Boston Student Loan Lawyer

Law Office of Adam S. Minsky

Public Service Loan Forgiveness: The Latest

| Articles Current Events Loan Forgiveness Policy & Reform

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a program that allows borrowers to have any remaining balance on their federal Direct student loans forgiven after 120 “qualifying payments” (typically under an income-driven repayment plan). Borrowers must work full-time for a public service employer to qualify. For hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of student loan borrowers, it is a critical program that allows people to work in traditionally low-paying sectors that often require advanced degrees.

The PSLF program has been in the news a lot lately, however, and not in a good way. There’s been talk about changing or eliminating the program. There’s been news about the U.S. Dept. of Education denying people access to the loan forgiveness benefit. And no one has been granted forgiveness yet under the program. There’s a lot of uncertainty, which is understandable given PSLF’s complexity and the constant stream of news stories.

So let’s take a moment and review where things are.Read More

My Testimony In Support of the Student Loan Bill of Rights

| Articles Current Events Policy & Reform

Yesterday, I testified at the Massachusetts State House in support of the “Student Loan Bill of Rights,” which would introduce new statewide protections for student loan borrowers in Massachusetts. Below is my testimony.

If you live in Massachusetts, contact your state representative and state senator and ask them to support the Student Loan Bill of Rights.

Dear Honorable Chairs of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure:

I am writing to you today in support of S129, the “Student Loan Bill of Rights,” sponsored by Senator Eric Lesser.

By way of background, I am a solo-practicing attorney with a uniquely-focused practice devoted entirely to helping student loan borrowers. To my knowledge, I am the only such attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – and one of the only in the country – specializing in this area of law. I have a unique perspective on the student loan crisis, particularly as it impacts student loan borrowers here in our Commonwealth.Read More

Student Loan News Summary – June 2017

| Articles Current Events For-Profit Colleges Loan Forgiveness Private Student Loans

Happy summer, everyone. With all the big national news going on lately, there’s a lot of developments in student loan law and policy that are flying a bit under the radar. Let’s bring everyone up to speed.

Credit Report Changes Will Help Student Loan Borrowers Who’ve Been Sued

Starting July 1, the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) will no longer report civil judgments on people’s credit reports. There have been ongoing concerns about credit reporting errors for judgments, since a judgment is often not linked to a person’s social security number. This is a significant change that will have a direct, positive impact on borrowers who have been sued by their student loan lenders.Read More

Updates on Trump’s Student Loan Proposals

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn Policy & Reform

It’s been a whirlwind week. Last week’s leaked budget documents from the Trump administration showed proposed cuts to critical student loan programs including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as well as major changes to income-driven repayment plans. The proposals sparked panic; hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers have made major life decisions – selecting specific careers and specific repayment plans – in reliance on the continued existence of these programs. To have the rug pulled out from under them would be disruptive and unfair, and would likely be the basis of viable legal challenges.

After just a few days, we have some important updates on some of these reforms. Some good news, and some bad. Read on.Read More

BREAKING: Trump Budget Proposal Ends Public Service Loan Forgiveness

| Articles Current Events Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn Policy & Reform

President Trump’s budget proposal calls for the elimination of funding for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The program allows for borrowers who are repaying their Direct federal student loans under an income-driven repayment plan while working full time for a public service employer to have any remaining balance forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments. The first wave of borrowers eligible for forgiveness under this program will be applying later this year.

While this is certainly a time to be extremely vigilant, there are two things to keep in mind before panicking:Read More

How to Guard Against Bad Student Loan Servicing

| Articles Current Events Policy & Reform Student Loans 101

We all know student loan servicing is a mess, and it has been for a long time. The federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on private companies to handle student loan accounts, but these companies have been the subject of widespread complaints and major lawsuits due to misconduct and poor outcomes.

