If I have debts under my old name student loans etc. but it's hard to find a job to qualify for student loan forgiveness, how do I do this?

You needn't include your husband in the bankruptcy.

Your bankruptcy will not affect your spouse's credit score. You don't need a job to start income based repayment or income contingent repayment. However, both plans are based on household income, so your spouse's income will be included in determining payments.

Your first step, I think, is to locate and contact the ombudsman for student loans who works in the US Department of Education in D.C. (A short visit to google ought to be enough to get the number.) I don't know if his/her responsibilities extend to student loans which are not federally guaranteed, but they may. That office can tell you about three or four (or more) programs for repaying student loans that are less burdensome than the original agreements to repay. One of them is income-based repayments; there are others. Obviously you would help yourself by starting an active, energetic search for a job.

Like most people looking for a solution to financial problems, you are worrying about the wrong things and do not have easy access to the answers. A student loan debt settlement attorney can get you into an income based repayment program that provides for partial forgiveness of your federal student loans. You are not going to be able to access these programs by talking with the phone people at your student loan servicer. For more information, fill out a survey at www.federalstudentloandebt.info.