Disability and student loans?

[fayanora]

My roommate is under the impression that if you owe student loans, the student loans people can legally take all your paycheck, all your disability if you're on it, all your tax returns, and can even legally take all the tax returns of your spouse if you get married, and so she has decided not to bother trying to apply for disability because of this. I don't know whether to believe it or not, because that sounds not only highly illegal, but extremely unethical. I doubt it's legal to take someone's entire income for a debt they owe. (USA)

But if it is true, that is a MASSIVE accessibility fail.

Comments

[j00j]

On the department of education site, it looks like at least some federal loans do not have to be repaid if you are considered "totally and permanently disabled".
https://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/disability-discharge

I don't know about other kinds of loans, but this might be a place for your roommate to start if she has federal loans.

[fayanora]

Thanks!

[davidgillon]

A quick google turned up this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/business/once-a-student-now-dogged-by-collection-agencies.html?_r=0 which seems to confirm your roommate is right at least in part. The article says Social Security payments can be garnished (which isn't necessarily the same as taking all of it, and it doesn't explicitly say disability is covered), but that this only applies to Federal loans. OTOH this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans_in_the_United_States#Discharge_of_student_loans says that Federal loans can be discharged if the debtor is on the longest cycle of disability.