#student loans
Biden Cancels $7 Billion in Federal Student Loans for Disabled Students Through Data-Sharing Program
The Biden administration recently announced that it has cancelled $7 billion in federal student loan debt for some 350,000 borrowers with disabilities
This is being done for those with a TPD (total permanent disability) discharge, and will be automatic.
It applies to the following loan and grant programs: William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans, Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program loans, and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program
Federal student loan payments will resume in February after Biden lifts pause
Hey, Mr. Biden, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do? Make your student loan promises come true!
New IFS research today shows that the average debt a student has on graduating university has risen to over £50,000. For the students coming from the lowest income families, this can be as much as £57,000 with £5,800 of that purely from interest accrued since starting their courses.
Under the Conservative government, student loans have been increased from £3,000 per year to £9,000 per year. Maintenance grants for low-income students have been replaced by extra loan allowance. Student loans are set to increase in line with inflation (or by £250 per year) for the foreseeable future, starting in September, regardless of teaching quality.
The IFS sees only two winners from the current system, and it’s certainly not the students who benefit. Students earning the minimum amount of repayments - which has been frozen at £21,000 for several years - are estimated to be 30% worse off than their equivalents under the old loan system. No, the only beneficiaries are the universities (although not 90% of their employees) and the government.
So what do you think, voters? How can we, as a voting force, work together to end this stranglehold the UK government has on us? We want to hear your ideas to fix what is becoming a very, very broken system, one which stifles recent graduates and the UK economy as a whole.
Young Voters UK is today officially committing to fighting Conservative policies on student finance.
Another awesome student interview here!
This time we take the perspective of an exchange student from the States. Very interesting because although what he says may not relate to all, we can all learn from what he says and advises.
Enjoy!
1. Name and university
Dillan, from the US, studying at Edinburgh University
2. Did you take out a student loan? If so, how much are you getting?
As an international student, Dillan obviously has to pay way more for university. He’s studying a one year masters in Edinburgh, which will cost him $35,000.
To us Brits, that’s a huge amount of money – but in the US university costs double that, so he’s probably saving money by coming all the way to our little island. In the recording it’s not very clear if he took out a loan to come here, but we can assume so.
3. Is the loan enough? How else do you support yourself?
He tells us he worked for 6 years before coming to the UK, and was able to save up quite a lot. Go Dillan.
4. Do you budget? How?
Dillan is even more of a budget nerd than I am! He budgets all his expenses into an Excel spreadsheet every 2 weeks. That way he’s in good control of everything that comes in and out and how to plan for the future. Alvar and I were impressed.
Related:How to Set a Budget in Less than 10 Minutes
5. What are your tips to save money?
Dillan has another interesting mentality when it comes to this: focus more on your income than your expenses.
He argues that you can only decrease your expenses till a certain point, whereas you can alwaysincrease your income.
For this reason, his advice is to work on getting a good job. Build up your resume, work on your skills and get the best job you can find.
I love that he said this because it’s quite different to what Tom said last week: ‘Think ‘Do I really need this?’ before buying.
Both are very important pieces of advice – which you get to read and apply to your life.
6. Do you have a job? What is it?
He did work for 6 years back in the US as a project manager, so he says now he’s got his savings and doesn’t need to worry about getting a job.
Related:Top 5 Skill-Building Jobs for University Students
7. Do you make money in any other ways?
Investments! I was ecstatic to hear about a student who was into investing!
He says he doesn’t have any short-term investments, only long term in something called an IRA (the American version of the ISA here in the UK). Since he worked for two different companies, he has investments with their pension schemes.
Still pretty cool that he’s already thinking about his future and investing.
8. How do you find student deals and which ones do you use?
Since he is a hardcore budgeter, he doesn’t feel the need to search for student deals and discounts. As mentioned before, he focuses on increasing his income, and not so much decreasing his expenses– simply an interesting and different mentality to have.
Although cool, I still recommend checking out this system I made to take advantage of as many discounts as possible (it does not require coupon clipping).
9. Ever thought of getting started with investing? What’s holding you back?
Of course, here we knew Dillan had experience with investing, and both Alvar and I were excited to hear someone else who was into it.
But Dillan gave a very important piece of advice: don’t start investing until you have no debt.
When investing, you will be getting an average of 7% a year, however if you have debt with an interest rate of 18% APR, it literally makes no sense to start investing before paying off debt.
In the US, student loans are very different to the UK. Americans get higher interest rates and are obliged to pay them all back.
In the UK, you don’t need to pay them back in full and the interest rate is 0.5 or 1%. Yay.
So following Dillan’s advice, pay off your debt if it’s something like consumer debt (credit cards, payday loans, personal loans, etc), and then start investing. Hopefully you haven’t even heard of the word consumer debt before.
Related:
10. What are some things you’re struggling with at uni?
As an international student, the hardest part for him was uncertainty. He wasn’t sure how high the expenses would be in Edinburgh and didn’t know how to budget or forecast before actually getting there.
