Student Loan

The Educational Experience From One Unknown Disabled Person's Experience

Disabled: around 10 years ago.

In 2002, my friend owed around 21,000 in Education Loans.
After finishing a Bachelors Degree from an accredited university, and after applying for, and receiving a loan for 5,000 dollars; my friend owed close to 21,000.00 in loans.

- Cost of attending a 4 year Public College with a tuition of around 2,000.00 each semester ------------------------------------16,000.00

- A few added classes to help ensure
qualification for a job -----------------------------------------5,000.00
__________
Combined owed, around: 21,000.00


My friend was not always disabled. Her disability did not obviously affect her physical (outter) body. She was told that her disability was non-permanent, and that she may recover.

My friend choose options that allowed her to temporary make no payments on her College Loan until she felt better 'abled;' she chose to not stress over loan re-payments, she chose to focus her attention on other stressful matters .

Since my friend started receiving Federal Assistance for disabled persons, she has lived under 10,000.00 a year. I believe that is considered living below the poverty line.

When she received Federal Assistance, she had very little. What possessions she had previously worked for had been stolen, or lost.

When she began experimental treatments (seeking a cure), she worried about the cost of her experimental drug medication, and about the cost of her hospital stays...which occurred frequently after she became disabled.

Those factors, combined with her belief that she was constantly spied upon, combined with mental anguish helped contribute to her sketchy loan repayment history.

Dealing with suicidal thoughts, and a new disability, did not help my friend deal with her shaky financial obligations.

My friend is currently living under the poverty level.
She lived under 10,000.00 a year.
Because she has at times, not made her loan re-payments as scheduled, the government is currently 'offsetting' her loan payments.

About 100.00 dollars are automatically taken from her Social Security Disabilities Payments...the sad thing is that this amount has been automatically deducted for years, and her total Loan Repayment Balance continues to increase...

In May 2012, my friend owes over 30, 000.00 in College Loans.
Call my friend 'DisabledNotBroke.'

I will continue to write about what being disabled means to some people.

What should 'DisabledNotBroke' do?