This posting is directed to Johnny or anyone else who can help....

My younger sister was in a terrible car accident in 2004. She has a brain injury and extensive physical injuries. It is doubtful that she will ever work again. She has student loans from 2002/2003. She trained to be a Montessori Teacher (and was in her second year of teaching when the accident occurred.)

I need to give her very simple, clear instructions about what she should do about her student loans. I tried to glean some information from this site, but I was wondering if someone could give me a quick overview of the steps she should take.

Note: I'm sure she qualifies as disabled and has documentation to prove that.

Thank you all so much!

Julia

julia

she should be able to qualify for some sort of loan foriveness or disability repayment benefit.  there will be two seperate apps to fill out - one for her federal loans, another one for provincial stuff.  her best bet is to contact the financial aid office where she attended school and ask them to help with the application process.  the biggest hurdle will be geting them to accept her disabilities are permanent and that she will be unable to work as a result of the accident.  if she already has documentation stating she is disabled, this will make your battle that much easier.

go to http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/studentservices/student/finish/debt_red/fed_dis.htm - www.aved.gov.bc.ca/studentservices/student/finish/debt_red/f ed_dis.htm for info ont he federal disability benefit.  its a good place to start, and even though the site deals with the province of bc the info for the federal programs is great.  also, you can go online to the province of your residence adn see about other programs that are provincially based that she should qualify for. 

they may give you a hard time since time has lapsed since she was last in school - there is a six month post graduation injury stipulation in the mis, they are lobbying to have this changed.  be advised to not take no for an answer, sometimes an effective letter can give you compassionate grounds to have the loans removed from active collection status and sometimes even have them forgiven.  check under the disability claims help section and see if my template letters are still in the database ( they shoud be) to get an idea of what to say etc...

keep my posted

good luck