An interesting problem to have. If I were him I would have gone to an Edinburgh subreddit or UK students and asked others – crowdsourcing is always a great answer!
11. Is university worth it, for you?
Following on from his philosophy, Dillan is doing this masters so he can get a much better job with a higher salary. For him, a big part of university is that big career advance that will let him earn more money.
Impressive, and I think we can learn a lot from a mentality like this.
Takeaways
Dillan was very interesting to interview and I’m glad we got the perspective of an American student! Here are the main takeaways I got from our interview:
- Focus more on your income than your expenses
- Pay off your debt before you start investing
- Do your research before moving to a new place!
Do you agree with what Dillan says? Reblog and let me know!
If I had a dollar for every time a man told me I was “very opinionated” I’d be able to pay off all my student loans.
What Is Form 1098-E: Student Loan Interest Statement?
If you paid interest on a qualified student loan, you may be able to deduct some or even all of that interest on your federal income tax return. Student loan companies use IRS Form 1098-E to report how much you paid in interest. Borrowers get a copy of this form, and so does the IRS. To learn more about who sends it and what to do if you don’t receive one, see the full TurboTax article.
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Tax Deductions for Voluntary Interest Payments on Student Loans
Most taxpayers who pay interest on student loans can take a tax deduction for the expense—and you can do this regardless of whether you itemize tax deductions on your return. The rules for claiming the deduction are the same whether the interest payments were required or voluntary. To learn more about claiming the deduction, see the full TurboTax article.
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Sending Kids to College
TurboTax can help you take advantage of tax breaks to ease the financial burden of sending kids to college, including tax credits, tuition deductions, tax-free savings and more. To learn more about what is available and who is eligible, see the full TurboTax article.
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About Student Loans and Tax Credits
The federal government offers two tax credits that reduce your tax bill on a dollar-for-dollar basis for your school-related expenses—the American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit. To find out more, see the full TurboTax article.
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“A cure for cancer is just another insult to those who went through chemotherapy and other painful medical interventions.”
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The irony is that there are plenty of millennials trying to purchase a home, the problem isnt due to a lack of funds, but a lack of supply of homes not meeting the high demand.
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I got out of a very abusive, controlling relationship a few years ago with very little money to my name and moved back in with my parents. I’ve been saving to get an apartment, which is about $1100-1300/month here, ever since. I got a job that allowed me to save up, but I was also relentlessly harassed, bullied, overworked, and sexually assaulted to the point where I had a series of mental breakdowns that ultimately led me to quit.
I lost my new boyfriend a few years later due to my father’s interference. My father doesn’t want me here. Before I moved home he actually hadn’t spoken to me in three years, because my previous boyfriend was black. He says I deserve all the abuse “that n*gger” put me through, which included complete alienation of all my friends, complete control and exploitation of my finances, brief homelessness, and the death of my child. He tried to throw me out a month into dating my new boyfriend because “he can put you up now.” Between my job and my father, I was always stressed and miserable, and my boyfriend couldn’t take it. Then he got cancer, and told me he couldn’t deal with my problems on top of his own, he couldn’t take my father anymore, and we couldn’t do this anymore. We broke up. All his friends, even the ones who were supposedly my friend too, sided with him.
I lost a tooth at the beginning of the pandemic, right in the front of my face. It was a crown that had broken. I can’t afford to fix it - I need an extraction of the remaining tooth and an implant, which is $6k total. I only have Medicaid, which the oral surgeon doesn’t take and which doesn’t cover implants anyway. My self esteem tanked.
I don’t have any friends. I’m autistic and have never been great at making them in the first place, and wasn’t able to repair the friendships I lost because of my ex. I don’t talk to my extended family, who my father has been telling for years that I’m an ungrateful, horrible bitch he wishes he never had. They agree with him. Talking to my mother is like talking to a brick wall. She’s so burnt out putting up with my father’s abuse that she can’t even pretend to be a support for me. She never has been anyway.
Most of the time I feel like a glitch in a computer program. I’m not supposed to be here, so people ignore me until I cause problems (whether I actually did or not). No one cared when I was being abused by my ex, even when I came to work crying every day and couldn’t afford to eat. No one said anything in my defense when I was being harassed at work, and after I was assaulted HR told me it was all in my head when I’d report things like “Joe and Brian are telling people they fucked me in the stock room.” Sometimes I’ll vent on social media - both where I know people and where I’m anonymous - and get no response, except maybe “stop saying xyz about people, be grateful for what you have.” I had to delete Facebook because it added to my depression.
I can’t hold a job anymore. I’m terrified of people and being outside. I recently got a freelance gig doing transcription but the pay is very low and only per minute of audio, and I suffer from migraines which makes it difficult. I’ve posted on social media that I can also do editing and proofreading, with no takers. My health has always been very poor and my mental health is trash. No therapist near me takes Medicaid and I’m afraid to go out and talk to one anyway. I’ve been denied state assistance, though I was recently approved for food stamps. I can’t get cash assistance. I’m burning through all of my savings with student loans (which apparently can’t be put on hold because they’re all private) and the rent my dad demands.
