Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Disability and Federal Student Loan Forgiveness

Excerpt from: Law Office of Matthew Stoloff (click for full article)

 

To get a deferment, you must apply to the federal government, and you must qualify based on your life circumstances, such as economic hardship, active duty service in the military, and so forth. The benefit of deferment is that, under certain circumstances, the federal government may pay the interest that was being charged during the deferment period on a federally subsidized student loan.

Forbearance is similar to a deferment in the sense that you do not have to make payments towards your student loans or those payments may be lowered for a period of time. Forbearance may be an option if you do not qualify for a deferment. To get a forbearance of your loan, you must apply to your loan servicer, not the federal government. If you meet the eligibility criteria for a mandatory forbearance, the servicer must grant your request. They also have the discretion to grant you a forbearance if you are suffering from financial hardship or illness.

Woman with Autism Gets Student Loans Discharged

Excerpt from: Law Offices of Matthew Stoloff (click for full article)

 

Recently, a Maryland court considered whether a person on the autism spectrum could get her student loans discharged. See In re Todd. The debtor, Carol Todd, has a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome, in addition to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and osteoporosis. Ms. Todd had a total of about $340,000 in student loan debt and sought to get these loans discharged.

Right away, we know this case is different because the judge quotes the Webster’s dictionary definitions of “undue” and “hardship,” adding that these terms do not suggest a standard that “no debtor can ever meet.” The court went on to describe how Ms. Todd was unable to function normally due to her diagnoses of Asperger’s, PTSD, and osteoporosis – but the court focused primarily on Asperger’s.

In its analysis, the court determined that Ms. Todd’s situation met the “certainty of hopelessness” test due primarily to her autism/Asperger’s. Persuading the court was a doctor’s testimony showing that Ms. Todd could be a successful student, even be able to earn a Ph.D., but that she could not be a “productive” employee in the working world as we know it.

The Auto Loan That Went Haywire

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

Mistakes happen, and this one was cleared up without too much trouble. The real heartburn started when that M.B.F.S. rep claimed that keeping Ms. Hooley’s credit score pristine was her problem. That, says Ms. Marzett, was a terribly wrong message.

“I listened to that phone call,” she said. “It’s absolutely unacceptable for us to even allude to the notion that the customer needs to do anything if we make a mistake. I can’t excuse it and I’m not going to defend it. And I can tell you that we dealt with that phone representative immediately.”

The Haggler imagines a stern lecture in a tiny room, suffused with new-car smell and lined with auburn brown leather with white stitching.

A rep from M.B.F.S. also got in touch with Ms. Hooley, calling to offer apologies and to make clear that she need do nothing to ensure the robustness of her credit score. The company, the rep explained, would handle that.