Pay student loans or lose Social Security pay

[SoCalDem]

Posted on Mon, Mar. 06, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/special_packages/business_monday/14013051.htm

Ask Doctor Law

Pay student loans or lose Social Security pay

By Martin E. Segalwww.dr-law.comQ: I recently applied for early social security benefits at age 62. During my meeting with a government representative, I was told that I had $20,000 of unpaid student loans outstanding from many years ago when I attended college and because of a new court ruling, that amount would be deducted from my benefits. To tell the truth, I did receive the loans but had forgotten about them after so many years, and the government never contacted me demanding collection. Can the government legally charge me now? It seems unfair, especially if due to financial problems I can't afford to repay the loans now and need my benefits to live on.
-- ``Troubled Retiree''in West Palm Beach

A: Unfortunately for you, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided in December 2005 that the government can seize Social Security benefits to pay off old student loans, in Lockhart v. U.S. (546 U.S.(04-881) 2005). The plaintiff in that case was a 67-year old retiree unemployed since 1981 and disabled after double heart bypass surgery and related health problems. He lived solely on his $874 monthly benefits. He had incurred $80,000 of student loans to attend various colleges back in the 1980s. When notified his benefits would be cut by 15 percent to repay his loans, he acted as his own attorney and filed an injunction action in federal court to block the Social Security offsets.

The trial judge dismissed his case and that ruling was affirmed in Lockhart's appeal to the 9th Circuit court. He succeeded in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but it unanimously affirmed the prior ruling.

Lower courts had been divided for years on this issue due to conflicting federal laws.
The Debt Collection Act of 1982 imposed a 10-year time limit for collecting amounts due the government, and Lockhart argued that his benefits couldn't be reduced because they were more than 10 years old. But the Higher Education Technical Amendments of 1991 eliminated time limitations to collect certain loans and, as the Supreme Court pointed out in its decision, The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 specifically stated that ''all payments due an individual under the Social Security Act shall be subject to offset under this section.'' (This offset allows government garnishment of up to 15 percent of most Social Security benefits to repay defaulted student loans.)

The practical impact of the new case is far-reaching. For years the U.S. government has been criticized for not developing an effective plan to recover unpaid student loans, thus costing taxpayers huge amounts of money. According to the Bush administration, the current amount of outstanding student loans exceeds $33 billion, of which $7.4 billion is delinquent and $5.7 billion is over 10 years old.

Supporters of Lockhart say it creates a long-needed collection procedure for unpaid student loans.
Critics of the decision suggest the government's failure to collect these debts within 10 years should result in cancellation, because to do otherwise effectively repeals part of the Social Security law to the detriment of financially vulnerable recipients.

[DeadHorse]

1. I forgot my student loans

Well shame on you! Unbelievable that someone would take loans and conveniently forget about them.

[SoCalDem]

5. You would be amazed at what people forget...

The guy in the WH forgets almost everything except vacations & bike rides

[newyawker99]

44. Hi DeadHorse!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Yupster]

67. I forgot I owed $ 20,000

sounds like an old Steve Martin routine. Well excuuuuuuuse me.

[MadHound]

2. Frankly I don't have a problem with this

You obligated yourself to repay these loans, and you should do so. By refusing to pay them, you are passing on this burden to both the rest of us taxpayers, and to future generations of collage students. Besides, how in the hell do you just "forget" $20,000 in loans that you owe?

Yes, there should be exceptions for hardship cases, as in the second case that you mentioned, but living in a college town I've seen too many people all too often who, after making a few token payments upon graduation, simply skip out on the rest of their college loans and think that they're free and clear, leaving the rest of us to pay for their shit.

You take out a loan, by god you should pay for it. Besides, it is tax deductible, which is an asset right there.

[skooooo]

7. So if you don't pay....

..you should starve when you're old? Where are we going to put all these old poor people while they starve?

[bleedingheart]

10. he should have addressed the problem years ago..

apparently he was able to ignore it for a long time and thought he had gotten away with not paying. If he truly had been unable to pay and had dealt with it when he could, he would not have this problem now.

[yppahemnkm]

51. Absolutely

Pay the bill, and Social Security won't be a problem, unless Social Security is gone??

