SSDI and 'garnishment'?

[dwoos]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio

Dear FreeAdvice people:

I have an emotional disability (PTSD and bipolar disorder) and type 1 diabetes and receive SSDI as my source of income.

Last year my father died and I had to make an emergency relocation to Florida because the lease was due on the apartment where we used to live and I couldn't afford the rent on SSDI alone.

I moved in with a roommate there, but that did not work out so I moved back here. One of the reasons it didn't work out was that the roommate was very manipulative and I was very naive about financial matters. He got me to sign a cell phone contract in my name for two phones from Cingular. I didn't really understand what I was signing, but did anyway without really thinking about it.

Anyway, after I moved back here, he reneged on his verbal agreement to pay his share of the phone bill (which given the fact that I am living entirely on my own now, I couldn't afford myself anyway). So, the phones stopped working and (as I remember it from when I last checked my balance when they still *did* work) there was something like $2500 in charges.

About 3/4 of those were from 'roaming' charges on my phone which I had to use while up here because I didn't even have a place to rent then and was staying in my car. (I didn't know about the roaming thing before I researched it on the 'net.)

Now that I have a line phone and an apartment, some bill collectors have been calling me and making vague threats. I'm pretty sure they are associated with the Cingular account, but they won't identify themselves (I don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number, so these are voice mail messages), nor have they sent any written demand for payment (I told them before the phone was canceled that I couldn't pay, but they seemed not to want to hear that -- I never gave them my new address).

Anyway, there is no way I could pay this bill because I go hungry near the end of each month as it is. Plus, I feel that my condition was exploited to make me do something I would never have done on my own (I have little use for a cell phone).

Can they 'garnish' my SSDI check for this bill? If so, they will have a dead body to collect in a month's time (no, that isn't melodrama). I have heard that they can't, but I know nothing of legal matters.

What if I got a part time job for some extra money -- could they garnish that?

///Dave