NEW YORK (AP) – Christine Faro has postponed the gift she sends grandchildren for her birthday, having two cats and a dog for a shot. All of her clothes come from second-hand shops, and most of her vegetables come from her garden. At 73, she lives with a budget, cutting costs as much as possible.
But it looks like it’s going to be much tighter.
As the Trump administration Fits default student loan collectionan astonishing population is caught up in the crosshairs. Hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans are at risk of decorating Social Security checks due to debts from decades ago.
“I had an incredible amount of time. I spent weekends and nights, but I couldn’t pay it off,” says Farro, a retired child welfare worker in Santa Ynez, California.
Like millions of debtors with federal student loans, Faro had her payments and interest It was suspended five years ago by the government. When the pandemic thrusts many into financial difficulties. That bounty period ends in 2023, and earlier this month the Ministry of Education said it would resume its “unwilling collection” by adorning wages, tax refunds, Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Faro previously decorated her Social Security and hoped it would reboot.
Faro’s loan dates back 40 years. When she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Developmental Psychology, she was a single mother, and when she discovered that she couldn’t make enough money to pay off her loan, she went back to school to earn her master’s degree. Her salary will never catch up. Things have gotten worse.
Around 2008, when she consolidated the loan, she was paying $1,000 a month, but missing years of payments and stacking interest meant she had little dents on the bill that had swelled to $250,000. When she asked for help to settle her debt, she says she only had one suggestion to the loan company.
“They said, ‘We’re going to move to a cheaper state,'” Faro said. “I realized I live in a different reality than them.”
Elderly student loan debt has grown at an incredible rate due to the increase in tuition fees, which forced more people to borrow more amounts. Over 60 years old Holds an estimated $125 billion in student loansaccording to the National Consumer Law Center. It led the Social Security beneficiaries who awarded the payments 3,000% balloons will be made over the same periodAccording to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
An estimated 452,000 people over the age of 62 had student loans by default, according to a January report from the CFPB.
Among them is Debbie McIntyre, a 62-year-old adult education teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky. She dreams of retiring, writing more historical fiction, and boarding a plane for the first time since high school. However, her husband has been cutting off disability jobs for 20 years and has used his credit card to earn him a small profit and her salary. Their rent will be hiked to $300 when their lease is renewed. McIntyre doesn’t know what to do if her salary is on display.
She comes up with the idea of bankruptcy, but it does not automatically clear her loan, which is kept to a different standard from other debts. She’s thinking about whether to pick up extra work from a babysitter or tutor. But she hasn’t seen a real solution.
“I don’t know what more I can do,” says McIntyre, who is too afraid to see what her loan balance is. “I’m never going to get out of this hole.”
Debt group Braxton Brewington says it’s impressive how many seniors will dial the organization’s phone and attend the protest. Many of them should have had their debts cancelled, but they would have been victims of a system that was “plagued by flaws, illegality and flukes.” In fact, many people who left them in their later years of debt actually paid off the principal with loans.
Brewington says the outcome can be devastating for those who are being decorated.
“We hear from people who skip meals. We know people who dilute their medicines, cut pills in half. People are taking dramatic steps like pulling out all their savings and breaking up the 401ks,” he says. “We know people who have been forced into homelessness.”
The Biden administration was trying to limit the amount of income that could be adorned, despite the possibility that the collection of default loans has resumed, regardless of who is president. Federal law protects social security benefits of just $750 from decoration, which is far less than the debtor.
“We basically provide the federal benefits with one hand and take them with another,” says Sarah Sattelmeyer, a new American think tank.
Linda Hilton, a 76-year-old retired office worker from Apache Junction, Arizona, says she will survive again after decorating before Covid. But the flights to meet her children, dining at a restaurant, and other delights of her retirement life may go away.
“That would mean a limitation,” Hilton said. “There are no travel, there are no frills.”
Some debtors have already been notified of collection. More people live in fear. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order Calling for the Ministry of Education to be demolished And for those seeking answers about loans, massive layoffs have become complicated to answer calls.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon He says restarting the collection is a necessary step for the debtor “Because of their own financial health and the economic outlook for our country,” even some of Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters have questioned the moves that make their lives even more difficult.
Randall Countryman, 55, of Bonita, California, says the Biden administration’s proposal to allow students to borrow money didn’t attack him fairly, but Trump’s approach isn’t sure either. He supported Trump, but hopes the government will make case-by-case decisions regarding debtors. Countrymen believe Americans are unaware of the number of seniors affected by student loan policies.
“What is the problem with youth today?” he says. “Tomorrow is the old man’s problem.”
The countryman began earning his degree in prison and then continued to do so when he was released at the University of Phoenix. He began to get nervous as he won a loan debt and didn’t get a degree. He worked in a variety of jobs, but finding a job was often complicated by his criminal history.
He lives with his wife’s social security check and his stepmother kindness. He doesn’t know how to get it if the government demands repayment.
“I hope you’ve never been to school in the first place,” he says.
___
You can reach Matt Sedensky [email protected] and https://x.com/sedensky
Source link
