Can creditors sue if the only source of income is Social Security?

No. If a creditor other than the federal government tries to garnish your Social Security benefits, inform them that such an action violates Section 207 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 407).

Section 207 bars garnishment of your benefits. It can also be used as a defense if your benefits are incorrectly garnished. Our responsibility for protecting benefits against garnishment, assignments and other legal processes usually ends when the beneficiary is paid. However, once paid, benefits continue to be protected under section 207 of Act as long as they are identifiable as Social Security benefits.
This is from the government site. Hope it helps. Write a letter to the credit card companies stating your grandmother has dementia, and only has social security and does not have the income to pay and is judgement proof and also state that they are not allowed to call. (or change her number)

If the credit cards issued a true discharge of debt they generally report this as a loss to the IRS, and it usually goes against the person as income for the year the credit card reports this. If all you did was close the accounts so she could not use them, then the estate will still owe the debt. However, they generally line up to be paid , the one who is owed the most, generally collects first and then so on. I do believe the estate can declare bankruptcy, and generally credit card debt is unsecured. It cannot always be collected if the estate is broke. Do not let them hassle you as POA and tell you that the debt is now yours to pay. It is not, the only case it would be is if you were a co-holder on one of the credit cards.

I have the same problem with my mom. She has so many credit card bills it isn't funny. I now have POA and have been trying to resolve this. She has dementia so she can't handle he bills I also have Rep. Payee of he SS check. I am glad to know the credit card company can't get her ss check but I know they can put a levy on your SS check if you owe gov. She owed back federal taxes and they are now taking 13% of her check till it is payed off. I didn't know she owed these tax until got a letter a few months ago saying they are putting a levy on her check. I guess there is nothing I can do about it now.

For those who asked about "What is my grandmother buying?" This has just been years of debt adding up. It's not within a year. This was like 10 years ago and now she just doesn't have the money to pay the bills anymore. It's nothing recent which makes it even more difficult. Imagine being a kid, thinking everything is okay while meanwhile your parent was paying bills with credit cards and paying credit cards with credit cards, and now that you're old enough to realize what's going on, it's like getting smacked with a brick wall and trying to dig your way through it with a spoon.


2nd chance checking accounts are not an option. She foreclosed on a house THIS year. That's worse than bankruptcy.

Currently, I am not aware if she owes the government. Also, she gets her social security directly deposited so I do not think I can be appointed a 2nd person on the check, if you know what I mean... Eventually, I will consider this an option JUST in case.

Ah..it's difficult trying to get my legal issues in order, but all this new found paperwork should help.. I'm PoA agent, AND Estate Executor. [Which is even MORE important to figure out this credit mess before hand!] Is the estate expected to pay back credit card bills after the cards have already been charged off (closed out)?

What if the estate doesn't have enough to pay them all? (I think the creditors will be SOL is that happened! Hahahahahha)

I've been in your shoes (still am, actually). I'm all too familiar with the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" trap that some elderly find themselves in with credit cards.
First, make certain that all of the credit card debt is unsecured (though it sounds like your grandmother has no property at risk if the foreclosed house was her only asset).
Then, remind yourself that the companies that gave her the credit cards were taking advantage of the craziness in financial de-regulation that allowed companies to essentially make money by extending credit to people who couldn't pay them back. Your grandmother was just a pawn. Not too many years ago, she likely would never have been able to charge up any significant amount. People living solely on a very limited income would not have qualified for credit cards.
If your grandmother has stopped paying on them (if she hasn't, I would), the credit card companies probably have already "sold" the debt to another company (again, more financial shenanigans!). They'll keep sending "offers" to collect less than the amount owed (which, due to fees and interest, is probably many, many times what was actually actually charged on the card). Most won't sue, just threaten. Some may, though. I've accompanied a family member to court over exactly this. They didn't have any money to speak of and needed every penny (and then some) of their SS check just to make ends meet each month. While it's never the best situation to enter a court room without representation, it worked out well for us. There are loads of these companies that buy up debt with often nothing more than a spread sheet print-out to prove they own it. I did a little google research beforehand. The judges seem to be fed up with these cases clogging their courtrooms. The judge in our case lectured the attorney about having no evidence to support that his client was legally entitled to collect on the debt. It never went further than that. The company could have appealed, but instead, a few months later, we received notice that they'd forgiven the debt. Prior to entering the courtroom though, the lawyer asked to meet with us privately. He offered a rock-bottom offer to settle the debt. I had come prepared with a spread sheet showing my relative's income and expenses and told him that there's just nothing there to collect.
It's a smarmy business. The advice I'd give from my experience is, change your grandmother's phone number (they call relentlessly), carefully watch for court summons in the mail (you don't want her to be found in contempt if one of them does sue - that's real stuff), and help her get control of her finances. I now pay all the bills and he's saved about $70 a month in avoiding the bounced check fees alone!
Good luck!

Do you have durable POA for your grandmother? She sounds to me like she is no longer capable of handling her business in a businesslike manner.

I'm glad that you found the POA. I would write all of the credit card companies explaining the situation, who you are as her POA and enclose a copy of the POA for they are going to want to see that. Also, I would take a copy of the POA to the bank.

There are places that offer "second chance checking" see if there is a "Greentree Bank" in your area, google "second chance checking" they will allow you to open an account.

It is probably not the credit card companies contacting her. They sell the debt & those people try to collect. If they can't, it gets sold again & a new round of calls starts. My ex had some debt and periodically the calls would start even tho we had not seen each other in almost 25 years. The last guy that called was about 3 years ago. They got my husband who let them know they had better never call my phone number again.

If she doesn't have any property, then there is nothing the cc companies can do as cc is usually unsecured debt.

However, there is something to be on the look-out for when it's charged-off:
1099-C aka Cancellation of Debt. This will come from whomever was the original creditor (like Bank of America or Chase or whatever bank group held the credit card) who wrote off or charged-off the debt (and not the collection agency). This gets issued in January and you cannot ignore it. Oh & to make this even more fun, the 1099-C does not have to be issued the year the debt was written off. It could have been debt from years and years ago. So 10K DIscover card charge off could go to 15K with interest & fees and you get a 15K 1099 in reportable income.

What the 1099 -C does is becomes INCOME for the tax year the 1099-C was sent. And this can be sticky to deal with both in that you owe taxes on income and if you get Medicaid, then the "income" (which is really phantom income) can take you over the Medicaid limit for income. What you have to do is file taxes and do an impoverishment for the year against the debt so there are no taxes due. You kinda have to have a CPA or other tax professional do this as it is sticky.

The 1099-C's get routinely done for people who do a foreclosure, or short-sale or walk away from a mortgage. The outstanding $ due on the mortgage but not paid is forgiven as debt BUT the amount becomes taxable income. Imho that was what the intention of the law was - for dealing with foreclosure crisis. But the CC companies can do 1099-C's if they are a bank (so AMEX doesn't do them). If you just ignore the 1099-C, the IRS will get involved as you did not pay taxes or file an impoverishment in excess of the "income".