New and Improved Department of Education Disability Discharge Process
We have long argued that the Department of Education should tie its standards for student loan disability discharges to Social Security standards. At last, we are starting to see some progress in this...
View ArticleA Look Back at 2012
2012 is almost over and it’s time for our annual “look back” at the year that was. Student loan issues were a hot topic this year. Much of the attention centered on legislation this summer that...
View ArticleDefault, Loan Consolidation and IBR
For a number of years, we have been writing about the problems facing borrowers trying to consolidate their loans out of default and into Income Based Repayment (IBR). The Department of Education was...
View ArticleBarriers to College Completion for Low-Income Students
A recent New York Times article focuses on the low college entry and completion rates for lower-income students. Greg Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine summarizes these...
View ArticlePriority Agenda 2013
Despite all of the government money spent on financial aid, the difference in college graduation rates between our nation’s top and bottom income groups has widened by nearly 50% over two decades. We...
View ArticleImproving the Assistance Network for Student Loan Borrowers
When we released our “Finding a Way Out” report five years ago, we were extremely concerned about the lack of reliable and affordable resources for financially distressed student loan borrowers....
View ArticleWhat We Don’t Know about the Costs of Student Loan Collection
More than two years have passed since the Department of Education pulled the private collection agency handbook off of its web site and as far as we can tell, the handbook has yet to reappear in...
View ArticleThe CFPB Wants to Hear From You About Private Student Loan Debt Burdens and...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is requesting information about ways to provide relief for private student loan borrowers. Comments must be received on or before April 8, 2013. This...
View ArticleNew Self-Help Packet on Financial Hardship Claims
Social Security helps give aging and disabled Americans peace of mind. No matter how destitute we become, Social Security is meant to give us some measure of confidence that we will be able to get by....
View ArticleTroubling Trends in Student Debt
Unfortunately, the bad news about student loan debt burdens keeps coming. The Education Sector recently highlighted a number of troubling trends, including: From 1994 to 2009: The percent of graduates...
View ArticleUpdate on Collection Agency Complaint Systems
In May 2012, the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project released Borrowers on Hold: Student Loan Collection Agency Complaint Systems Need Massive Improvement,...
View ArticleThe Truth about Student Loans and the Bankruptcy Undue Hardship Discharge
We have testified and written about the urgent need to restore bankruptcy rights for student loan borrowers. A robust debate on this topic is certainly welcome, but it is critical to get the facts...
View ArticleCFPB Urged to Require Private Student Loan Modifications
With more than 850,000 private student loans currently in default and thousands of other borrowers struggling to make their payments, attorneys at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) are urging the...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Lenders: Stop Making Excuses, Start Helping Borrowers
In discussing the company’s lending to “non-traditional” students, Sallie Mae CEO Al Lord said in a June 5, 2008 interview that “[i]t was obviously a mistake and I’m not going to step away from...
View ArticlePutting Borrowers First
While the debate about student loan interest rates attracts most of the buzz these days, student loan debt collectors continue to fly under the radar. It is particularly difficult to get to the bottom...
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