Chapter 13 Timing to Discharge Student Loans

Discharging a student loan requires meeting the difficult condition called undue hardship. Chapter 13 can help through more flexible timing.

We’re in a series on the best timing for filing your bankruptcy case. Two weeks ago we introduced the special condition you have to meet to discharge (write off) student loans: undue hardship. Last week we focused on how to better meet that condition with smart timing of a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case. Today we get into doing that with a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts case.

Undue Hardship Requirements

We’re focusing on the phrase “undue hardship” because the law clearly establishes that as a condition for discharging student loans. The U.S. Bankruptcy Code says you can’t discharge a student loan unless paying it “would impose an undue hardship on the debtor [you] and the debtor’s dependents.” Section 523(a)(8). Generally bankruptcy courts have interpreted “undue hardship” to include three requirements. Each has a timing consideration. We’ll look at these three, showing how the timing benefits of Chapter 13 case can help you meet them.

Crucial Benefit of Chapter 13: The Long Automatic Stay

But first we need to introduce a crucial benefit of Chapter 13. It’s actually a benefit of all bankruptcy cases, but is especially strong in Chapter 13. And it provides you major advantages with student loans.

We’re talking about the “automatic stay.” This is the federal law that immediately stops almost all collection actions against you. It goes into effect the moment you and your bankruptcy lawyer file your case.

What’s crucial for our purposes here is that this protection usually lasts the length of your case. That’s not very long in a Chapter 7 case: only 3 or 4 months most of the time. In contrast, a Chapter 13 case generally lasts 3 to 5 years. So its automatic stay protection lasts that long. Meaning that your student loan creditors would be stopped from collecting throughout those 3 to 5 years of your Chapter 13 case. This is a huge benefit on its face; it can be even more so for meeting the undue hardship requirements.

1. Presently Inability to Pay

This long period of protection from collection allows you to delay establishing the required present inability to pay the student loan. You have to be experiencing “undue hardship” at the time your bankruptcy lawyer asks the bankruptcy court for the discharge of your student loan. With Chapter 13 you can file the case, imposing immediate automatic stay protection against your creditors, before qualifying for undue hardship. In particular you can file when anticipating that you would be able to qualify within the following 3-to-5-years. In the meantime your student loan creditor(s) is (are) prevented from requiring payment and taking other collection actions.

For example, assume you have a worsening chronic medical condition. But that condition doesn’t currently prevent you from maintaining a minimal standard of living if you paid the student loan. Filing Chapter 13 now would protect you from the student loan(s) and the rest of your creditors. Then you could wait as long as 5 years for your condition to worsen until you did meet this requirement.

2. Extended Inability to Pay

The second requirement of undue hardship looks into the future. Your inability to maintain even a minimal standard of living must be predicted to last throughout most of the student loan repayment period. The advantage in Chapter 13 here is similar to the first requirement just discussed. Being able to wait to file the request for an “undue hardship” discharge as much as years after filing the Chapter 13 case increases your ability to meet this second requirement.

For example, assume you were in a serious vehicle accident a few months before filing the Chapter 13 case. You are receiving short-term disability payments. You need bankruptcy protection from all your other creditors now. But you do not yet know your long-term medical prospects, and thus your financial prospects. Specifically you don’t know whether you will be able to maintain a minimal standard of living throughout the student loan repayment period. Filing Chapter 13 now would protect you from all your creditors, including the student loan one(s). And it would keep you protected as your medical condition stabilized and your financial prospects got clearer. If you qualified for long term undue hardship then, your bankruptcy lawyer could file the request then. You’d more likely qualify because the future would be clearer then.

3. Prior Effort to Pay or Make Other Arrangements

The third requirement is that you must have taken certain action in the past before requesting a student loan discharge. You must have made a meaningful effort to repay the loan. Or else you must have applied for appropriate administrative programs for deferring or reducing payments on it.

In the midst of a Chapter 13 case you may or may not make any direct payments to the student loan creditor. This depends on the rules of your local bankruptcy court. Same with your ability to apply for the administrative fixes. Talk with your local bankruptcy lawyer about this.

If there isn’t great urgency to file the case, your lawyer may well counsel you to apply immediately for the administrative payment-delaying or reducing programs. That way you can better position yourself to meet this part of the test before filing the Chapter 13 case.

Even Without an “Undue Hardship” Discharge, Get Collection Protection

In these Chapter 13 scenarios, at the time of filing you’ll likely not know whether you’ll eventually qualify for hardship discharge. Time will pass while you’re in your case, and your medical/financial circumstances may deteriorate. Or they may improve, so that you don’t qualify for undue hardship. But the automatic stay would protect you from your student loan creditor(s) in the meantime. At some point during the case you may qualify for undue hardship. But if eventually you don’t, you still would have gotten relief from your student loan creditor(s) during that time.