Can't work because you are disabled? Too bad. Pay up anyway

[Liberal_in_LA]

For Disabled Borrowers of Student Loans, Big Barrier Is Education Department

Education Dept.'s red tape keeps disabled borrowers of student loans in debt

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A former police officer and mother of two, Ms. Brooks fractured a vertebra in her back, damaged three others in her neck, and suffered a concussion when she fell 15 feet down a steep rock quarry while training for bicycle patrol. But even though Social Security approved her disability claim, she has been mired for more than five years in an unsuccessful struggle to persuade the Department of Education to accept that she is too disabled to work again­—and to forgive the $43,000 that she borrowed in federal student loans.

"I'm a cop, and I know how to fill out paper­work," Ms. Brooks says. "But when you're trying to comply with people and they're not telling you the rules, I might as well beat my head on the wall."

Under federal law, borrowers who develop severe and lasting disabilities after taking out federal student loans are entitled to have their debts forgiven. The system was meant to be compassionate: to spare former students who become disabled from a lifetime of ruined credit, garnished benefits, and spiraling debt. But an investigation by ProPublica and the Center for Public Integrity has found that the process of discharging the loans of disabled borrowers is broken.

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In some cases, borrowers see even their Social Security disability benefits garnished by the federal government to pay down their student loans.

Scott Creighton, a former carpenter and draftsman living in Tampa, Fla., was declared disabled by Social Security in September 2009. Three years before, he had suffered a pulmonary embolism—a blood clot traveled from his leg to block the main artery of his lung—that left him unable to work a full day or repay his federal student loans.

http://chronicle.com/article/Cant-Work-Too-Bad-Pay-Up/126339/#

[rox63]

1. I have a friend on SSDI who was able to get her federal student loans discharged

It took about 3 years, and she worked with a legal aid lawyer. She did not make payments after she started working with the lawyer, and she did get harrassing collections calls and letters during that 3-year period. But eventually, the loans were discharged.

[madmax]

2. Sounds like a line from Goodfella's.

Spoken by Henry Hill.

[William769]

3. I am on Social Security Disability, and just this Month had my Student Loans forgiven

After two years of fighting with Collection Agencies and the Department of Education.

There is an appeals process with the Department of Education and even though it is slow, it works! And thanks to my U.S. Senator he was able to stop garnishment of my Social Security until the appeals process ran out and I was either approved or disproved. Final approval for me was the argument that my Doctor had made on my total and permanent disability to the Social Security Administration which by the way the Department of Education had to accept in the process.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. congrats!

[ThomCat]

5. The fact that Social Security makes it nearly impossible for

people with disabilities to every get APPROVED for Social Security Disability really makes is damned near impossible to get student loans canceled. Or to get a hell of a lot of services we may need that depend on getting approved for Disability first.

Having to wait several years for your appeal because they routinely deny such a high percentage of cases no matter how much evidence there is of your disability, really makes this a life and death issue for a hell of a lot of people!

THEN, once you do get your appeal, and do get approved, if you manage to survive that long, BY then you are buried Debts from having to scrounge for the services for several years that you should have been entitled to. You are mired in poverty from having been stuck paying things like student loans even though you couldn't work, for years while you waited for social security. You can only now try to discharge those debts, but you should have been able to try to discharge those debts years earlier when you first became disabled if only Social Security worked the way it is supposed to!

Oh, I'm only a little bit cynical. It has only cost me an extra $20,000 or so that I won't ever be able to afford so far. And my student loans still haven't been discharged yet! :grr: