[Carmella]

Whatever the situation is, can your husband do any type of work just to help bring some money in? Even if the job is "beneath" him or if he picks up Uber/Doordash type of job. Any money coming in will be better than no money. If it is something like Uber/Doordash then he can work on his schedule so if he has an interview, etc he is available. I know with some jobs you need a connection to even get an interview.

I think you can probably find info how to do this if time spent googling about job searches. My daughter has used Linked In and was pretty savvy in my opinion on finding ways to connect and at least get a few interviews. Obviously, I don't know what type of job he has or what he is applying for. I also understand that the right resume also helps because there is software reading resumes and might toss your resume out for something as simple as not being formatted correctly or not using the right type of font, etc.

Depending on what he has done that people do not want to hire him, he may need a strategy to prove himself or why they should hire him.

I keep listening to Dave Ramsey even though I don't follow all his advice because he does have some good advice. one of his people has written books on subjects about getting jobs/making yourself more marketable. I keep thinking about ordering a book or two. If you think something like this might help listen to podcasts or look on his website and read about the different books and see if anything might help. I never read the books, but when I hear them talk about it I think I need to seriously look into it for the future of my job/career.

[codingirl79]

My husband has an assault charge due to PTSD and is a medical marijuana patient so double whammy. I have no choice at this point but to get another job myself, convert to a 7 or just quit and be homeless. I really don’t feel there is any light in sight. He tried DoorDash / Uber. They won’t allow him to work due to assault charge. He is a hard working person and this is sickening. 48 applications, 5 interviews and no job. I told him to forget about it. I will just get another job. Karma is killing me. I hate being so negative but something has got to give.

[Fowlel4]

Have you spoken to your attorney to see if you can have your payment reduced to reflect your current situation or miss a payment? This could buy you time. Your husband is difficult to hire but it sounds like he is willing. Some moving companies, construction companies and house keeping will still hire you. They can be labor intensive but we have seen them hire those with some pretty bad felonies before.

But you have got to talk to your attorney.

[Carmella]

I agree talk to the attorney. I know someone whose husband lost his job and they were able to make an adjustment. It sounds like your husband is willing to work have him check into one of the jobs like Fowlel4 mentioned. I did a quick google and read that Fed Ex might hire someone. They say it depends on the type of background check that is done. I understand about the medical marijuana as on my job I could be fired even if I had a medical need.

[Barbisi]

Also, codingirl79 , a lot depends on the circumstances surrounding the assault itself - for example, was it unprovoked or an escalated altercation, a stranger , his boss or a coworker (potentially more damning)? I think if it is a minor, one-time only offence not resulting in any jail time, he should eventually be fine to work with others. (You see physical quarrels all the time filmed on cell phones and posted on -line for all to see, where people take a swing at somebody, knock them down or push them around (admittedly not acceptable behavior, but these individuals are not banned from holding a job for their entire lifetimes.)
In the meantime, could he look at remote from home jobs if he is skilled at IT or in any other high-tech fields? He would need to address the incident and explain what happened and why, but because of the lack of in-person interaction, such a company would be less inclined to reject his application and would be more likely to hire him.