[MadHound]

17. So we should just let people slide on what they owe?

Quite frankly, a lot of these people who let their student loans slide aren't going to be starving, or anywhere close to it. And right now, the government is again upping the interest rates on student loans, possibly to 8.5%. I'm certain that part of this large increase is directly due the default rate on loans. Why should my child be forced to pay a higher rate than previous generations? Answer, because of the large number of defaults of previous generations of students. Why should I shoulder a greater tax burden simply because somebody blows off their loan payments?

Sorry, but I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility in these sorts of things. If you have the means to pay back your student loan, you should do so. Like I said previously, I'm more than willing to make hardship exceptions on this matter. But most people who default on student loans aren't going to be hardship cases, and should be held accountable for their actions, or lack there-of.

[skooooo]

25. I'm saying...

...if it comes down between giving some one Social Security or they starve, give it to them. Don't have a policy that is inhumane. This is the "hardship" cases you talk about. Of course people should be made to pay, however, at some point even that is not reasonable. People are going $150,000 in debt to get an education. At some point, society needs to determine whether it wants an education population that can participate financially, or if they just want to lock defaulters up.

Like someone else said, they should just start funding education.

[MadHound]

26. I agree, as I've stated before, there should be hardship exceptions

However many of the people who don't pay back their student loans go on and have successful careers, make a comfortable middle class living, and expect SS to pay for their little "perks" when it comes retirement time. Sorry, but if comes down to withholding their SS for backdue student loans, or letting them have SS for their little retirement "perks", then I say withhold the SS.

As far as going into $150,000 into debt., well perhaps these people need to rethink their priorities. Perhaps find a better way to finance their education. Or attend a less expensive school.

However I do agree with you that the US could and should at least partially fund college education these days.

[skooooo]

29. You say...

"As far as going into $150,000 into debt., well perhaps these people need to rethink their priorities."

--

I understand that's an easy (and on the surface and common sense) approach to take. Does that mean, though, that society doesn't need people to get degrees in medicine? or veterinary degrees? Should only rich people consider degrees that require so much money?

I'm not saying that people shouldn't pay their debts. I paid my student loans, but please consider that there are larger, societal issues at stake here -- not just those of personal responsibility.

[SPKrazy]

70. Wouldn't People With Med or Vet Degrees Be Able To Pay?

150 K is a lot of money to me but a MD, or a DVM is in a much better position to pay that back than I am.

I've paid my student loans back. It hurt every month, but I paid them.

[WeRQ4U]

47. I pretty much agreed with you up until this last statement.....

"As far as going into $150,000 into debt., well perhaps these people need to rethink their priorities. Perhaps find a better way to finance their education. Or attend a less expensive school."

I refuse to blame those with the desire to get an advanced education.

Ok, let me get this straight, there are "better" ways to finance one's education at that level? I was unaware of this. As far as my research showed, there isn't a single loan with interest as low as those you will find from the Government. In fact, I had to subsidize my Federal Loans with private lenders as well. And although they were specifically designed for the education that I was participating in, the interest rates on them are TWICE those associated with the federal loans. Or, do you mean to say that only those that are capable of financing their education personally, should undertake the education necessary to become doctors, lawyers, large animal vets, physician's assistants, pharmacists, etc.? I doubt this is what you mean, but that's what your statement implies. As for attending a "less expensive" school....the University of North Dakota Medical School's financial information can be found here: http://www.med.und.nodak.edu/studentaffairs/budg0304.htm. That's for North Dakota residents. There aren't a lot of cheaper alternatives, my friend.

Perhaps what you were trying to say was that because the individuals who attend these advanced degree programs should be financially able to pay down this debt, that they should budget in a way which tends to take care of them, instead of relying upon the government to subsidize their irresponsiblity. If that's your motive, then I'm OK with that. And that sentiment applies to the rich, poor, young and old alike. However, if you were making a poorly-veiled attempt to discourage individuals without millions of dollars in their personal coffers from attending schools of this degree, then I couldn't disagree more.

And good luck getting the US to fund people's education anytime soon. In fact, the latest budget cuts student LOAN dollars by a significant amount. THEY want proles. WE should want an educated mass.

[MadHound]

57. Mainly what I was thinking about with that statement

Is that perhaps rather than going after an advanced degree right after achieving a bachelors, people should take some time out, work some, put that brand new spanking piece of parchment to use and start saving some money before they go plunging into a master, or doctorate, and incur much more debt.

