I have a question I'm hoping someone here can answer. I recently got divorced in October. There were no kids involved and I was active duty army at the time. I was still waiting on my VA ratings and nothing was mentioned in the divorce decree regarding retirement. The only thing that was stated is that I would pay $1,200 in spousal maintenance until the total of $15,000 was paid. This divorce was in Colorado. So I have currently been getting my wages garnished since then, but just received my VA ratings of 80% DOD and 80% VA TDRL. My question is, once I get out, will this garnishment continue to happen or are there any exemptions if your only income is disability retirement pay? Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Garnishment of disability pay
- Thread starter casey025682
- Start date
Disability pay is generally safe, but it differs state to state. You need to check the state laws to be sure.
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't just pay this and be done with it? Even if they can't garnish, it will result in a judgement, and will be something you have to pay sooner or later. It is a court order, and it won't go away unless a judge makes it go away. As soon as you get a job, you will show up, and garnishment proceedings start all over.
Joe
Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't just pay this and be done with it? Even if they can't garnish, it will result in a judgement, and will be something you have to pay sooner or later. It is a court order, and it won't go away unless a judge makes it go away. As soon as you get a job, you will show up, and garnishment proceedings start all over.
Joe
When VA Benefits Can Be Garnished
Your VA benefits are protected from being garnished to pay unpaid taxes and most creditors’ claims, but in certain circumstances, VA benefits can and do get garnished. This is because the purpose of VA benefits is to provide support not just to a veteran, but to his or her family.
If you fail to make alimony (spousal support) and child support benefits, the state can sometimes order your VA benefits to be garnished. This can be done because Congress specifically set out in Title 38 that VA benefits are intended to be used to provide support for dependents. The amount that can be garnished will vary based on how many dependents you have to support.
However, your VA disability compensation cannot be garnished at all unless you waived part of your military retired pay in order to receive VA disability benefits. In other words, if you waived part of your taxable military retirement to receive nontaxable disability compensation, your disability benefits can be garnished to meet alimony and child support obligations. Only the amount of the disability compensation you were paid in place of retirement pay can be garnished. The remainder of your disability compensation is protected.
How Much of My VA Benefits Can be Garnished?
The VA will decide how much of your benefits can reasonably be garnished. This analysis will consider whether you have other sources of income, any special needs you have that require you to have more income, the amount of income that is available to your former spouse, and any special needs of your former spouse and children not in your custody that require extra funds.
Typically between 20% and 50% of your benefits can be garnished. Less than 20% is considered to be an insufficient amount for a veteran's dependents, and more than 50% is considered to cause undue hardship to a veteran. Equal amount of funds will be provided to each child out of the garnishment.
When Benefits Will Not be Garnished
Under certain circumstances, states cannot garnish your VA benefits to satisfy alimony or child support obligations. Garnishment is not permitted when:
Apportionment of VA Benefits
Apportionment is a process by which the VA assigns a certain portion of a veterans benefits to a family member. Basically, the VA will pay the eligible family member part of the veteran's monthly cash benefit directly, thus reducing the amount of benefits the veteran will receive.
In no case will be benefits be garnished for alimony until the former spouse first elects to receive the "apportioned" share of the veteran's benefits. Similarly, claims for each child's right to an apportioned share must be filed before child support garnishment can occur. The family member must apply for apportionment by filing VA Form 21-0788, Information Regarding Apportionment of Beneficiary's Award, before a garnishment for spousal or child support will be considered.
Consideration of VA Income
Even if your VA benefits can't be garnished because you didn't waive any military pay or because of any of the above reasons, your VA income can still be considered by the judge in deciding your support obligations. If your VA disability benefits are a significant part of your total income, you may end up using your benefit income to meet child support or alimony obligations.
For legal help in protecting your VA disability benefits or establishing a fair amount of support, contact a VA disability lawyer.
Your VA benefits are protected from being garnished to pay unpaid taxes and most creditors’ claims, but in certain circumstances, VA benefits can and do get garnished. This is because the purpose of VA benefits is to provide support not just to a veteran, but to his or her family.
If you fail to make alimony (spousal support) and child support benefits, the state can sometimes order your VA benefits to be garnished. This can be done because Congress specifically set out in Title 38 that VA benefits are intended to be used to provide support for dependents. The amount that can be garnished will vary based on how many dependents you have to support.
However, your VA disability compensation cannot be garnished at all unless you waived part of your military retired pay in order to receive VA disability benefits. In other words, if you waived part of your taxable military retirement to receive nontaxable disability compensation, your disability benefits can be garnished to meet alimony and child support obligations. Only the amount of the disability compensation you were paid in place of retirement pay can be garnished. The remainder of your disability compensation is protected.
How Much of My VA Benefits Can be Garnished?
The VA will decide how much of your benefits can reasonably be garnished. This analysis will consider whether you have other sources of income, any special needs you have that require you to have more income, the amount of income that is available to your former spouse, and any special needs of your former spouse and children not in your custody that require extra funds.
Typically between 20% and 50% of your benefits can be garnished. Less than 20% is considered to be an insufficient amount for a veteran's dependents, and more than 50% is considered to cause undue hardship to a veteran. Equal amount of funds will be provided to each child out of the garnishment.
When Benefits Will Not be Garnished
Under certain circumstances, states cannot garnish your VA benefits to satisfy alimony or child support obligations. Garnishment is not permitted when:
- garnishment would cause you undue financial hardship
- your former spouse or your child has not filed for "apportionment" (see below)
- your former spouse is living with another person and "holding her or himself out as the spouse of that person" (meaning acting like they are married and perhaps referring to each other as husband and wife), or
- your former spouse was found by state court to have been guilty of "conjugal infidelity" (cheating).
Apportionment of VA Benefits
Apportionment is a process by which the VA assigns a certain portion of a veterans benefits to a family member. Basically, the VA will pay the eligible family member part of the veteran's monthly cash benefit directly, thus reducing the amount of benefits the veteran will receive.
In no case will be benefits be garnished for alimony until the former spouse first elects to receive the "apportioned" share of the veteran's benefits. Similarly, claims for each child's right to an apportioned share must be filed before child support garnishment can occur. The family member must apply for apportionment by filing VA Form 21-0788, Information Regarding Apportionment of Beneficiary's Award, before a garnishment for spousal or child support will be considered.
Consideration of VA Income
Even if your VA benefits can't be garnished because you didn't waive any military pay or because of any of the above reasons, your VA income can still be considered by the judge in deciding your support obligations. If your VA disability benefits are a significant part of your total income, you may end up using your benefit income to meet child support or alimony obligations.
For legal help in protecting your VA disability benefits or establishing a fair amount of support, contact a VA disability lawyer.
Believe me I would love to just pay it and get it over with. Without getting into to much detail, she took me for everything while I was deployed left me with all the bills and then has been taking $1,200 a month from me when I got back and started the MEB process. I need the time to reset and catch up on some bills without getting garnished. I only receive about $1,800 a month because of her right now. So that's the main reason I was wondering if my pay could be garnished. I wanted to know if that pay could be touched or not as I wanted to go to school as well.
Thank you very much for the info. I've seen that info before I guess the part about waving disability pay is what confuses me. I got 80% DOD and 80% VA. That means it would be about $2400 for DoD as opposed to $1500 VA. So because my DOD is more, if I elect to have that $2,400 all be taxable then that pay would not be garnishable? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
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