A vast majority of people take out student loans to pay for higher education. The Supreme Court has decided to make social security benefits a means of repaying them.
No Benefits For You!
While millions borrow money to attend college and graduate school, not everyone pays this money back. The failure to pay can result from circumstances such as a slow job market, failure to finish school and health problems. Of course, there are the select few who simply welch on the repayments. The U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision on December 7, 2005, impacting people who are behind in paying their loans.
In Lockhart v. United States, the Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether the federal government could seize social security benefits to cover outstanding student loans. The case involved James Lockhart, a disable man, who sued to stop the government from cutting his monthly $874 check. Lockhart suffers from heart disease, diabetes and other health problems and lives in public housing in Seattle. He argued the forfeiture of part of his check made it impossible for him to continue to buy his medication and food. The Justices disagreed with Lockhart.
Under federal law, efforts to collect defaulted student loans had a 10 year limit. Put another way, the federal government was barred from hunting down delinquent payers after ten years. In the past few years, however, Congress did away with this limitation, which brought forth a conflict of law. The Social Security Act contains language protecting benefits from being seized as part of debt actions. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that such protections only apply to private individuals, not the federal government. In short, social security benefits are no longer safe.
Currently, the total balance on outstanding student loans is roughly $30 billion. Of this amount, roughly seven billion are delinquent or defaulted loans. With 25 percent of loans in the red, one can see why the government has an interest in collecting the debt.
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People need to understand that they signed an agreement stating that they would pay the money back that they borrowed. People are breaking their backs every month in order to make student loan and other payments, so why should some be allowed to get off scott free? I think that the government should take any means possible to get the money back.
ReplyDeleteWhen you sign that note, you have to pay. Many years back I ran into some financial troubles after a layoff and after all was said and done, Uncle Sam got their money. They were very pleasant and informed me that either I paid them or they would seize my bank account and file a lien against my property. I paid.
ReplyDeleteAn agreement was made when the money was borrowed and I think it's fair for the government to get that money back whenever or however they need to. If people can break this agreement whats to stop them from breaking other agreements and getting away with it? I went to a 4 year college for 2 and a half years but didn't finish. I still had to pay back my student loans so why shouldn't everyone else???
ReplyDeleteThis is not a free ride. When you sign on the dotted line, every effort is made to communicate that this is loan and not free money. There are no false pretenses. You knew what you were getting yourself into!
ReplyDelete