Social Security Disability payments are exempt, by Federal Statute, not only from "marital property" awards but from any state court judgement, including child support. This includes the back payments, which may have been banked, but not interest or other growth deriving from them.

You must put the back payments into a SEPERATE account, into which you should also "direct deposit" current payments. You may take these assets out, if you need to spend some, but I would never make any deposits to this account, from sources other than Social Security, as you may then later have to prove that the deposits were not "contaminated" with community property funds if you want to avoid the possibility of the total account being ruled as containing only marital property. Carefully keep all records of deposits and interest to this account and, if you have to take some money out, make sure you have a record of the date AND TIME when you did it.

I know this to be true, even though many state laws specifically declare any "disability pay" to be marital property. You may have to appeal to Federal Court if the state court goes against you, but there you will get it straightened out, as Federal Law trumps state law!

http://www.divorcesupport.com/divorce/Classification-of-Social-Security-as-Marital-3150.html

also:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/bankruptcy/20080205_income_garnishment_a1.asp

VA compensation is not quite as safe from judgements or marital property awards, as they have their own rules which basically allow only a limited portion of the payments to be awarded by state courts.

Good Luck!