Bankruptcy

Women First In Bankruptcies

Women are resorting to personal bankruptcy more frequently than men and married couples, according to new data released by a Harvard law professor who specializes in bankruptcy. The new study, being written by Elizabeth Warren, a widely quoted expert, is likely to become fresh ammunition for opponents of proposed legislation that will make it more difficult for people to erase their debts through bankruptcy.

But another bankruptcy expert voiced doubts, saying the study doesn�t appear to be conclusive. �There�s not much there,� said Sam Gerdano, Executive Director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a group of 6,400 attorneys, judges, bankers, and professors. The group does not take positions on bankruptcy issues.

But Gerdano did acknowledge that divorce is a major factor in bankruptcy for men and women and that divorced women are more likely to have financial problems than women that have not been divorced.

USA Today and a Harvard study both show that 39 percent of bankruptcy court filings in the 12 months that ended March 31, 2000 were made by women, compared with 28 percent by men and 33 percent by married couples, according to the study of filings in eight of the 94 federal bankruptcy districts.  Warren states that �very little attention is paid to the number of people who are in bankruptcy because of serious medical problems. It�s a reminder that many of the families in bankruptcy have been pressed to the edge by expenses stemming from illness or injury.�

Warren goes on to say that �financial misfortune hits people with health insurance as well as the uninsured because some insurance policies are inadequate.�

The study, first reported in the Washington Post, also found that seniors and women, as well as families headed by single women, were the bankruptcy groups that were hardest hit by medical expenses.

In 1981, married couples and men filing alone accounted for close to 80% of all bankruptcies. Today, households headed by women account for almost 40 percent of all bankruptcies. Since 1981, this number has grown from about 69,000 to 538,000, making the rate of growth for bankruptcy filings by women more than twice the rate of men filing alone, and more than triple the rate of married couples filing joint petitions. Yet bankruptcy laws were amended in 1984, and again in 1994, to cut back debtor protection.

Meanwhile, women are having trouble making ends meet.  According to a new study from the Census Bureau, 28.5 percent of women heading up the household have trouble paying for rent, utilities, or healthcare during a given year.  That�s almost twice as many as their male counterparts.  For those who can�t pay for two or more of those basic needs in a given year the gap is equally wide: 16.2 percent of women versus 8.4 percent of men.