The result depends on whether the debtor filed a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 filing should have no effect on such collections, but a Chapter 13 proceeding may stop the collection activities, at least temporarily.
Although filing bankruptcy stops, or "stays," all efforts to collect debts, the Bankruptcy Code excludes actions to collect child support or spousal maintenance from the stay unless the creditor attempts to collect from the "property of the estate." In a Chapter 7 proceeding, "property of the estate" includes all possessions, money, and interests the debtor owns at the time he or she files. Money earned after the bankruptcy is filed, however, is not property of the estate. Since most child and spousal support is paid out of the debtor's current income, the bankruptcy should have little impact.
In Chapter 13, however, the code considers the debtor's earnings as property of the estate, since the wage-earner plan is based on making payments from the debtor's current income rather than from liquidated assets. As a result, support collections may be stayed. The court can decide to remove the stay to allow for withholding of alimony and child support from the debtor's income. Whether it does so may depend on how well the wage-earner plan provides for child and spousal support. If the plan does not, in the court's opinion, include adequate provisions, it may decide to lift the stay.
Neither a Chapter 7 nor a Chapter 13 discharge affects future child or spousal support obligations. In other words, even at the conclusion of the bankruptcy proceeding, these on-going obligations remain.
