A non-profit group is publicizing the aid program that Navient, a large lender, created for students who went to for-profit schools that cheated them, more than a million borrowers suffering from fraud by for-profit schools, have had billions of dollars in federal student loans eliminated, through a government aid program.
But people who have private loans were usually excluded from any help, until recently, Navient, a large owner of private student loan debt, I think, but has not made public, a program that allows borrowers to make the application for the forgiveness of their loans. Some of those who were successful gleefully shared their stories in chat groups and other forums.
Few Know About This Program to Cancel Private Student Loans
”I cried a lot,” said Danielle Maynard, who recently received a notice from Navient that almost $40,000 in private loans she owed for her studies at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts, were being canceled.
Navient, based in Wilmington, Delaware, has not made public the discharge program that helped Ms. Maynard. Other borrowers complained on social media, about the difficulties in getting an application form. When asked the question about the program and the criticism, a company spokesperson stated“ “Borrowers can contact us at any time and our advocates can help them.”
For the same reason, a group of non-profit lawyers interfered in order to facilitate the process, on Thursday, the Project on Predatory Student Loans, an advocacy group in Boston, made public the Navient application form and an instruction guide for borrowers who have private loans seeking relief for reasons that their school deceived them.
Get Rid of Your Student Debt Burden
“We want to level the playing field and let people know about it, rather than make it a closely guarded secret,” said Eileen Connor, the group’s director.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and eight Senate colleagues sent a letter to Navient the previous month with a long list of questions about the program. Navient responded, but did not directly answer many of the senators’ questions.
Navient’s new program, called the “school misconduct waiver,“ is a kind of private parallel to a federal program known as the ”borrower defense to repayment,” which allows those who were badly cheated by their schools to eliminate their federal student loans.
Under the directive of President Biden, the Department of Education revived the aid program and has used it for the cancellation of almost 30,000 million dollars in debt of 1.6 million borrowers.
The Predatory Student Lending Project backed a class-action lawsuit against the government that led to a settlement in 2022 under which they eliminated the federal student debts of nearly 200,000 borrowers. Maynard, who is 34, said goodbye to $38,000 in federal loans through that deal.
