Disabled Borrowers

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Jasmine Norwood/ iWatch News

The Education Department, which had promised swift action to ease the hardships faced by people who are disabled and unable to pay back old student loans, is backing away from a remedy. This is the latest update on a series of stories co-produced by iWatch News and ProPublica and written by Sasha Chavkin (Updated 8/30).

After suffering from panic attacks and episodes of psychosis, Donita McDonald was diagnosed with a severe mental illness in 2009. She was unable to work or attend school, so the Social Security Administration declared the 21-year-old disabled. After the ruling, McDonald’s family turned to the Department of Education, appealing to also have her thousands of dollars in student loans forgiven. The department is supposed to forgive the loans of former students who develop severe and lasting disabilities, such as McDonald. 

But rather than accept the Social Security Administration’s ruling, the Education Department has forced McDonald to go through a separate, arduous and largely duplicative review that has left her facing continuous collection efforts, even though she is unable to handle her own finances. 

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Disabled Borrowers

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After six years battling to persuade the Education Department that she was too disabled to work again, the government finally has forgiven the student debt of disabled former police officer Tina Brooks. She was featured in a Feb. 13 story about the government’s broken program for forgiving the federal student loans of borrowers who become seriously disabled.

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Disabled Borrowers

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A pulmonary embolism left Scott Creighton, of Tampa, Fla., unable to continue working full time. His efforts to get his student-loan debt forgiven were turned away by a debt collector acting on behalf of the Education Department, despite a federal law entitling disabled borrowers to that step.  Brian Blanco
Borrowers who become severely disabled can get federal student loans forgiven, but the program for deciding whether they qualify is a dysfunctional, bureaucratic maze.

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