Income adjustments?

[dakota112]

Does anyone know if Means Test income is going to change soon? I've read where it may even go down. With inflation set to rise soon I would think that would increase the cost of living for most folks in next 6 months.

[shabam]

I don't know how the inflation is going to rise with so many people out of work.

[jribe]

Does anyone know if Means Test income is going to change soon? I've read where it may even go down. With inflation set to rise soon I would think that would increase the cost of living for most folks in next 6 months.

inflation won't be rising anytime soon...

However, because so many people are out of work; that means median incomes for most family has gone down this year.

So- when the new census numbers come out (usually in Nov and Feb) income will likely be adjusted downward for most areas.

However- it won't be a huge change. Maybe between 1k-2k for the yearly numbers.

[dakota112]

With all of this so called stimulus money going into the economy, history has taught us that printing paper money ALWAYS leads to massive inflation. It will be no different this time around. Those folks without jobs will have a very hard time with few dollars chasing goods that cost more. Having had more time to think since being underemployed, I calculated that the probable debt owed by the some 1.4 million folks who will file BK this year is maybe 100,000 to 200,000 dollars which is about 100 to 200billion dollars; this is less than the money given to the banks to whom the money is owed . The govt would have paid less to give it to the folks to pay their debts and would have saved a bundle, but I guess than the lawyers and trustees wouldn't be able to earn a living in their chosen field. Just irks me that these bankers are just given these millions as if they are so deserving to be paid for their failures and the little people ( to quote Leona Helmsley) have to just shut up and swallow it, and pay 30% interest. My rant for the day.

[dakota112]

Lowering the numbers will throw thousands more people into CH 13's that they wouldn't be able to complete. This is a silly game.

[leena]

Lowering the numbers will throw thousands more people into CH 13's that they wouldn't be able to complete. This is a silly game.

I agree, a lot of the bankruptcy deal is a "silly game". As it is, the attorneys, the trustees, and the judges know that people are being forced into flat out untruths in the process. I mean, asking unemployed people if they expect any significant changes in the next year? People including payments on homes they intend to dump in the means test? I love the stories I hear about initial 341's, in complex BK situations where a trustee says (usually to a pro se filer) something like "surely you have more in actual expenses this" (nudge! nudge! help me help you get a 7! Who says the trustees are all about getting people into 13's?). It is too bad we have to "average out" stuff over a year of expenses so heaven forbid we do not have an additional, oh $191.00 in "DMI" that in reality a bad tooth would take up in a heartbeat, even with dental insurance.

Anyway, rant over. I agree that changing the numbers for what is no doubt a very temporary economic situation is a silly game. Sometime soon after this recession, about the time unemployment numbers start getting much better I expect inflation.

[backtoschool]

Here are the new numbers. I took this from a thread posted in the general subforum:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=45406

Remember that the bankruptcy laws were "reformed" by the banking lobbyists in 2005 so of course they want as many people in chap 13's as possible.

I had to stay unemployed for over six months after being laid off to qualify for a chapter 7. A chapter 13 would NOT have given me a fresh start at all. At my former income, my chapter 13 plan would have been well over $3000 a month for unsecured debt, not including rent or living expenses or student loans.

My student loans would have gone into forbearance, adding another 50k in interest to them in the five years of my plan.

But my unsecured creditors would have been happy. They would have been paid off at 100%.

And as for incomes, the Fed is going through a concerted effort right now to deflate the dollar so that our national debt will be worth much less. When that dollar is deflated (ie hyper-inflation), the income schedules and expense schedules will not accurately reflect true cost of living from year to year.