Hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers will now have an easier path to getting their loans discharged, the Obama administration announced Tuesday. The Department of Education will send letters to 387,000 people they’ve identified as being eligible for a total and permanent disability discharge, a designation that allows federal student loan borrowers who can’t work because of a disability to have their loans forgiven. “Americans with disabilities have a right to student loan relief,” said Ted Mitchell, the undersecretary of education.
About 179,000 of the borrowers are in default on their student loans, and of that group more than 100,000 are at risk of having their tax refunds or Social Security checks garnished to pay off the debt.
Often borrowers losing out on these benefits aren’t even aware that they’re eligible for a disability discharge, said Persis Yu, director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center.