From Creditslips.com:
Beginning on November 1, some people might suddenly find they are now ineligible for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Making it harder to file bankruptcy in the middle of our financial crisis may not be the best policy idea to come down the pike, but it is exactly what Congress set in motion in 2005. Here is why.
The U.S. bankruptcy law has a means test that is meant to filter "can pay" debtors into chapter 13. It's a test that was not needed--there was no evidence of widespread abuse of the bankruptcy system--and the test is not having its intended effect--the income distribution of filers has not changed. The means test begins with an inquiry that asks whether a debtor is above or below the state median income for a household of the same size in the debtor's state.
The state median income figures are periodically updated by the U.S. Census and the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees (EOUST) publishes a table that is used in the bankruptcy courts. Don't blame either the Census or the EOUST for this one. They are just doing what Congress directed. These changes happen automatically.
With the recession, incomes are going down. Thus, in half of the data points on the table, the median income that will subject a debtor to the means test has decreased. In Illinois, for example, right now a filer from a 1-person household goes through the means test if he or she has median income above $47,355. On November 1, that will change to $46,105.