Last week, the Obama administration made a big move towards helping people struggling under the weight of crippling student loan debt they shouldn’t have. Obama’s new student loan forgiveness program should make it significantly easier for students of for-profit schools to have their debt erased.
Students and graduates who can show that they enrolled in a for-profit school as a victim of their scams and fraud will have the student loan debt they accrued to attend that school completely forgiven. This isn’t the first law created for this purpose, but the process is much more difficult, and not many people are even aware it exists.
Do I Qualify for Student Loan Forgiveness?
According to the new program, you can qualify to have your student loans forgiven if you can meet one or more of the following requirements:
- The school made “substantial misrepresentations” about the benefits it offered to those who attend, such as job placement
- The school breached its contract with you
- There is a court judgement against the school
Students have up to six years to file for debt forgiveness after they have learned of their school’s wrongdoings. Previously, the statute was only two years.
Unfortunately, this forgiveness program does not forgive all of the debt. Instead, the Department of Education will have people examine your claim and determine how much financial harm the school actually did to you; then, it will offer a percentage of your debt to be forgiven based on those findings.
Washington DC bankruptcy lawyer Kevin D. Judd are here to offer you a fresh start and help you achieve your goals of becoming free from financial stress.
