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Turn the Ship: The Moral Imperative and Legal Authority to Protect Retirees with Defaulted Student Loans from Social Security Offset
By: Johnson Tyler
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is not powerless when it comes to debt collection or defaulted borrowers. It both has the moral imperative and legal authority to stop seizing Social Security benefits from elderly (62+) borrowers in default. An underutilized law allows an agency to exempt an entire class of debtors from Treasury Offset, the debt collection process that leads to the reduction of Social Security payments. This paper explains the history of offset; why recent policy changes by ED, including Fresh Start, will not protect the elderly; and why the regulatory test for exempting all retirement-aged borrowers in default from Social Security offset is easily met.
Sources: @PapersSSRN
