Social security and forms I, J

[Hopeinsight2]

My husband is a disabled vet receiving disability at 100%. He also receives Social Security disability. I am a retired teacher. Our total income is $73,380. The median in Arkansas for a family of 2 is $48,781. We are obviously above median, but pass the means test easily since we don't have to include the Social Scurity Disability, and we have a lot of expenses. But it is hard to not have some disposable income on schedules I,J, which does include the social security. Our attorney says that they can't keep us from filing ch. 7 just because of the Social Security and VA disability, but I am worried. Is there anyone on here who had a positive disposable monthly income on Schedule J after adding in Social Security and was still allowed to file ch. 7?

[AngelinaCat]

Thank you and your husband for your service, and welcome to the Forum.

Our situation may not be exactly like yours, but it may help. We filed CH7 in December 2007. We were trying for a CH13, but when I lost my FT job, that became impossible. I still had my PT job and the Unemployment Compensation from my FT job. My husband was fully retired and got Social Security. We also had a yearly stipend from a Retirement instrument. We had a little disposable income, but not much. I learned to recycle aluminum cans big time.

We also had an attorney that did not give us a good education about the BK process. So we made several bad blunders along the way. We also are in Florida where the exemptions are meager, so we were an Asset CH7 because not all of our possessions were covered. We had to buy our stuff back from the BK Estate--the Trustee did give us a discounted price. One of the items considered as an 'asset' was the $780+ deposit we had to pay to the Electric company--we had fallen behind in payments--to keep the electricity on! Far from being an 'asset' to us--it was punishment--as we had to pay the entire amount up front.

You get the picture. We did not find this Forum until well after we filed. We did get successfully discharged, though we were on pins and needles the whole time. And an Enemy filed an AP against us.

Good wishes to you. If you have questions, I will be glad to try and answer them.

[Hopeinsight2]

Thank you for your reply, AngelinaCat. Luckily, Arkansas is allowed to use the federal exemptions. About how much disposable income did you have on form J? And were you below median?