“Dear Steve,
This may be a difficult question to answer. After a series of potentially fatal illnesses & complications, I found myself on Social Security Disability at 45 years of age. Besides my pride being bruised (I had drawn a salary since I was 14 years old & often held down 2 jobs) I also had to discontinue my education which I was plugging through slowly but surely. I was getting student loans.
After I became ill & my income drastically reduced, I had to give up the new home I had purchased 5 yrs previously, & at the time, could not continue with my education.
Since I’m on Disability, I am hoping to use this time to continue my education with the ultimate goal to get back to work. At this time, I would probably need to stick with onine courses.
I truly want to use my time in a positive way & Then find a job that will accommodate my disability but allow me to be a productive citizen. Unfortunatelly, I had to default on my student loans because my disability income simply didn’t leave me with the income to pay them. From what I understand, the loans have been placed in an uncollectable status.
Is there any way to continue my education with grants I wouldn’t be able to pay back? Or pay back if I’m successful in getting my degree? Or am I just out of luck?
Any advice is very much appreciated. Thanks so much.
Gayle”
Dear Gayle,
The answer is there are probably some free grants and scholarships you can use to offset tuition. The best place to start this investigation would be with the financial aid office at the school you are thinking of attending.
They will have access to resources you can use to try to track down relevant grant opportunities. in addition you may want to run through the educational grants available through Benefits.gov.
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