Though you may be receiving aid via Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, the severity of your disability may still make it difficult to adequately support yourself. And if you find yourself in a greatly dire financial situation, then you may even go as far as considering a bankruptcy declaration. However, you may be held back by the fear that a bankruptcy trustee will ultimately take away your SSDI benefits payments to pay back your due creditors. Read on to discover the possibility of losing your benefits upon your bankruptcy filing and how a seasoned New Jersey SSDI attorney at The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur can help protect you from this.
Is it possible to lose SSDI benefits in bankruptcy?
The short answer is that it is unlikely that you will lose your SSDI benefits payments upon your bankruptcy filing. This is because the federal bankruptcy code bars courts from taking these funds.
However, you may still have to make an effort to prove the amount of previous SSDI benefits payments that you have since deposited in your bank accounts, so that they may remain untouched. Further, you may have to argue to the court that you require the entirety of these monthly payments to be adequately supported.
What efforts can I make to protect my SSDI benefits?
As you likely already understand, declaring bankruptcy is a serious decision with serious repercussions. Not only might you run the risk of losing certain assets and properties, but you may also damage your credit score and have this incident publicly disclosed on your credit report for the years to come.
This is all to say that there may be alternative resolutions to seeking additional financial aid to adequately support yourself. For one, say that you incurred your disability as a direct result of being made a victim in a catastrophic accident. Well then, our attorneys would likely advise you to consider filing a personal injury claim against the negligent party instead. With this, the court may order the defendant to pay compensatory damages, punitive damages, and more so that you may be better able to reach a full recovery.
Secondly, our attorneys may assist you in updating the Social Security Administration (SSA) on any life updates that may make you eligible for increased monthly SSDI benefits payments. For example, you may notify the SSA once you have experienced the death of a spouse or an adult child, you have reached retirement age, or you have earned additional work hours, among other things.
Lastly, our attorney may direct you toward other government assistance programs that you may apply for, such as unemployment insurance (UI), temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or otherwise.
The best way you can ensure your financial protection is by retaining the services of a competent New Jersey SSDI attorney. So please contact The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur today.