In fact it used to be fairly common that one got a bachelors in your early twenties, masters in your early-mid thirties, and a doctorate in your early-mid forties. The only major exceptions to this were law and medicine.

Now, I see many more people becoming professional students for ten years or more in order to get their complete run of degrees out of the way before they hit the work force. That's all fine and well, but you wind up with this huge load of debt hanging over your head, and that will influence your future financial decisions for years. Have to put off that new car, or buying a house, or saving for retirement, or. . . And some folks take a look at their choices, go without these things, or stop paying off the student loan, and they go hmmmm.

Living in a college town, I've seen this happen many times. Just blow off the loan, figure hey, the school or government can eat it, I've got my life to get on with.

Or then there is the other sort of undergrad that I see, the one who absolutely, positively refuses to work. They float their entire education on loans, and walk out with the bachelors and a spanking new $30,000 debt hanging over their head. Gee, don't you think that they could have worked just a bit, earn even a paltry $5000/yr doing some rinky-dink job rather than floating it all on loans?:shrug:

[WeRQ4U]

61. And if you're advocating for uniform responsibility, I'm with you...

People who purposely disregard their obligation to pay those loan back are horseshit.

I just take exception with the notion that we should prioritize education behind other things or that only those that can afford an education out of pocket should consider getting advanced degrees.

I actually think we're on the same page here. I was just clarifying. ;-)

[MadHound]

62. Cool, yeah, I think we're approaching the same solutionq

From different directions:hi:

[Art_from_Ark]

71. Sometimes one has no choice but to become a professional student

Sometimes good jobs are not available immediately after acquiring a Bachelor's degree. Employers offering rinky-dink jobs don't want someone who'll likely jump ship at the first prospect of a better job. And even if one does get a rinky-dink job, it will be next to impossible to save any real money from the abysmally low salary, even with a frugal lifestlye.

On the other hand, a lot of employers offering career-type jobs are looking for a degree *plus* experience-- or an advanced degree. So, if one is caught between this rock and hard place, the only answer is to return to school.

I don't know how it is now, but not too long ago a graduate student could get a tuition waiver plus a small stipend at state schools by accepting a teaching assistantship.

[reclinerhead]

68. It's not all bad ... check out the "Kalamazoo Promise"

In response to your last paragraph... I agree that full funding of college educations will never happen, at least at the federal level.

This is something that has to come from the community or maybe even from the state. My nephew and niece in Kalamazoo, MI, (both under two years old) will have their tuition paid for if they attend public school and graduate from there. Applies to all students in this town of around 70,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo,_Michigan (see the section under Education).

[pitohui]

55. what's wrong w. garnishing pay checks?

i submit that if a man has gotten to be 67 years old and he has never been able to find employment such that a portion of his paycheck should be garnished to pay down the student loan debt acknowledge the unfortunate dude who was too freakn disabled to work for decades should have his debt forgiven

we're talking people too disabled to hold a job! that is why the student loan people could never get the money from their wages in all the time between getting the degree and getting the social security!

sheesh!

there is no personal responsibility when it comes to early heart disease, it's caused by any number of factors beyond our control, some people are even born with it, a friend of mine had a heart attack in her forties because she was in a house fire, where does personal responsibility come into play? if we could decide not to become sick or injured, nobody here would ever be sick or injured

[LynneSin]

20. Student loans are some of the easiest to readjust if you can't afford it

when I use to sell cars back in the early 90s, the car loan industry was getting more lax on who could receive a loan. Probably one of the few reasons why you would get rejected for a car loan (provided you were trying to finance something reasonable) was if you defaulted on STudent Loans.

If you can't pay your Student Loans, you can contact the folks who own the loans and they'll work with you in order to keep your Student Loans from defaulting. It just takes a phone call.

Of course the rate our government is going I would suspect this could be changing in a few years.

