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sunshine06 Asked April 1, 2024

Mother is disabled at home and in hospice care in GA and has a total of $11k credit card debt, can she stop paying?

I'm preparing before I need to put her in assisted living. She has medicaid and Medicare.

Geaton777 Apr 1, 2024
Yes, she can stop paying. When my inlaws were imploding cognitively with memory impairment and Parkinsons, the first thing we did was stop paying their mortgage because they had a ballooned second mortgage and thousands in cc debt, no assets and $0 savings. They were both going into facilities.

AlvaDeer Apr 1, 2024
She is on Medicaid. Clearly she has no funds to pay this debt.
She cannot be made to pay this out of her social security money, so this debt cannot be collected.

If your mom has a home, then it may be, if court action is taken and a judgement for collection is made, that the credit card company can collect this debt by putting a lien on a house or car and collecting when said are sold.

What you need to take great care in now is not ASSUMING THIS DEBT. If you make so much as a small single payment yourself out of your own money, you can be considered to have legally "assumed" this debt and can be held liable for payment.

They will ruin your mom's credit, but she isn't going to be using credit, so who cares. When she passes you can return all bills with a note "Died; left no estate".

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Isthisrealyreal Apr 1, 2024
If she has the money she should pay her debt.
Isthisrealyreal Apr 1, 2024
I would add that any debt written off will be considered income via a 1099 for mom.

You should verify the impact of an additional 11k in income for eligibility of Medicaid.

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