Older people in crosshairs as government restarts Social Security garnishment on student loans

By MATT SEDENSKY Associated Press NEW YORK Christine Farro has cut back on the presents she sends her grandchildren on their birthdays and she s put off taking two cats and a dog for their shots All her clothes come from thrift stores and the greater part of her vegetables come from her garden At she has cut her costs as much as she can to live on a tight budget But it s about to get far tighter Related Articles Peninsula man accused of scamming from Bay Area senior When they don t recognize you anymore Moderna review shows immune response in older adults for a combo flu and COVID- shot Lopez Why is the Trump administration derailing Alzheimer s research Here s how to find a California healthcare provider who prescribes medical-aid-in-dying drugs As the Trump administration resumes collections on defaulted novice loans a surprising population has been caught in the crosshairs Hundreds of thousands of older Americans whose decades-old debts now put them at menace of having their Social Measure checks garnished I worked ridiculous hours I worked weekends and nights But I could never pay it off says Farro a retired child welfare worker in Santa Ynez California Like millions of debtors with federal candidate loans Farro had her payments and interest paused by the cabinet five years ago when the pandemic thrust numerous into financial hardship That grace period ended in and earlier this month the Department of Tuition mentioned it would restart involuntary collections by garnishing paychecks tax refunds and Social Safety retirement and disability benefits Farro previously had her Social Assurance garnished and expects it to restart Farro s loans date back years She was a single mother when she got a bachelor s degree in developmental psychology and when she discovered she couldn t earn enough to pay off her loans she went back to school and got a master s degree Her salary never caught up Things only got worse Around when she consolidated her loans she was paying a month but years of missed payments and piled-on interest meant she was barely putting a dent in a bill that had ballooned to When she sought help to resolve her debt she says the loan company had just one suggestion They stated Move to a cheaper state says Farro who rents a -square-foot casita from a friend I realized I was living in a different reality than they were Pupil loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate in part due to rising tuitions that have forced more people to borrow greater sums People and older hold an estimated billion in learner loans according to the National Consumer Law Center a six-fold increase from years ago That has led Social Assurance beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon by over the same period according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau An estimated people aged and older had candidate loans in default according to a January record from CFPB Debbie McIntyre a -year-old adult coaching professor in Georgetown Kentucky is among them She dreams of retiring and writing more historical fiction and of boarding a plane for the first time since high school But her husband has been out of work on disability for two decades and they ve used credit cards to get by on his meager benefits and her paycheck Their rent will be hiked when their lease renews McIntyre doesn t know what to do if her paycheck is garnished She floats the idea of bankruptcy but that won t automatically clear her loans which are held to a different standard than other debt She figures if she picks up extra jobs babysitting or tutoring she could put toward her loans here and there But she sees no real approach I don t know what more I can do says McIntyre who is too afraid to check what her loan balance is I ll never get out of this hole Braxton Brewington of the Debt Collective debtors union says it s striking how multiple older people dial into the organization s calls and attend its protests Countless of them he says should have had their debts cancelled but fell victim to a system riddled with flaws and illegalities and flukes A large number of whose educations have left them in late-life debt have in fact paid back the principal on their loans sometimes several times over but still owe more due to interest and fees For those who are subject to garnishment Brewington says the results can be devastating We hear from people who skip meals We know people who dilute their medication or cut their pills in half People take drastic measures like pulling all their savings out or dissolving their ks he says We know folks that have been driven into homelessness Collections on defaulted loans may have restarted no matter who was president though the Biden administration had sought to limit the amount of income that could be garnished Federal law protects just of Social Precaution benefits from garnishment an amount that would put a debtor far below the poverty line We re basically providing people with federal benefits with one hand and taking them away with another says Sarah Sattelmeyer of the New America think tank Linda Hilton a -year-old retired office worker from Apache Junction Arizona went through garnishment before COVID and says she will survive it again But flights to see her children occasional meals at a restaurant and other pleasures of retired life may disappear It s going to mean restrictions says Hilton There won t be any journey There won t be any frills Specific debtors have already received notice about collections Numerous more are living in fear President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Department of Tuition s dismantling and for those seeking answers about their loans mass layoffs have complicated getting calls answered While Tuition Secretary Linda McMahon says restarting collections is a necessary step for debtors both for the sake of their own financial strength and our nation s economic outlook even particular of Trump s greater part fervent supporters are questioning a move that will make their lives harder Randall Countryman of Bonita California says a Biden administration proposal to forgive certain trainee debt didn t strike him as fair but he s not sure Trump s approach is either He supported Trump but wishes the governing body made case-by-case decisions on debtors Countryman thinks Americans don t realize how multiple older people are affected by policies on participant loans often thought to be the turf of the young and how demanding it can be for them to repay What s a young person s concern currently he says is an old person s challenge the coming day Countryman started working on a degree while in prison then continued it at the University of Phoenix when he was circulated He started growing nervous as he racked up loan debt and never finished his degree He s worked a host of different jobs but finding work has often been complicated by his criminal record He lives off his wife s Social Safeguard check and the kindness of his mother-in-law He doesn t know how they d get by if the establishment demands repayment I kind of wish I never went to school in the first place he says Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky ap org and https x com sedensky