[Cobalt Violet]

30. I guess we should open up poor houses again. n/t

[pitohui]

52. especially the disabled man who stubbornly refused to die

i like how it's the 67 yr old dude's fault for having severe heart disease and bypass surgery in 1981 that disabled him and made him incapable of working

it's a disgrace that student loan debt can't be erased by bankruptcy in the case of severe medical disability

you are really taking a risk to invest in an education, because if you are injured or become ill shortly after graduation you could never pay that debt yet you can't erase it thru bankruptcy

a man at my college was in an accident and lost both of his legs the week of his graduation for his master's degree

a friend of my mom's, her daughter was in a diving accident and became paralyzed the summer after college graduation

i guess they are bums too?

how dare anyone invest in an education without a certain knowledge of their future health and employability!

i really think the usa federal gov't wants all old and sick people to just hurry up and die already

this is crazy world, this country has no heart

[RoBear]

28. Thanks for being so understanding.

I was in a job that didn't pay more than barely what it takes to live. Now that I'm on social security, I won't have enough to buy medications when they start this plan. I'm diabetic, have heart disease, and am on eight medications currently. So I now know what they were saying when they painted the picture of the choice of eating or taking medications.

[MadHound]

31. Well, first off, if you would re-read my posts

I did make the point of stating that there should be exceptions for hardship cases. That seems to include you, at least at this point.

But if you were getting into a career that paid so poorly, why did you accumulate such debt? Hell, though it took longer than the average student, I worked my way through college and paid cash on the barrel for it, no loans, about $500.00 total in grants, and no help from my parents. Why? Because I knew that the career path I was going for wasn't going to be rewarding financially, and I didn't want that kind of debt hanging over my life(same reason I forego credit cards)

And again, could you pay anything at all while you were working? Even ten dollars a week would do the trick.

I'm sorry to hear about your current predicament, and I don't know what will help you, especially in these times. Our country has become increasingly less generous to those most in need, while lavishing our wealth on those who don't need it. Hopefully a change in parties will bring a change in policies, but sadly I doubt it.

[loyalsister]

36. It must be nice

for your life to work out as planned.
For some people, however things don't go quite as planned. Many people take out loans expecting to have long careers but when disease of disability comes up it changes the priorities of everyday life.
Most people try to use foresight and do the best they can to plan a life responsibly, but sometimes the roads that sidetrack can make things so difficult that student loans become the least of a person's worries next to death.
This guy apparently had some trouble with his heart that came up at some point.
Walk in another person's shoes before you judge.

[MadHound]

41. My life worked out as planned, HAH, that's a laugh

Like a planned to be the son of a bipolar, untreated, abusive father, who pulled a shotgun on me on more than one occaission. Like I planned to be homeless for a few years as I went through depression and adjusting to a "normal" life. Like I planned several unfortunate events that have happened to me over the years. Sorry, I'm not one of those who have had a fortunate life friend.

However I realized early on that most lending practices, from credit cards to student loans to home equity to car loans and beyond were traps. Get you sucked in, strung out, and if the least little thing goes wrong, sucked dry and thrown away. About the only really decent lending risk to take is a home mortage, and now with ARMs and what have you, they're screwing that up too.

I am fully aware that life can take twists and turns friend. But that shouldn't negate the ability of one to have foresight and good judgement.

And quite frankly, in nine out of ten cases, it isn't life's little disasters that prevent people from paying back their student loans, it is their own selfishness, greed, and irresponsibility that are the main factors. Like I've said upthread, I'm more than willing to make exceptions for true hardship cases. But for those who just blow off their debt because they think that they've got better things to spend their money on, and besides, the government(ie we the taxpayers) will pick up the tab, fuck 'em.

[thinkingwoman]

45. in 9 out of 10 cases

it's selfishness, greed and irresponsibility?

Hey that sounds like the bs that the credit card companies peddled to get their "bankruptcy reform" bill through congress last year.

Turns out they were full of shit.

[MadHound]

48. OK, here let me quote a study on the matter then

"Responses regarding why students might default on Stafford loans appeared to emerge into several themes that could be described as follows: student attitude, no consequence, ignorance, lack of sufficient funds, and left institution dissatisfied. Student attitude was a primary theme. Participants indicated that defaulters believe that repaying loans is not a priority in their lives, that repayment is not important, that they do not want to repay the loans, or that lack of repayment will not "catch up" to them."<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_4_27/ai_63132413>

Does that make matters more palatible for you? I would also suggest you read the full study at the link provided. Oh, and the average amount defaulted? Aprox. $2800.00. Are you going to honestly tell me that a person who is sound of mind and body can't somehow repay $2800.00 over the span of ten years or more? Puhleeze.

[thinkingwoman]

63. who did that study?

I notice you didn't include that info.

