From National Public Radio:
The U.S. Education Department announced Thursday that it is discharging the outstanding student loans of more than 323,000 borrowers who have significant, permanent disabilities, and will remove barriers for borrowers who qualify for this relief in the future. The announcement will erase some $5.8 billion in debt and marks a significant step toward fixing a troubled debt relief program meant to help borrowers with disabilities. ...
Now, relief will become automatic for those who are identified through a data match with the Social Security Administration. The next match is in September, and based on those who were identified in June, the department expects more than 323,000 people to receive relief amounting to $5.8 billion. ...
This won't be for all recipients of Social Security disability benefits -- just those assigned to the MINE (Medical Improvement Not Expected) category. Those who are not in the MINE category may still get relief they must apply and it's not automatic.
9 comments:
My 40 year old niece, newly approved for DIB but the owner of a PH.d from Oxford and with a lot of graduate school private student loans found her provider followed federal rules for disability discharge and was just notified that her loans were discharged. She had to ask and was surprised by the answer but is grateful for it. Point being those with private student loans should check their details. Don't assume.
The procedure right now::
-Submit SSA-3288 (records request) to local office.
-Follow up extensively, as those are uniformly looked at in FOs as a low-priority workload.
-Once it is processed, receive invoice for $34, as this is a non-Social Security related request.
-Send in payment and pray your FO has decent check-handling and remittance procedures.
-Send in 2nd payment, as they probably don't.
-Hopefully receive exactly what you asked for (a BPQY- Benefits Planning Query) showing that your medical re-examination cycle is either 5 or 7 years. If not, you're SOL.
-Send that off to Dept of Education.
-Wait. Follow up.
-Send it again, they probably lost it the first time.
I'm all for database matches. If what Charles says is true and this is only for MINE cases, then it's not for everyone who is eligible and that's disappointing.
How can an SSDI recipient find out whether they were designated MINE, or not?
If you're not diaried for 5 or 7 years, you're no automatically SOL. You can apply for relief.
I forgot the details how I applied, but I know it was through NelNet, or something like that. It was fast. They made me report my income for 3 years, and they they were forgiven. It was a process, but it really wasn't difficult. The form, my doctor filled out in about 15 minutes. It's just a process... I don't know if Nelnet still exists though or how the rules may have changed. I went from MINE to a 3 year diary for some reason just a few years ago. I'm disabled on a few issues, so in stead of DDS dragging it out even FURTHER (had been 6 months), they just passed it through on one of my disabilities that was obvious, but that threw me in the 3 year review. I expect, however, that I'll be put back on MINE my next review. I can tell ya one thing though, the relief of student loan debt was the world off my shoulders. I was out of forbearances and deferments. I honestly cannot remember how I started the process though, only that it went rather smoothly.
Will this impact EAJA offsets for pre existing government debt?
This is huge. Not exactly sure how this gets done or funded. But those who are disabled with huge student loans should be rejoicing!
Here is a paper I co-wrote on TPD reforms.
Last week's announcement was the first big step.
Next up is the negotiated rulemaking where we will advocate for the expansion of Soc Sec recipients who will be deemed to have met the ED standard.
https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Delivering-on-Debt-Relief.pdf
Taces, Taxes, Taxes. I know Trump waived Federal taxes on forgiven student loans 1099-C as it used to count as income, but what about State taxes? Can state taxes be forgiven?
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