student loans means test

[karm43]

I am current on my mort student loan and car also utilities. Everything else no. I owe taxes which I am paying on. Will I be eligible for chap 7? If I pass means test? part 2 over medium. Do not want my student loan being deferred because heard it acrues interest. Is it considered secured? Can I count the student loan on my means test? My student loan finally going down, would hate to be back where I started with it. From what I read as long as you are current on all these, you are ok. Keeping them. Any suggestions? Actually if I cannot include the student loan I may be close to failing means test. If I do a chap 13 can I still choose to pay my student loan?

[Dj1995]

I'm not sure about the means test, but we couldn't use student loan payments on schedule J.

[SilverQT]

I am about to file Chap 7 in Northern California this week. My very experienced attorney confirmed to me twice that my student loan payment is acceptable as an expense on Schedule J in a Chapter 7 but not in a Chapter 13. Though it is unsecured, it is not dischargeable so he said here they are reasonable about allowing this. This may be a variable that depends on where the BK is filed, certainly. My net income is -$200, my student loan payment is $86, though, so even without that expense I am in the negative.

[helpmeout]

Don't know about the means test, but that's only one part of qualifying for a Chapter 7. The schedules I & J are another part. It is rare for a student loan to be allowed to be put on it as that goes into deferment while in bankruptcy. So if you have enough money left over after your allowable expenses (again, chances are very good that your student loan payment will not be allowed) are deducted from your income to fund a Chapter 13, your payment will be that. If you want to continue to pay your student loan, it will have to come out of the budget for your allowable expenses. If you can't swing that, then it goes into deferment. You really should consult with a couple of lawyers.

[helpmeout]

My net income is -$200, my student loan payment is $86, though, so even without that expense I am in the negative.

And that is why the student loan was allowed to remain on your schedules. It made no difference at the end. If you had been at 0 and your student loan payment was $200, it would not have been allowed and you would be in a Chapter 13. Your very experienced attorney should have told you that the only reason why you were allowed to keep the payment on the schedule is because in the end, it did not make a difference to the amount available to fund a Chapter 13. It's $0 whether it's -$200 or -$114.