And I owe 50,000 thankyousomuch. And mine is NOT in default.

I took out those loans in the 80s, with my head full of advice from counselors that my degree would net me a 40-60,000 per year job in a booming economy.

I wasn't old enough or educated enough at that time to :rofl:

Now, of course, the economy certainly isn't what was promised, and my children have opted not to attend college. I am working poor, as I have always been, 40 years old, and with little hope of ever lifting myself to the next strata.

After my latest refinacing of my loans, I'll be paying until past the time I should start drawing social security. but don't worry about me, I've already kissed any dreams of drawing social security goodbye.

Your posts seem very judgemental and sure of your position. That's great for you. I guess those of us with different life experiences aren't part of your reality.

[Don Claybrook]

3. outside the scope of the story, but...

wouldn't it be nice if the government just funded college educations as a matter of course? I think we could do this with ease, given the amount we spend on killing and maiming overseas.

[liberal N proud]

14. It not only would be nice but you would think that a rich nation like this

would demand that education be funded for all citizens until they are employed.

[tabasco]

32. They do in Germany.

My girlfriend's brother's college eucation costs about 500 euro per semester.

[soothsayer]

4. Congresspersons don't repay their student loans, and they don't

need social security because of their handsome pensions, so it's a win/win for them.

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Which members of Congress are delinquent in repaying student loans?

[oneighty]

13. Do you have a source

for that information?

That is a broad brush you are using and perhaps misinformation regarding pensions and SS for congresspersons.

180

[skooooo]

6. Can you say indentured servitude?

[bleedingheart]

9. I have no sympathy for this guy....

Student Loans have to be paid back. If everyone did what this guy did...the program would not exist because people like pRick Santorum would point and say..."look at all the deadbeats"..."let's get rid of student loans!"

So now his social security will be garnished? He should have thought about that when he was ignoring his obligation to pay.

and a 10 year cancellation period? Bullshit...

I think there should be cancellations only for death, disability and or some other extreme circumstances.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Not saying it is right

But I know that MANYYYY years ago, nobody repaid their student loans. It was almost a joke. However, when I obtained a student loan, they required me to go through classes, etc. on the importance of repaying the loan.
Now the IRS witholds it as well as states holding professional licenses for non-payment.
Not saying this is the right way to do business, but our government forgives foreign debt, why not domestic debt? If you have a person of retirement age who has assets, take the assets. If someone is using SS as their documented sole means of support, then forgive the debt.
As an American citizen, I would hate to think that an elderly person had to eat Alpo because I insisted on their decades old student loan being repaid.

[MadHound]

18. As an American citizen I would hate to think

That my children or grandchildren could not attend college because the entire student loan system went into complete default due to the large numbers of people who failed to pay back their loans.

[madokie]

12. During rayguns administration the feds kept most of my tax refund

for that year to pay off a student loan that i was ignoring i guess. I was close to 3 years in delinquency at the time. $200.00 was all it was but it didn't matter they took it, glad they did then or i would have probably had to face it when i became a ward of the government, 'disabled' a year ago.
Dammit i want some democrats back in control, at least they worried about us little folks some. shit fire and save the matches

[Greyhound]

15. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

Social security! :rofl: He said social security! Like anyone under 40 has any chance of getting SS! You guys are so funny!
Yeah sure, there's somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 billion just sitting there and you really believe that the corporate masters are going to leave it? For you? :rofl:

[trixie]

53. Social Security will be there.

[thinkingwoman]

64. wait and see

I'd bet my last $100 that you're wrong.

[Greyhound]

69. Upon what do you base your assertion?

I am really curious and would love to hear some good news for a change.

[trixie]

73. This kind of doomsday talk has been around for 40 years.

I remember my grandmother saying it was going broke. She received it and has since passed away. The GOP wants you to buy into their doomsday opinion so you will gladly hand over all the SS money for them to use. Don't buy into it. If no one touches the money it will be there.

Now I do have a friend who is staunchly believing that there will be no SS for her. Here is the catch - she only works under the table and is 43 and has never paid taxes. So for her there will be no SS.

[Greyhound]

74. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by getting SS, than to count on it

and find that I was right in the first place. We are headed for unprecedented hard times, and too many of us are refusing to acknowledge the possibility that the ruling class is done with amerika.
BTW - check out the sig.