On top of all this, my mother just told me she’s divorcing my dad, because he’s abusive and cheats constantly. She’s disabled and won’t be able to keep the house so she’s moving out. She’s the only reason I’ve been able to stay here. I’m pretty sure my father will kick me out, or tell me I can only stay if I become the maid and yard caretaker. He’s already trying to sell my car (which he had to put in his name because my ex destroyed my credit), which will leave me trapped in the house, and my mother has made it clear I can’t move in with her.
My cousins all have their lives figured out. They’re all married with kids, as I’m constantly being reminded of, with their own houses or apartments and good jobs. They’re not afraid of people, or struggling with money, or having a panic attack at 1am on a Wednesday because they don’t know how they’re going to get through the next week, let alone the next year. It feels like the cat is the only one on my side and the only one who actually wants anything to do with me. Ten years ago my father called me a failure as a daughter, an adult, and a human being, and it’s just… true.
I got out of a very abusive, controlling relationship a few years ago with very little money to my name and moved back in with my parents. I’ve been saving to get an apartment, which is about $1100-1300/month here, ever since. I got a job that allowed me to save up, but I was also relentlessly harassed, bullied, overworked, and sexually assaulted to the point where I had a series of mental breakdowns that ultimately led me to quit.
I lost my new boyfriend a few years later due to my father’s interference. My father doesn’t want me here. Before I moved home he actually hadn’t spoken to me in three years, because my previous boyfriend was black. He says I deserve all the abuse “that n*gger” put me through, which included complete alienation of all my friends, complete control and exploitation of my finances, brief homelessness, and the death of my child. He tried to throw me out a month into dating my new boyfriend because “he can put you up now.” Between my job and my father, I was always stressed and miserable, and my boyfriend couldn’t take it. Then he got cancer, and told me he couldn’t deal with my problems on top of his own, he couldn’t take my father anymore, and we couldn’t do this anymore. We broke up. All his friends, even the ones who were supposedly my friend too, sided with him.
I lost a tooth at the beginning of the pandemic, right in the front of my face. It was a crown that had broken. I can’t afford to fix it - I need an extraction of the remaining tooth and an implant, which is $6k total. I only have Medicaid, which the oral surgeon doesn’t take and which doesn’t cover implants anyway. My self esteem tanked.
I don’t have any friends. I’m autistic and have never been great at making them in the first place, and wasn’t able to repair the friendships I lost because of my ex. I don’t talk to my extended family, who my father has been telling for years that I’m an ungrateful, horrible bitch he wishes he never had. They agree with him. Talking to my mother is like talking to a brick wall. She’s so burnt out putting up with my father’s abuse that she can’t even pretend to be a support for me. She never has been anyway.
Most of the time I feel like a glitch in a computer program. I’m not supposed to be here, so people ignore me until I cause problems (whether I actually did or not). No one cared when I was being abused by my ex, even when I came to work crying every day and couldn’t afford to eat. No one said anything in my defense when I was being harassed at work, and after I was assaulted HR told me it was all in my head when I’d report things like “Joe and Brian are telling people they fucked me in the stock room.” Sometimes I’ll vent on social media - both where I know people and where I’m anonymous - and get no response, except maybe “stop saying xyz about people, be grateful for what you have.” I had to delete Facebook because it added to my depression.
I can’t hold a job anymore. I’m terrified of people and being outside. I recently got a freelance gig doing transcription but the pay is very low and only per minute of audio, and I suffer from migraines which makes it difficult. I’ve posted on social media that I can also do editing and proofreading, with no takers. My health has always been very poor and my mental health is trash. No therapist near me takes Medicaid and I’m afraid to go out and talk to one anyway. I’ve been denied state assistance, though I was recently approved for food stamps. I can’t get cash assistance. I’m burning through all of my savings with student loans (which apparently can’t be put on hold because they’re all private) and the rent my dad demands.
On top of all this, my mother just told me she’s divorcing my dad, because he’s abusive and cheats constantly. She’s disabled and won’t be able to keep the house so she’s moving out. She’s the only reason I’ve been able to stay here. I’m pretty sure my father will kick me out, or tell me I can only stay if I become the maid and yard caretaker. He’s already trying to sell my car (which he had to put in his name because my ex destroyed my credit), which will leave me trapped in the house, and my mother has made it clear I can’t move in with her.
My cousins all have their lives figured out. They’re all married with kids, as I’m constantly being reminded of, with their own houses or apartments and good jobs. They’re not afraid of people, or struggling with money, or having a panic attack at 1am on a Wednesday because they don’t know how they’re going to get through the next week, let alone the next year. It feels like the cat is the only one on my side and the only one who actually wants anything to do with me. Ten years ago my father called me a failure as a daughter, an adult, and a human being, and it’s just… true.
