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Obama Is Forgiving the Student Loans of Nearly 400,000 Permanently Disabled People (marketwatch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers will now have an easier path to getting their loans discharged, the Obama administration has announced. The Department of Education will send letters to 387,000 people they've identified as being eligible for a total and permanent disability discharge, a designation that allows federal student loan borrowers who can't work because of a disability to have their loans forgiven. The borrowers identified by the Department won't have to go through the typical application process for receiving a disability discharge, which requires sending in documented proof of their disability. Instead, the borrower will simply have to sign and return the completed application enclosed in the letter.
I know that it's good to be charitable in personal views, and public policy. And you should not make the process onerous. But having no verification of disability by some authority is going to lead to abuse of this entitlement. And it just has to be a small fraction of people who take advantage, to undermine trust that the taxpayer is not being ripped off.
This is significant money being given forgiven. The administration would serve themselves better if they put up even small, reasonable checks on who is able to actually get this benefit.
Just like how you start to get very mad at people who are able to abuse handicapped parking spots because the govt is totally lax about who get to use this benefit (not just who has the placard, but who uses it). Trust in the appearance of public institutions is just as important as actual functioning -- a small number of cases of fraud and abuse can undermine it.
I know everyone's going to scream "evil socialism! disability fraud!" but people who actually qualify for a permanent and total disability are never going to be able to fully benefit from their education. Whether it's the inability to do physical work or acknowledging the discrimination that disabled people encounter in the workplace, the result is the same.
In this case, it makes sense to make it easy to get rid of the debt. If I recall correctly, student loans are almost impossible to discharge any other way. Bankruptcy doesn't get rid of them, nor does crippling financial hardship. There is a process to forgive them due to hardship but it's so onerous that no one in a normal situation would qualify.
Someone has to pay for it.
People who cry out socialism at the drop of the hat don't want their tax dollars being used to help those OTHER people. That don't mind if the government pays for the programs that they care about, say, Social Security benefits.
This program has been around since 2010. The only difference now is that the administration is sending out letters to people they see as eligible for this program. Up until now there have been few who have applied for it. It could be they do not know about it, think it is too difficult, or that they do not qualify. All the letter does is emphasize that they can apply and sets out the process. This is not a straight out forgiveness. Each disabled person must apply and be approved to have their loan forgiven.
Ever known someone who was disabled who applied for Social Security benefits based on it? It's not easy to get them to admit that they are disabled. It seems unlikely to me that successful disability fraud would be all that common, because it's so damn difficult to get disability payments with a genuine disability. Got any references?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Someone has to pay for it.
People who cry out socialism at the drop of the hat don't want their tax dollars being used to help those OTHER people. That don't mind if the government pays for the programs that they care about, say, Social Security benefits.
Uh, I'm the one paying for Social Security.
News for Nerds... STUFF THAT MATTERS. quit bitching
Amen its my money going into Social Security not a freaking handout!
That's not correct. Your money in Social Security is paying for today's retirees. When you retire tomorrow, tomorrow workers will be paying for your benefits. Unfortunately, 20 years from now, there won't be enough workers to pay for retirees.
It's at times like this that I think Slashdot needs a "WTF?" mod.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
oh just shut the f up.
if you became disabled and can no longer work, how are you going to pay back the loan?
if you become disabled and unable to work, which is who this is talking about, you can discharge most other debts under bankruptcy. that is right and just, and a purpose of bankruptcy, allowing people to move forward.
but you cannot discharge student loan debt under bankruptcy.
this remedies that. and as such, loan forgiveness in this situation is perfectly just and logical, except to small minded idiots like you.
and its not technically spending anything.
the money's already spent.
and in most cases already repaid, on a dollar for dollar basis.
its the interest games that hold this debt over peoples heads for so long, because for some reason banks are more deserving of 0% interest rate loans than our future workforce, because we can't seem to make the same jump the rest of world has to seeing educational as a investment in the future instead of something be loaned.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
No. We just realize that the money has to come from somewhere. The ultra-wealthy are a poor target because they can defend themselves. That leaves the rest of us.
Once you've been around the block once or twice, the mere promise of rainbow ponies isn't enough anymore.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.