[seabeyond]

16. you get a loan. you pay for it. that is the risk and responsibilty

of making the choice to receive a loan. not a tough one for me.

[SoCalDem]

19. or me.. BUT people need to do some checking NOW

before they visit SS.. That could be a nasty surprise if you thought you were done and were not..

I actually found the student loan people very nice.. I ended up owing about $2k, and when our first child was born with a serious birth defect and we were awash with medical bills, I wrote them and they put a halt on my payments (without interest or penalties) until we were back on our feet..

Of course we paid them every penny..but I thought they were nice to do that for us,:)

[seabeyond]

21. cool socal ..... good to know. and good it is off your back n/t

[bleedingheart]

24. I know a gal who works in social services and she has had

her student loan payments reduced and some of them halted because she isn't paid enough...

They will negotiate with those unable to pay.

[Village Idiot]

22. I hope they charge a really obscene interest rate.

Am I the only poor sod who actually had the balls to pay back every penny?

$48,000 and it took me eight fucking years to pay it all back. Some years, the interest rate was over 9%!!!

[libnnc]

72. no hot-shot, I'm struggling to pay mine back now

Every fucking penny. I'm a substitute teacher making $60 bucks a gig babysitting snarky teenagers and I'll be serving drinks at a cocktail bar on weekends soon. Not everyone skips out on their loans. Many of us are working our tails off trying to pay them back with the outrageous vigs.

Bet I've got more balls than you do.

[f-bush]

23. I have a problem with this because

When this person or these people recieved these loans, it was under an old law with a 10 year statuatory limit on collections. These were the rules under which these people contracted for this credit. To change it now, is retroactive. This is part of the "slippery slope" if the government can retroactively change this, what else could they change? Be careful.

However, for anyone from this point forward...you know the new rules of the game...buyer beware! I will have much less of a problem with the government collecting on people who now get loans and then have to pay up years later. They know the new rules.

[elehhhhna]

43. Excellent point!

[spinbaby]

75. That is troubling

If there was a 10-year statuatory limit on collections, they're changing the rules. Now what's to stop them from deciding that you, say, owe back taxes from 1983? No records from 1983? Too bad.

[f-bush]

76. Absolutely-that is my point

If you want to carry it to the extreme-your grandfather could have owed back taxes on a piece of land. 100 years later the govt could come after you if that land was still in the family.

You just can't change rules like these. People sign obligations and such with a certain criterea in mind. To change that on them is not unfair, but immoral in my opinion.

[dflprincess]

27. This makes me glad that I saved the receipt I got when I made

my last SL payment. I wonder how many people who paid their loans off will be told they didn't?

[Horse with no Name]

34. They sent me a congratulatory letter after my last payment

That sits in my lockbox with my important papers.
I don't trust that they won't do this either.

[pitohui]

58. a LOT of them, dflprincess

i think it's a regular fund-raising trick that dishonest student loan agencies use to get extra money, they rely on the fact that most people don't keep records past a few years

one of my friends paid off his student loan debt of several thousand dollars via money order, i helped him with the paperwork and getting it overnighted so i know for a fact that he paid

a few years later, yeap, they came back, said they never got the money

with a money order, you really have no proof of anything, esp. if you are a bad record keeper like my friend, i helped him tear up his apartment looking for that little piece of paper, but it had long ago been "cleaned"

he ended up paying double, more than double really with all the penalties

they are thieves

we later saw in the newspaper that over a million student loan payments in the state of louisiana had been "misdirected" by an "incompetent" billing service, we never heard of any program to repay the money to the victims or even a program for identifying the victims

now think of all the people who have lost every piece of paper, every bit of financial records, in the gulf coast region, you can bet your ass a lot of those people will be told years from now that there is no record they paid off their student loans, i don't doubt it for one tiny minute

[Tracer]

33. The "letter writer" sounds phony to me.

Aside from the "forgot about my loans" tripe, if this 62-year-old went to college, it was 40 YEARS ago ... and let me tell you, college degrees didn't cost $20,000 that long ago.

[Horse with no Name]

35. What can't you believe?

Who is to say it was 40 years ago?
My mom is over 62 and went to college 15 years ago and her education cost well over $20k.

[KoKo]

37. The other odd thing is that the Govt. comes after you if you don't pay

your loans off. My brother got hit and his company docked his pay. This was way back in the early 80's and he'd taken his loans out in the early 70's.

