It's just that when the case is finished, the debtor will owe the support obligation with no change. If an obligation from divorce is in the nature of property settlement , whether it gets discharged is a good bit less certain. They're presumed to be nondischargeable, but the debtor may be able to overcome the presumption and have them discharged. Overcoming the presumption requires a showing that the debtor cannot pay the debt and still take care of himself, his dependents, and his business, or that discharging the debt would result in a benefit to the debtor that outweighs the harm that would be caused to the former spouse or child by non-payment. There's a separate explanation of Discharge of Property Settlement Claims in Bankruptcy .
Property settlement is bad.
What you need to do is to characterize as much of the obligation as possible in ways that makes it clear that it's intended for support, not property settlement. Note that the bankruptcy court will not be bound by what you call the obligation, but if you clearly call it support and it behaves like support, there's a good likelihood the court will find it to be support and will not allow discharge. If there's no question that a portion of the obligation due to you is property settlement, though, no amount of verbal window-dressing will change it. Think security . What you want to do is take a lien on one or more assets of value - preferably assets that are important to your spouse.