楊清泉 - IS SOCIAL SECURITY PART OF DISPOSABLE INCOME IN CHAPTER 13 PART 1

Imagine that you are a Chapter 13 debtor. You owe $100,000 of credit card debt. You receive a pension of $1,000, $1,500 from a part time job, and $1,500 from social security. You propose a plan payment of $500 a month for 60 months which will pay 30% of your credit card debt. Your plan payment of $500 is based on your calculation of disposable income that EXCLUDES your social security income. If you include your social security income your disposable income will be $2,000, instead of $500. The trustee objects to confirmation of your plan and requires you to increase your plan payment to $2,000 because you actually receive $1,500 more from social security. The trustee argues that you are shielding your social security income to the detriment of your creditors, therefore, your plan is proposed in bad faith. You argue that SSI is not part of disposable income, therefore, should not be included in the calculation of disposable income. Who is correct?

In Re Cranmer, the above median income Chapter 13 debtor received $1,940 monthly in social security income. He did not include this income in the calculation of his disposable income because Section 101(10A)(B) provides “current monthly income”…includes any amount paid by any entity…,but excludes benefits received un the Social Security Act…” The bankruptcy court sustained the trustee’s objection to the debtor’s proposed plan, which allowed him to keep his Social Security Income. This is one smart debtor who wanted to have his cake and eat it too, like many of us. We want our entitlements and we do not ever want to pay any tax. This is America, the land of the freeloaders. The court found that the SSI payments should have been included in the debtor’s projected disposable income, and that the debtor’s failure to do so was bad faith.

So, the debtor amended his plan to conform to the court’s ruling, albeit under protest. The amended plan was confirmed but debtor was not able to maintain payments and the case was dismissed. Debtor appealed the dismissal order asserting that the bankruptcy court erred by not confirming his original plan.