I find it hard to believe that this person didn't get his wages docked or hounded by the government all these years. :shrug: Maybe he fell through the cracks...moved around alot...but still I remember what my brother went through it it wasn't pretty. He had to extend the time out to repay the loans because his job situation wasn't great in those years...but he eventually did.

[pitohui]

59. they come after you if you don't pay AND you have a job

one of my friends could not pay his student loans for many years

they didn't come after him because he held no job, hence nothing to garnish

once he got a job and began to earn, they confiscated his tax returns and were also starting a procedure to get part of his pay, however, it was dot-com days and before they had to go that route he was able to quickly get enough $$$ to pay them off

i'm guessing the 62 who did not pay did not have a job to be garnished and hence no income tax refund to be seized either

if you think abt it, makes little sense to go after people who are homeless, living in mom's basement, or otherwise have no job or other asset with which to pay

[etherealtruth]

38. Hmmmm...

I went back to school and graduated last year ... I'm 44

[sandnsea]

39. The interest and service fees compound

Payments go to service fees first, and then they just sell the loan and slap on thousands of dollars of service fees all over again. Once you're student loan has been defaulted, it's really next to impossible to pay it off. That's the part they don't tell the public.

[bleedingheart]

40. student loans can be used for medical school as well....

it could have been for graduate school in any area of study too...

About 6 years ago, our local paper did a piece on how the student loan people were confiscating people's cars for payment.

One of the examples cited was a doctor who had a benz parked in his driveway but never paid back his student loan.

[William Bloode]

42. Edit, because i may have made the wrong comment here.

[BeerIsClear]

46. They can't touch you

They can't.

Your Social Security benefits are protected by the Constitution.

I posted on my blog about it back in November.

[rinsd]

56. LOL, that's the Soviet Constitution whcih wasn't worth the paper...

...it was printed on.

[dysfunctional press]

49. i paid my student loans- but i still lost SS benefits-

although the losses had nothing to do with the loans...

my SS pain-in-the-ass horror-story:
i received my finding of disability at age 38, after the rapid onset of a previously undiagnosed congenital affliction...when i had my hearing about my benefits, i was asked about a two-year absence of any work record about 15 years prior- and, long-story-short, it turned out that a now long-gone and bankrupted construction company that i had worked for over that two year period had never paid into Social Security for it's employees, although the money had been deducted from our pay...guess what- we're all SOL...and most, if not all of the people probably won't find out until they have a similar benefit meeting upon their retirements.

AND- in my particular case, since i "retired" early, those two years represent 10% of my working years...as well as two of my top five earning years, due to higher wages and lots of overtime...but the SS gives me NO credit for it, and as such my monthly benefit is over 10% less than it should be.

and i have no recourse...of course.

[trixie]

50. How do yo forget your student loans?

Mine are all paid! You only hurt students coming up by not repaying your loans. :thumbsdown:

[AndyA]

54. ...Meanwhile, the U.S. spends millions each day in Iraq...

While hassling ill senior citizens for $20,000...

What's wrong with this picture?

I agree, the money should have been repaid, but why wait all these years to try to collect?

[pitohui]

60. you can't collect from people w. no income and no assets

the purpose of waiting until the person was 62 in the one case and 67 in the other example was that previous to retirement, they didn't have any income, of course if they'd had a job and refused to pay, the gov't would garnish part of the pay, seize bank accounts, seize tax refunds, and all the other stuff they do as a matter of routine to folks who "forget" to pay their obligations

the 67 year old had not been able to work since 1981!

you can declare bankruptcy to get out from any other debt, only student loan debt is "special," only students should be punished for the nerve of having tried to improve their lives by getting an education

[NaturalHigh]

65. My parents worked hard and sacrificed...

to pay back their student loans. I don't see why that should be such a foreign concept. If you borrow money, you should pay it back.

[HeeBGBz]

66. Great

Okay, fine. Student loan repayment never ends. They've taken my tax refunds, they garnish my wages, they never send receipt of payment and the interest continues to keep the amount always the same, then they keep selling the loan off to some other obscure place that attaches to me like leech lips at a blood bank. Go ahead and take the $500 that I might get when I reach that SS age. Fuckers. I'll scratch me up a turnip patch on the parched earth of my dreams.