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L
lahenz Asked November 2015

What should we do with my Mom's credit card bills since we have put her in a long term facility?

She will be on Medicaid.

sandwich42plus Nov 2015
The allowable asset amount by Medicaid varies by state. In MN, it's $3,000.

No, the president doesn't personally write collections law or IRS policy. That stuff has been around for decades, so blaming any President for that is misdirected. Your better target is really Congress as they are the ones who pass bills in the middle of the night that change things to worsen it for the average person.

It depends on if the credit card debt was secured or unsecured really. It depends on your state laws about estate recovery to cover unpaid debts.

It's best to consult an estate/elderlaw attorney to make sure your rear end is covered as next of kin, caregiver, POA, etc. One of the benefits of having court appointed guardianship/conservatorship is that I have court letters stating that I am not personally responsible for any mom's debts.

Llamalover47 Nov 2015
On Medicaid, your mother is allowed to own $2, 000 in assests.

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JoAnn29 Nov 2015
I worked Collections. There r laws that protect you. Once a balance goes into 90 days or longer that debt is turned over to a collection agency that has nothingto do withthe credit card company. If the collection company can collect, they get 25% of the debt the credit card company gets 75%. The collections rep works on commission. The more they collect the more money they get. Once you have worked things out with the credit card company that should be it but the collections agency may not be told in a timely manner. Make sure you keep all names, dates and what was discussed. Request a confirmation email. When the agency calls, give them the info and refer them to the person you spoke with at the credit card co. Then tell them not to call you again. If they do, tell them to refer to the notes in their system because it may not be the same person. Then tell that person not to call again because you will report them to the FTC. Make sure you are given names of the Collection agency and the person who is calling before even talking to them. Its the FTC Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977. Its very strict on collection agencies.

Christine73 Nov 2015
DO NOT CALL THE CC COMPANIES!!! You will be sorry if you do, because they will harass you for the money. Here's what you should really do. Go to the post office and get a P.O. Box (you can even do this online at usps.com. Change mom's address to the P.O. Box. When the credit card bills come in, you can save them or throw them away. When she passes away, you have the option of sending them a certified copy of her death certificate. Use her P.O. Box as the return address. This is what easiest, and best, for you. The bills will never get paid because mom does not have the money. The Cc companies are aware of that risk, hence, the high interest rate (about 3x what I pay for my mortgage). One way or another, they will have to write it off. Under NO circumstances should you give your name, address, or phone number unless you want to be harassed--and I MEAN HARASSED--on top of everything else. You have no obligation to the Cc company if your name is not on the account. I would just save myself the trouble. If a 1099 C gets issued (though someone told me this does not happen with credit cards), I would ignore that, too. If she's in a nh, especially if she has dementia, It's all moot.

Suzy56Snowflake Nov 2015
The IRS is going against the law of the land by requiring written off stuff to be declared as income. That is absolutely insane! When something is written off, it means just that. FORGIVEN! You are paying double tax on it then. This socialist government needs to go away....not sure if any new president can clear the damage this idiot president has caused, though. Too far gone.

arianne777 Nov 2015
This information was very helpful. I am 84, and hope that I will never have to be in a nursing home. But I saved the information here so I can tell my son ahead of time what he should and shouldn't do.

Decatur30033 Nov 2015
DO NOT in any instance indicate in any way you have responsibility for someones debt. Someone in a Nursing home & on Medicaid will not be looking for credit anyway.

ramiller Nov 2015
igloo, thank you for all the great information! Should be helpful to many.

