VA and SSDI are BOTH exempt from garnishment. Also you may want to think about filing for bankruptcy if the debt can not be paid off in less than 3 to 5 yrs on your current income. You are going to only dig your self a long rut that will continue if the old bills are going to keep pulling you down. Many states let you file alone, so that your spouse will not have to file with you. Check with your state laws to see if your state is one of them. Michigan I know will let people file without their spouse, while Ohio will not.

Attempt to call and make payment arrangements with them. I would do it by certified mail (keeping a copy for yourself). Tell them in the letter that they can take the arrangements in payments or you will set aside x number of dollars per month and when the full amount is saved you will then pay them. If they refuse and you have to start to save up the funds, then at least when or if they file a court action (which they most likely will) you can explain your situation better to the judge and ask for relief from the judgment in the form of payment arrangement (that you had already tried to make with them before the filing). Courts will often agree to a payment plan and as long as one is in place and followed NO other collection on that account is allowed.

Then I would get some sort of paperwork from the other country where the house is at, some sort of tax statement showing WHO all has ownership in the house, what its taxable value is, what if anything is owed on the house..ect.. and file an appeal as to that 50,000 judgment. You should be able to file for a hearing without an attorney if you really can not afford one. BUT make sure you have enough paperwork to back you up. She is only entitled to a portion of what your ownership stake is in that house. however it can NOT exceed 100% of what stake you have in the house, but could be up TO 100%, depending on the circumstances as to WHY she was awarded it.

This sort of thing is NOT child support, federal student loans, or taxes, so therefor is NOT allowed to be garnished from SSDI before or after it goes into your bank account. BUT if other funds are in there it is possible to take the entire amount. Only protection is the make it obvious that it is SSDI and ONLY SSDI is to isolate those funds from anything else.

If they are NOT federal student loans, ie.. regular loans to go to school. Then they are most likely dischargeable in bankruptcy AND they will NOT be able to garnish your SSDI to begin with. Since ONLY federal student loans have the ability to do this, not simple bank loans.

She has her ssdi going into an account by itself. I have my unemployment going into another account (at a totally different bank). My concern is that they will find a way to garnish us leaving us without the ability to keep a roof over our heads as we are barely able to do now. Between her ssdi and my unemployment (as well as child support I collect from an ex-wife) we have 750 in ssdi, 230 in child support and 1664 in unemployment a month. (total of about 2640) Our house payment is 860 a month, and utilities are another 300. so it consumes HALF of our income just there. Then you add in our car payment (we have to keep a reliable car due to MANY MANY dr appointments), of 340 a month, another 150 in car insurance, that now leaves us with 800 for food for 3 people, gas to get around, phone bill, maintenance on a 4 yr old car.. we have little to NOTHING left at the end of the month. I offered to pay them 20 a month, but they told me they could only do that for 2 months then we would have to pay at least 100 to 200 a month at a minimum!

What can they legally garnish if anything? Is it just 25% of my disposable income (meaning either work wages or my unemployment?) – I assume unemployment is exempt from what I have read thus far. Sooner or later I will either return to work or apply for ssdi myself due to liver disease.

I need to know how to protect my family from ending up on the streets.

One other issue is that I have about 10 medical bills that are in collections with different creditors. There is NO way I can please them all – especially at one time. I have actually quit going to the dr because of this issue, and my health is actually getting worse because of that.

Another question is we did NOT reaffirm on the house when we did the bankruptcy, we only put 500 down on it 2 yrs ago when we bought it. It is worth about what we owe on it. If I should die what will happen with the house. Would they try to seize it even if there is little to no equity at all in it? (to me this would make no sense but then I see stupid things happen all the time). Just an FYI, Most of the debt is in my wifes name, the house is ONLY in mine.

My question is can creditors garnish or freeze my bank accounts? One account is Social Security funds only with my wife listed as my payee. When the check comes direct deposit it comes in her name. I have a separate account just in my name only for my VA Compensation. No other funds are placed in this account. Can someone give me some guidance as what I should do. Should I drop my name off both accounts and have my spouse as the account owner? Or should I request that each agency send me paper checks?

Patrick