Quick Answer: Student loan discharge is not available for caregivers of disabled family members, even those providing full-time care with medical documentation. Federal student loans can only be discharged for the borrower’s own total and permanent disability, not for caregiving responsibilities.
I am my father’s caregiver. He is permanently disabled and requires 24 hour care; he is paralyzed from a stroke and completely blind. We live together. I have power of attorney and his doctor is very sympathetic.
Can I get my student loans discharged?
Can a caregiver for a disabled person have their student loans discharged?
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Can a caregiver full time for a disabled mother have their student loans discharged? My mom suffer from dementia really bad as well as a 15 more health problem and need care all around the clock. What options I have, and I have not work in 3 years caring for her, will my student loan be deleted.
Are these federal or private student loans?
What type of loans are they? private or federal?
Many time you can get a forebarance but you can not get student loans dismissed. I am totally dosabled and they gave me a longer time period to pay my loans but they had to be paid.
Are your loans private or government backed?
I’m not aware of any program that will forgive your student loans,
however you would most likely qualify for the Income Bracket Reduction Plan or IBR. That plan is
based on your current income and expenses. If you can qualify for that your
payment could be nothing for at least the first year. Every year
after that it is reevaluated and as long as your income doesn’t increase
your payment would remain at zero. Anything that isn’t paid back at
the end of 25 years will be forgiven. Hope that helps you out buddy and I wish you the best of luck!
At this point you can only discharge student loans if you can show “undue hardship.” In my experience courts want to see a medical reason why you would not be able to pay your loans. You may have an argument that your dependent (i.e. your father) has a medical condition that requires your presence and, thus, prevents you from working; however a bankruptcy judge might conclude that the condition that prevents you from working is not permanent as to you.
To the best of my knowledge Student Loans are one of the debts that you can not get discharged especially if it is a federally funded loan.
Joe,
I would not be optimistic. Although I have heard of a few people who have had student loans discharged in bankruptcy court due to health issues that made it impossible to earn a living, I have never heard of a case where loans where discharged due to a choice to care for someone else.
Nevertheless, it won’t cost anything to ask your servicer and to go through the process so you might as well try.
Good Luck!
Joe,
I wouldn’t be optimistic. I have heard of a few people who got student loans discharged in bankruptcy court due to physical considerations that made it impossible for them to earn a living but I have never heard of a discharge based on your circumstances.
Of course you can make a request to your loan servicer and you probably should try, but I think you’ll need a different strategy.
Good Luck!