Posted on 06/30/2015 8:40:54 AM PDT by Hojczyk
A fast-growing number of seniors are hitting retirement with a student debt burden. Even their Social Security is at risk
Most debt you can get out of—painful as it might be. Credit card debt can be cleared in bankruptcy. A mortgage can end in foreclosure. But student debt is more sticky, and it turns out it can have big consequences in retirement.
Last year, Richard Minuti’s Social Security payments were cut by 10%.
The Philadelphia native was already earning only a bit over $10,000 a year, including some part-time work as a tutor. “I was desperate,” says Minuti. “Taking 10% of a person’s pay who’s trying to live with bills, that’s the cruelty of it.”
The Treasury Department was taking the money to pay for federal student loans he had taken out years before. Just before age 50, Minuti had gone back to college to get a second bachelor’s degree and a better job in social work and counseling. But the non-profit jobs he landed afterwards were lower paying, and he defaulted on the debt.
Student debt’s painful new twist
The number of seniors whose Social Security checks were garnished rose by roughly six times over the past decade, from about 6,000 to 36,000 people, says the GAO. Legislation from the mid-1990s ensured recipients could still get a minimum of $750 a month. At the time, this was enough to keep them from sliding below the poverty threshold. But to meet the current threshold, Congress would need to increase this to above $1,000 a month.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
To Bad!!!!!!!!
I’m sorry, but this is a debt they were made aware could not be cleared because of bankruptcy. They should have made better choices.
Total student debt is $1.5 Trillion of the $18 trillion national debt. To give haircuts to seniors on Social Security seems painfully ineffective.
I figured as much.
Most seniors don't have student loan problems because student loans weren't that big a thing when they were college age.
Logical Seven Point solution to the student loan crisis:
Yes, the taxpayer takes a 30% hit up front to liquidate this crisis, but that is far better than continuing to grow this monster.
The world is cruel to many persons who can’t or won’t do math; or plan for contingency.
Have a backup plan, if your new job doesn’t work out.
He took out a loan to go back to school to get a degree that had no high-paying job prospects?
And like clockwork he is now a “victim”.
Surprised IRS doesn’t go after tax refunds prior to retirement. Assume there would be a better chance of collection. Would also be less burdensome than in retirement years.
Also think that if someone has to go to the extreme of bankruptcy... then let the debt be addressed there like any other unsecured debt.
I have been fortunate and I take credit for some of it due to what you said - PLAN - I was taught very early that with a pencil and paper you can do anything - it is true.
Not bad. I could go for that.
The way it works is that the Democrats will keep promising to make deals and concessions and renegotiate, then they tell the debtors that if the mean, evil conservatives get involved, they will make them actually pay the debt as agreed.
The debtors will keep voting for the Democrats, as they fear the GOP will hold them to their word.
In effect, the Democrats are buying the votes of student debtors with taxpayer money that may never get repaid.
Yes, very bad decision. This is why many liberals want a nanny state, unfortunately.
Colleges love paying Hillary 225,000 a speech…I bet college cost would go down 50% without college loans.
And like clockwork he is now a “victim”.
that's exactly what I thought - he should have chosen a better field.
They took the money.
Now i say, ‘let them live on fish heads’!!!
My children paid for theirs with both blood and treasure.
Our son USMC Infantry three tours + in the sand box plus working his student years, the others has paid everything off after two years in the work force.
They declined our assistance
.
My 1st thought after reading the title was ‘illegals’. But I quickly remembered that they don’t have to pay for anything.
Then the freaking deadbeats need to pay their debts!
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