President Signs HAVEN Act to Assist Veterans in Bankruptcy Matters
President Donald Trump on Aug. 23, 2019, signed the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019 (HAVEN Act) into law. The HAVEN Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) to exclude disability benefits paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Defense from the calculation of an individual debtor's disposable income used for bankruptcy means testing. Going forward, veterans' disability benefits will not be included as income for purposes of determining whether a veteran headed for bankruptcy would have to file a Chapter 13 repayment plan case. Prior to the HAVEN Act, a veteran may have had to contribute some portion of his or her disability benefits to pay creditors. Instead, more veterans will now be eligible to file a Chapter 7 liquidation case where only nonexempt assets are sold to pay creditors.
Currently, Social Security disability benefits are excluded from income under the bankruptcy means test, and the HAVEN Act will rectify the unequal treatment of various disability benefits under bankruptcy law. Now veterans' disability benefits will be treated like Social Security benefits – neither will be treated as income. Accordingly, the HAVEN Act fixes an unintended consequence of bankruptcy means testing which disproportionately made veterans file Chapter 13 cases because they often failed the Chapter 7 means test where disability payments were treated as income. As such, veterans may now use 100 percent of their disability benefits for their own needs, and will not have to use disability benefits as a source of income to pay back creditors.
About Our Veterans Group
Holland & Knight's Veterans Group provides pro bono and/or community service support for veterans, active military service members, and their respective families in each of the states where Holland & Knight has offices. Attorneys work on pro bono case referrals through, among other sources, the American Bar Association (ABA) Military Pro Bono Project, the Florida GI LAW program and various veteran service organizations, and respond to a wide range of legal needs including landlord/tenant issues, mortgage and foreclosure concerns, trust and estate matters, and veteran benefits and appeal matters.
For more information or questions on the HAVEN Act, contact the authors.
Information contained in this alert is for the general education and knowledge of our readers. It is not designed to be, and should not be used as, the sole source of information when analyzing and resolving a legal problem. Moreover, the laws of each jurisdiction are different and are constantly changing. If you have specific questions regarding a particular fact situation, we urge you to consult competent legal counsel.