ADCaregivers Nov 2015
Have no idea if this is possible. The person with the POA declare Chap 7 bankruptcy on her behalf, since her income is on Medicaid and goes to the nursing home. A bankruptcy attorney should give a free 45 minutes consult or see if there is a legal aid clinic in your area.
If a collection agency has the debt, then it has been purchased for litteraly pennies. See if they will settle for a pittance. e,g, $25 on $500 debt. If they agree, you must insist they will furnish you a letter that the debt has been settled. Ask them for a draft of the letter or better yet have the draft sent to an attorney if you have one. When you are neogotiating this, write down the date, the time, the first and last name of the manager you spoke. Insist that you speak with a manager to do this, not a first line flunkie.
Good luck

Eyerishlass Nov 2015
I had the same issue when my dad went into a nursing home but we didn't have to do anything as far as taxes went. I just called his creditors and explained the situation to them. None of it was my debt, my name wasn't attached to any of it so I wasn't on the hook for paying it.

However, the creditors didn't stop their attempts at trying to collect these debts my dad had and since I called them from my phone they began calling me until I finally told them to stop calling me. I spoke with them all, I didn't try to avoid the situation yet the collection efforts were very aggressive and I had to speak to them on more than one occasion. Eventually the phone calls to my phone stopped but it took a while. I still received statements in the mail since I had forwarded my dad's address to me prior to his going into the nursing home but I didn't pay any attention to the statements.

My dad died 6 months after entering the nursing home and I made the phone calls again to his creditors and 1 or 2 of them requested a copy of the death certificate which I provided and that was about it.

igloo572 Nov 2015
Your Mom since she is on Medicaid in a NH will be limited to whatever small amount your state's Medicaid program has as their "personal needs trust". The PNA varies by state from $ 35 - $ 105 and is mainly done to provide for funding for their beauty salon / barber shop visits & toiletries at the NH. Some NH charge for cable or phone and the amount is magically!! the exact amount of the PNA. For almost all Medicaid situation, they end up defaulting on their CC debt as there is no $ to do even the minimum monthly payment. They walk on CC debt as well as any other debts unless family pays for all from now till whenever…..

As MaggieMarshall mentioned, contact them.

BUT keep in mind, that although the CC company can write off the debt, there will likely be IRS & tax issues with doing this. Any debt over $ 600 that is written off can have a 1099-C issued by the original creditor (who in turn has it as bad debt on their business). Most smaller individual creditors don't do this but the CC companies have systems to just routinely do 1099-C's. The debt written off is considered reportable income by the IRS & the CC company (the original creditor) will likely issue a 1099-C (Cancellation of Debt) for the entire amount written off plus and interest & fees accused to the point of write off. The amount of the 1099-C is income and taxable by the IRS. You or whomever is mom's DPOA will need to file taxes for each year in which she gets a 1099-C to establish insolvency / impoverishment to get around paying taxes. This is done by a regular IRS filing and with a IRS Form 982. You kinda need to do this because IF your state's Medicaid program does an income match-up with the IRS, the 1099-C$ amount shows up and this "phantom income" will take her over the income limits allowable by Medicaid. So they become ineligible for Medicaid due to phantom income. Yeah, it's totally loco and the income is kinda "phantom income" but taxable nevertheless.

The Form 982 has a insolvency worksheet. I've found most 982 info on the web are mainly geared to those who do either a short-sales or foreclosures. For those, you have all sorts of costs on the property to off-set the taxable income (if you kept good records on the house) & most articles go into how to do this for real estate. But for the elderly who are getting a 1099-C from CC debt walked on, it's totally different. You will more than likely need an experienced tax pro to deal with this. To me, it is definitely not a DIY project or a TurboTax / Quicken.

The 1099-C will be issued in January, like all 1099's are required to do. The CC company could have a delay of 1 - 3 years before they completely write off the debt too so the 1099-C may not appear next January, 2016 for debt written off in 2015. Only the OC can issue the 1099-C….if the debt gets sold off to bottom feeder debt collection agencies, they CANNOT themselves issue 1099-C's although some unscrupulous ones will imply they can to get debtor to reactivate the debt. So beware of that ruse. Good luck.

MaggieMarshall Nov 2015
I would call and ask them what they need from you in order to write off the debt.

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