From Forbes:
Last year, the Biden administration announced a new initiative to streamline student loan relief for certain disabled borrowers. By allowing the Social Security Administration to share data with the Education Department about borrowers who were receiving Social Security Disability benefits, the administration could identify borrowers who would qualify for the TPD discharge program, and then cancel their student loans automatically.
Today, the administration announced that through this data sharing initiative, the Education Department has cancelled approximately $7 billion in federal student loan debt for 350,000 borrowers. ...
The Department anticipates that another 15,000 to 20,000 borrowers may receive TPD discharges every quarter going forward via the same data sharing program. ...
2 comments:
A couple of things.
In addition to the automation process (which is in and of itself a big deal), as a result of the negotiated rulemaking that took place in the Fall or 2021, there are going to be important changes to the substantive rules for getting a TPD loan discharge.
1. The three year monitoring period will be eliminated.
2. There will be a significant expansion to the groups of SS/SSI recipients who will be automatically deemed eligible without having to provide a medical certification. The two most important groups are folks with an onset 5 years before the TPD application and folks who have been approved based on Compassionate Allowances.
Here is a link to a Forbes article that describes some of the upcoming changes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2021/12/07/education-department-signals-big-changes-to-student-loan-forgiveness-program-for-disabled-borrowers/?sh=7a8d216e1ff6
Literally don't get why it was ever seen as reasonable to rely on disabled individuals' ability to become aware of or seek discharge, once SSA recognizes they are disabled. Seriously, this is a great change. I'm not assuming all disabled folks can't figure it out, but just...why make them?
Probably something privacy related precluding the free exchange of info between SSA and treasury/Dept of Edu.
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