You can offer to take over the payments only if they agree to allow you to assume the liability, with the alternative being that they can try to collect on someone who is slipping into insolvency with few to no assets of her own. It makes the decision a bit easier on their part because they either have to sink time and effort into someone they might never collect from on the one hand, or take a bit of a haircut but know they'll get paid. It's a no brainer that way. The amounts in question are too low for litigation to really make sense.