Long-Term Disability & Spousal Support
Becoming seriously disabled can drastically impact your ability to work and earn income, making long-term disability benefits essential but often insufficient. In California, these benefits can be garnished to pay court-ordered spousal support, posing financial challenges. Learn what protections and legal options exist to manage spousal support obligations when disability strikes.
Long-Term Disability & Spousal Support
Becoming seriously disabled can drastically impact your ability to work and earn income, making long-term disability benefits essential but often insufficient. In California, these benefits can be garnished to pay court-ordered spousal support, posing financial challenges. Learn what protections and legal options exist to manage spousal support obligations when disability strikes.
If you’re disabled and paying spousal support in California, your disability benefits may be garnished.
When someone becomes seriously disabled, one of the most wrenching consequences can be an inability to work. Instead of being able to rely on their previous income, they may need to seek government benefits for long-term disability. These payments often come nowhere near to covering expenses that were once covered by what the individual was earning in their profession, let alone their increased medical expenses.
This drastic change in financial circumstances can leave a formerly capable person facing debts they have no realistic means of paying. While Federal law has provisions protecting disability benefits from garnishment for certain kinds of consumer debts, such as credit card debts or car payments, these benefits can be garnished to pay government or court-ordered debts, including spousal support. Because a disabled supporting spouse can potentially face garnishment of disability payments for spousal support, it is essential to know what recourse is available to preserve their income and ensure their obligation does not leave them destitute.
What You'll Learn
Disability Payments and Garnishment Laws
Whether disability payments can be subject to garnishment is dependent on the type of benefit. Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) makes payments to those who meet Social Security’s disability criteria and have worked in jobs covered by Social Security long enough and recently enough to qualify. Supplemental Security Income (SSI), on the other hand, is a means-tested program that gives monthly payments to those with disabilities who have little to no income or financial resources to rely on. Section 459 of the Social Security Act permits the garnishment of income to enforce obligations for child support and alimony, but this is limited to income “considered to be based upon remuneration for employment,” which SSI is not. Thus, SSI cannot be garnished to pay spousal support.
However, SSDI can potentially be subject to court-ordered garnishment for spousal support. The amount that can be garnished for either child support or alimony is limited by the provisions of the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA). This law allows for up to 50% of disposable earnings (earnings left after legally required deductions are made) to be garnished if the recipient is supporting another spouse or child, and up to 60% if they are not. If support payments are more than 12 weeks past due, an additional 5% can be garnished.
While these legal limits on garnishing disability payments can prevent the entirety of SSDI payments from being swallowed up by alimony obligations, they can easily leave the disabled recipient without enough to pay their own bills. The means to prevent such a garnishment, however, can also be extremely limited.
Can I Stop My Disability Income from Being Garnished for Spousal Support?
If a recipient spouse has obtained a court order to garnish spousal support, the other party has an opportunity to object by filing Form FL-450, Request for Hearing Regarding Earnings Assignment. This allows them to make the case that having the amount specified taken would “cause extraordinary hardship” for them, but that argument must be backed up by evidence presented at a hearing on the application. Most importantly, even a successful petition to reduce or eliminate a garnishment does not change the underlying support order or judgment. That requires a separate motion made to the court to modify or end spousal support based on the new financial reality created by the payor’s disability.
Declaring bankruptcy is not likely to help in this situation. While some types of garnishments are automatically halted by filing bankruptcy, those for current alimony and child support payments are not. Further, debts for spousal and child support are not dischargeable through bankruptcy proceedings, meaning that the supporting spouse will still be liable for them even if they are able to eliminate other types of debt.
The best course of action is to act quickly to ask the court for a modification of the spousal support award that considers the payor’s reduced ability to pay and increased expenses due to their disability. If the court finds that the disabled party is unable to pay spousal support at the previously ordered level, or at all, due to the impact of their disability, this can reduce or eliminate the risk of having disability payments garnished.
Protecting Disability Income from Spousal Support Garnishment in Silicon Valley
Coping with a long-term disability often means having to adjust to newly constrained financial circumstances. If that fragile stability is being threatened by the garnishment of disability payments for spousal support that you can no longer afford, the expert family law attorneys at Hoover Krepelka can help. We can effectively advocate for a modification that protects your financial well-being and preserves the income you depend on from garnishment. To schedule a consultation, fill out the form below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can disability benefits be used to pay spousal support in California?
Yes. While federal law protects certain disability benefits from garnishment for consumer debts, these benefits can be garnished to pay for government or court-ordered obligations such as spousal support.
What happens to spousal support obligations if the paying spouse becomes disabled and unable to work?
A substantial change in financial circumstances, such as disability, may allow the paying spouse to petition the court for a modification of spousal support, but disability payments may still be used to cover support if ordered.
How can a disabled spouse protect their income from being fully garnished for spousal support?
It’s important to work with a knowledgeable family law attorney who can help petition the court to adjust support obligations appropriately and explore ways to preserve disability income and avoid destitution.