Seniors Forced Into Poverty As Education Department Demands Payment

[RandySF]

The Education Department is demanding so much money from seniors with defaulted student loans that it's forcing tens of thousands of them into poverty, according to a government audit.

At least 22,000 Americans aged 65 and older had a part of their Social Security benefits garnished last year to the point that their monthly benefits were below federal poverty thresholds, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Education Department-initiated collections on defaulted federal student loans left at least another 83,000 Americans aged 64 and younger with poverty-level Social Security payments, GAO data show. Federal auditors cautioned that the number of Americans forced to accept poverty-level benefits because of past defaults on federal student loans are surely higher.

More than half, or 54 percent, of federal student loans held by borrowers at least 75 years old are in default, according to the federal watchdog. About 27 percent of loans held by borrowers aged 65 to 74 are in default. Among borrowers aged 50 to 64, 19 percent of their loans are in default. The Education Department generally defines a default as being at least 360 days past due.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/seniors-education-department-student-debt_n_5807820.html

[napi21]

1. I guess I'm ,issing something, but why in the world does someone 65+ still owe a student loan?

Are these because they co-signed a loan for someone else, like their kids or grandkids? If it's really theirs, why wouldn't they have paid them off years ago?

[Big Blue Marble]

2. A lot of them went back to school

to get retrained when their jobs disappeared. And they never made enough to repay their loans
in this economy.

[yeoman6987]

3. What do they think was going to happen

When they signed up for these loans? Did the believe they would magically disappear?

[Big Blue Marble]

4. No, they thought they would be making an investment in their future

just as younger people think when they go to school. The cost
of education today requires loans for most middle income people.

When you have lost your job and do not find a replacement the
best option is to re-educate and retrain for a new job. It is
the jobs that magically went away.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Your sympathy is touching, but are you sure you aren't on the wrong site ? nt

[yeoman6987]

10. Getting rid of more everyday

This is fun!

[Kingofalldems]

11. You don't seem to like DUers very much.

Also looks like you take the republican side of most issues to me.

[RandySF]

6. And a lot of them ran into age discrimination after they finished.

I know of someone who lot her job, went back to school to become a court reporter, and when she got out, found her age working against her.

[SharonAnn]

7. Some cosigned a loan for their son/daughter.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Yes, they WILL take your student loan out of your Social Security benefit.

A lot of people retrained for new jobs that were not there.

All this stuff we hear about how Americans need to go to school so they can get better jobs is bullshit. Baby Boomers are the best educated generation in history and now we are too old and too overqualified so we get fired.




For this I got a fucking J. D.????

[grasswire]

8. they will seize everything above $750/month SS to satisfy...

....old student loans. A person could have a very small loan that has ballooned into many thousand dollars with interest, and have little prospect of being able to pay it back after losing employment in the shattered economy.

[WillyT]

12. K & R !!!