Bankruptcy Indiana

In the book The Two-Income Trap, authors Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi talk about one group that has no choice about getting by on one income: single moms.

“The magnitude of the problem for single-mother families shocked us,” they say (Remember this book was written back in 2003 ). “If current trends persist, more than one of every six single mothers will go bankrupt by the end of the decade.”

Well, here we are, with the end of the decade just a little more than one year away.  As a Columbus bankruptcy lawyer, I can certainly attest to the accuracy of the Warren predictions.  Of the tens of thousands of clients I’ve helped through the bankruptcy process, many have been single mothers of young children.

The Two Income Trap admits that today’s middle class mothers have better legal protection in divorce and on the job, and more child support than women did a generation or two ago. And yet, single women face a much greater likelihood of financial collapse.  According to Warren, over the past twenty years, the number of single mothers in bankruptcy has increased 600%!

As I read through the chapter “Just The Way She Planned”, I kept nodding my head at how true a picture it paints.  “Today’s newly divorced mother is already teetering over a financial abyss the day she signs her divorce papers…Single mothers are now more likely than any other group to file for bankruptcy.” Indeed, add the authors, single mothers are 50% more likely than married parents to go bankrupt, and three times more likely to file bankruptcy than childless people.”

Federal Reserve data quoted in the book show that one in eleven (this is 2003, remember – today it’s even worse!) single parents are more than sixty days behind on their bills. And one truly amazing statistic – Single mothers who have been to college are more likely than their peers to end up in bankruptcy court. As a bankruptcy lawyer in Indianapolis, where there are so many unversities and community colleges, I see the truth of this statement.  Many of my single mother clients need student loan debt help.

One of the important reasons I spend so much effort offering Indiana bankruptcy information in my blog is to explode myths.  The Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who work with me know the single moms we see in the waiting room of our bankruptcy law office are no deadbeats.  Mostly they have – or until recently had – decent jobs.  Just as Warren describes, “they are teachers, managers, and administrative assistants rather than fast food workers or cleaning women.”

The authors sum up the situation in one sad sentence: “The single moms who file for bankruptcy have flown higher than any earlier generation of women, only to discover they fall farther.”

That’s exactly why I do everything I can to help single moms use the bankruptcy safety net to achieve a fresh financial start.  It’s not only for them – it’s for their children as well!