Older Americans hurt by restart of SocSec garnishment

[Deminpenn]

Post Gazette story about how many Americans who are on social security and still have student loan debt are being squeezed by the restart of wage garnishment to repay the loans. Truly disgraceful situation.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2025/05/25/Older-people-in-crosshairs-as-government-restarts-Social-Security-garnishment-on-student-loans/stories/202505250005

[FBaggins]

1. Shocking that so many have student debt in their 70s

Not for kids/grandkids?

[PBC_Democrat]

2. How is paying back a loan disgraceful?

I agreed with the temporary pause in collections, but we're past Covid and it's time to go back to business as usual.

[IbogaProject]

3. These might be PLUS loans

Those ce out one of the three Bush administrations and are loans to parents for adult children. Higher education costs have skyrocketed needlessly. The bloat is super high administrative salaries. I've heard that University administrators routeinly make two to three times what a tenured professor earns at SUNY schools here in NY State.

[SLClarke]

5. Paying back

A bit of history here. My daughter took out loans to go to school. Everything was fine until she decided to get divorced from her very abusive husband. He stalked her, took her to court multiple times, had his sister spy on her, make up stories about her, insisted that she was beating their three children, and not believing the kids when they said she didn't, and more ...............
She ended up losing her good job, had a nervous breakdown, and ended up giving up custody of all three.
Now, fifteen years later, she has chronic fatigue, is diabetic and obese with a bad knee that needs surgery. She cannot work more than 20 hours a week, and even then, if she does work, she has to take a day off between days working, to rest and sleep.
She was paying on the student loan until she lost her good job, and still was able to keep up with the payments when she got a much lower paying job, but as she become sicker she and she hasn't been able to keep up. Now that loan amount has tripled. TRIPLED.
Last year was her 65th birthday. She has an outstanding loan amount of over $55,000. She is living in subsidized housing. She can't pay anything on her student loan. The student loan people said she should be giving them $300.00 or more a month - an absurd amount for someone who relies on small organizing jobs, which exhaust her.
It is so easy to say the student loan should be paid. But there are many people out there who, having taken out a loan, been a student for 3-4 years, who, for all kinds of reasons, end up not earning enough to manage the loan payment.
In my daughter's case, it isn't that she doesn't want to. It is that she can't.

[catrose]

7. I am sure she's paid the interest and a lot of interest already

I am sorry she didn't qualify for any of Biden's loan programs. Among the many things I will never forgive the Rs for is fighting him on that.

[Deminpenn]

8. If you read the story, you'll see that these student debtors are in their 60s and 70s

Many, if not most of them, I believe, have long since paid off the original loan amount plus at least some interest.

Unfortumately because of the 1995, iirc, law student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Senator Biden was a major backer of this 1995 bill and responsible for the part that makes student loan debt all but impossible to get out from under. Senator Biden, of course, was representing the big banks that are incorporated in Delaware and their interests. Representing constituent interests was one of his jobs as a senator from Delaware.

The solution would be for Congress to repeal this part of the 1995 and at least allow student loan debt to be subject to the same bankruptcy discharge criteria as every other personal debt. And credit to President Biden for recognizing the hardship paying off student loan debt is for many people and trying to rectify that with his loan forgiveness program.

[DiverDave]

9. How about predatory

Schools?
I attended one such.
I didn't get a job because they never taught us useful skills.
The school shut down, then opened up under a new name.
Problem solved...for them.
I sure am glad I kept my CDL.
Any way to scam students.

[BoRaGard]

4. "Ha ha." - Komrade Krasnov the KlawBacker (R)

"Must take the money for billionaire tax breaks. Too bad, suckers." - G.O.P.

[Peer Gynt]

6. Higher Ed was defunded starting in 80s

The truth is that higher education was defunded starting under Reagan in the 1980s. The federal government never funded higher education much directly, but cuts to healthcare spending (Medicaid, etc.) and the criminal justice system put a huge burden on the states. States had to start covering huge new costs to balance their budgets and not go bankrupt. What were states to do? Charge poor people with no money for their hospital stays? Charge prisoners with no money for their incarceration? Nope… they went to people with money and the willingness to take on debt… students and their families. Instead of continuing to invest in higher education at the levels they did before the 80s, states had to make cuts in education budgets. Public college costs in state like New York went from almost nothing to being thousands a year. The decisions on the 80s and beyond were PUBLIC POLICY CHOICES made by Republicans. Public policy choices could undo this, and we could invest in higher education and trades education once again… huge public goods. Then students and families won’t have to go into debt to get a basic education needed for many modern jobs, which is nearly free in places like Canada and Europe.