The Obama administration had begun to take steps to reign in bad student loan servicing conduct, but Betsy DeVos – the Secretary of the Dept. of Education appointed by Donald Trump – has begun to roll back these initiatives. Specifically, she rescinded Obama-era guidance that would take into account borrower outcomes and customer satisfaction when awarding federal servicing contracts to student loan companies. She also appeared to pull the plug on an attempt to simplify and centralize student loan management through a single web portal, which would have effectively allowed borrowers to bypass their student loan servicer.

It’s an uncertain and frustrating time for student loan borrowers. However, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from servicing errors and misconduct. While these steps are of course no guarantee that you’ll avoid problems managing your student loans, they may help.Read More

Student Loan News Roundup: April 2017

| Articles Current Events For-Profit Colleges Income-Based Repayment Income-Driven Repayment Loan Forgiveness Pay-As-You-Earn

There’s a lot going on right now in student loan news. Let’s get right to it.

New York State Will Offer Free College – With a Catch

New York is poised to become the first state in the country to offer free college tuition to its residents. Families who make $125,000 or less would be eligible for tuition-free college at all SUNY and CUNY campuses. This has the potential to benefit up to a million families. But there’s a catch – students who benefit from this initiative will have to live and work in New York for several years after graduating. If they don’t, the “free” tuition will be converted into loans that must be repaid. This has some borrower advocates concerned.Read More

Dept. of Education says Loan Forgiveness Decisions Can be Invalidated

| Articles Current Events Loan Forgiveness

In a stunning court filing this week, the U.S. Dept. of Education says that borrowers cannot rely on written determinations of eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Background: The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program allows for borrowers who make “qualifying payments” while working in “qualifying” public service employment to get any remaining loan balance on “qualifying” federal student loans forgiven after 120 payments – which adds up to 10 years, if the payments are made consecutively. Hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers may be eligible for the program. Read More

Predatory Student Loan Relief Company is Sued

| Articles Cosigners Current Events Default Site & Practice News

Amy and Josh were just getting started, but they were already struggling. Amy had just completed nursing school, while Josh had just graduated from the police academy. They had two young children, and were struggling to keep up with massive private Navient student loan payments that they could barely afford.

That’s when they got a call from a company called “Consumer Protection Counsel” (CPC). CPC promised that if Amy and Josh simply stopped paying their private student loans – and started paying CPC instead – CPC’s team of experts and attorneys would protect them from Navient, and their private student loans would either be canceled or deemed uncollectible. Their credit histories would be protected and even repaired. All they had to do was sign a contract and pay a monthly fee. The deal seemed too good to be true, but Amy and Josh felt trapped by their student debt, and they didn’t know what else to do. After a series of high-pressure phone calls from CPC, they signed on the dotted line and began sending monthly payments to CPC – and stopped paying Navient.Read More

Introducing the Student Loan Bill of Rights

| Articles Current Events Policy & Reform

A bill has been filed in the Massachusetts State Legislature that would create a “Student Loan Bill of Rights.” This legislation has the potential to provide student loan borrowers here in Massachusetts with powerful new protections from student loan servicers.  The bill is sponsored by Senator Eric Lesser and Rep. Natalie Higgins.

Here are some of the bill’s highlights:

  • Student loan servicers would be required to register with the state and pay a licensing fee.
  • Student loan servicers that are subject to oversight would be prohibited from engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices common in the student loan industry, such as misapplying payments or supplying misinformation.
  • Student loan borrowers would be provided with the right to file a lawsuit against student loan servicers who violate the bill of rights.
  • The state would also establish an Ombudsman position to monitor student loan servicing and help student loan borrowers obtain out-of-court resolutions to their servicing issues.

This bill has the potential to give student loan borrowers important new tools to make student loan repayment fairer and more transparent. And with federal oversight of student loan servicing in question following the recent presidential election, state-level protections are going to become that much more important.

If you live in Massachusetts, call your State Senator and State Representative and ask them to support the Student Loan Bill of Rights (you’ll need to reference the Senate Docket Number, S.D. 1229). If you don’t know who your representatives are, click here to find out.