Thursday, April 9, 2020
APRIL 20 UPDATE
In a 4-1 decision, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that creditors may not seize Hoosiers’ stimulus payments received through the federal CARES Act. This ruling is a major victory for Hoosier families and comes in response to a petition from Indiana Legal Services, Prosperity Indiana, Neighborhood Christian Legal Services, and the Indiana Institute for Working Families to protect these funds from creditors and debt collectors seeking to garnish them.
Read the joint press release from Indiana Institute for Working Families and Prosperity Indiana.
Governor Holcomb:Don't Allow Debt Collectors to Seize Stimulus Payments
In
response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed the CARES Act to provide
direct payments to all citizens who meet certain income eligibility guidelines.
Hoosiers can expect to receive $1,200 per adult and $500 per child if their
2019 or 2018 adjusted gross income falls below $75,000 (single adult) or $150,000
(married). Congress intended these payments to help families meet their basic
needs at a time when the country is seeing unprecedented job loss and state unemployment
systems are struggling to keep up with new filings. Last week alone, more than
120,000 Hoosiers filed for unemployment, reflecting COVID-19's tremendous impact on Hoosiers’ ability to bring home a paycheck.
Debt collectors should not be
allowed to take the first cut of these emergency funds. Before the COVID-19
crisis in Indiana, approximately one in three Hoosiers struggled to meet their
basic needs and nearly 61% of jobs in Indiana did not pay a self-sufficient
wages for a family of three. Nearly the same percentage had a debt in
collections with a median amount owed of over $1,700. Meanwhile, some Hoosiers
who were not struggling before the crisis may now find themselves in a position
of need. Unfortunately, Indiana's limited consumer protection laws leave many
Hoosiers vulnerable to creditors’ and debt collectors’ attempts to seize funds.
While the CARES Act protects stimulus payments
from being reduced to pay certain debts owed to federal and state governments,
it does not provide clear protection from bank account seizure by debt
collectors. By filing the proper paperwork, creditors may obtain an immediate hold on debtors’ accounts
and, because advance notice is not required, many debtors will only learn of
the hold when they suddenly cannot access their account. While the law allows
the debtor to request a hearing to assert exemptions, when courts are closed and
people are ordered to stay at home, this right may be inaccessible. Even
if the debtor gets to court, in many circumstances, only $400 may be
protected. While persons on Social Security and VA benefits do have
additional protections under the law, attachment of bank accounts will hurt the
working poor the hardest at a time they can least afford it.
Governor
Holcomb can and should issue an executive order to 1) impose a moratorium on
any new garnishment or attachment orders, 2) stay enforcement of any existing attachment / garnishment of bank accounts, 3) prohibit state chartered financial
institutions from seizing stimulus checks to repay a debt owed to them, and 4)
clarify that stimulus checks are exempt under existing state law and the
garnishment of such funds is an unfair and deceptive practice.
At this
extraordinary time, families should be permitted to keep and use funds meant to
stabilize their households. These funds should be used to meet urgent needs like housing, food, medicine, and utilities, not to satisfy old debts. We urge Governor Holcomb to use his authority to protect Hoosier families who desperately need this cash infusion.
