Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
Many college students upon graduation are ready to start repaying back their student loans and want to know how to get a student loan discharge or a student loan cancellation because they realize the amount that they now owe may be more than they can actually make in a decade. They have finished their education, received a degree and are ready to move on to the working world and tackle challenges in their field of study but with a monthly student loan repayment which is equivalent to a small house payment. They are left standing financially bewildered. Sound familiar?
There are actually several student loan forgiveness programs and student loan discharge and student loan cancellation opportunities that may apply to you. A discharge or cancellation of your student loans means that you will never have to repay the loan. You will not be eligible for loan forgiveness or cancellation just because you do not finish your degree program or graduate. There are only certain conditions and circumstances that will make you eligible for non-payment.
In the instance of a student loan discharge, the loan will only be discharged if you die, if your school closed before you completed your degree program, if the degree that you received was falsified, or if you become permanently and totally disabled. There are other rare cases where a loan may be discharged, including being employed in certain lines of work, or in some cases of bankruptcy. But a loan discharge is not the same as a loan cancellation or loan forgiveness.
Student loan cancellation and student loan forgiveness is often the same thing, and is typically only available for public service employees. To be eligible for cancellation or forgiveness, you cannot be in default on any of your student loans, and you must have made payments for a period of at least 120 months, or ten years. Of course, you must also be a public service employee, such as military service, public health service, public education, law enforcement, public safety, state or federal government work, emergency management, or other types of public service work. You must be employed in that work on a full time basis.
Having your student loans forgiven or discharged is of course the best way to get rid of that debt, but there are other things that you need to know about, concerning the repayment of these loans, in the event that you are not eligible for student loan discharge or student loan cancellation or forgiveness. If you have any type of economic hardship or you re-enroll in school, you could have the student loan payments deferred for a specified period of time. You can also get a student loan deferment if you are serving in the military. Forbearance is also possible, but it works differently than deferment. You can also contact the administrator of your student loans to find out if other forms of financial relief are available for those loans.
Obviously, not everyone will be eligible for a student loan discharge or student loan cancellation, but it never hurts to see if you are eligible, if you’ve been making the payments for the last ten years, or if your circumstances have changed in a way that makes it hard or impossible to meet your student loan repayment obligations.
More
4 Comments.