Posts by Evalena Labayen
Navient ordered to return $22 M
On February 9th, the New York Times reported that the government student loan provider Navient overcharged the government $22 million in student loan subsidies. This began from a 2009 investigation by the Department of Education inspector general during the George W. Bush administration. A whistleblower in the Education Department discovered this massive amount owed to…
Read More10th Circuit Court agrees to student loan debt relief
A groundbreaking ruling in the 10th Circuit court has provided another victory to student loan debt relief. The 10th Circuit court, located in Colorado, made a decision on August 31st in McDaniel v. Navient Solutions, LLC, which aligns with a previous ruling from the 5th Circuit Court (located in New Orleans). In the case of…
Read More68% Of Student Loans Are Changing Servicers in 2021
In 2021, the Department of Education is going to reduce their 11 services down to 5 student loan servicers. According to Business Insider, the DOE outlined a plan to reduce their service in order to “better customer service.” Only 3 servicers of the original 11 will continue in 2021: Edfinancial, MOHELA, and Maximus. The two…
Read MoreStudent Borrows Credits Drop with Covid Error
In the government’s initiative to reduce the financial burden on student loans, it has allowed borrowers to delay any loan payments on certain types of loans, mostly federal, until October under the CARES Act. If the HEROES act were to pass in the Senate, after it already passed Congress, then student loan repayments could be…
Read MorePro’s and Con’s To Putting Your Mortgage Into Forbearance
With unemployment on the rise and business shutdown in New Jersey and New York , more people are considering putting their mortgage payments into forbearance. A mortgage payment in forbearance means delaying the payments without penalty fees after giving notice to the creditor. When the unemployment checks run out in July and late August, many…
Read MoreBiden Legislation Stripped Borrowers of Their Bankruptcy Protections
Before Biden and Warren were at odds for the Democratic Presidential nomination, they faced off against bankruptcy protection laws, with Biden successfully stripping them away right before the 2008 housing crisis. In 2005, Biden pushed through a bill called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) intended to prevent people from abusing a…
Read MorePG&E Struggles to Remain Out of Bankruptcy Amid Victim Claims
PG&E (Pacific Gas and Energy) is struggling to come up with a plan to avoid filing for bankruptcy in the midst of constant blackouts and wildfires that have ravaged California. As California’s largest utility, the state is threatening to take over due to a lack of an agreement between the company, fire victims and its…
Read MoreIs the Coal Industry Slipping into Obsoletion?
On Friday, Oct 11, CNN Business reported that Murray Energy owned by Robert Murray, the “king of coal”, is slipping into “financial collapse”, thus marking another coal business plummeting into bankruptcy. For coal miners and those in the coal industry, this means that the industry will likely become obsolete within the next few years among…
Read MoreJudge Drain Rules in Decision Best for Opioid Survivors in Purdue Pharmacy Bankruptcy
Last Friday, October 11, White Plains Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain paused legal action between 25 states suing Purdue Pharmacy. The New York Times reported that Judge Drain made this decision to prevent mounting litigation costs that would take away from the settlement to opioid survivors and other parties in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy settlement. …
Read MoreDeVos Could Charged with Contempt for Violating Court Order
Betsy DeVos could be facing jail time if not sanctions for violating an order from a federal judge who prohibited any further collection of student loan debt from Corinthian College students. U.S. Magistrate Sallie Kim ordered the Department of Education to cease collection from these student borrowers since they fell under the protection of the…
Read MoreWhere Student Loan Debt is Heading By 2021
Student loan debt is the largest financial crisis facing young Americans today, and has reached the highest its ever been in all of history. It’s causes can be traced back to several sources, the foremost being 1) increasing tuition rates with little to no increase in wages, and 2) predatory practices by private and federal…
Read MoreStudent loan debt becomes personal in Congress
Congressmen are just like us; they have student loan debt too! For the lawmakers that could provide student loan debt relief, many of them still have enormous amounts of debt themselves that they are required to make payments on. The media buzzed over Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez making a student loan payment during a committee meeting over…
Read MoreDitech bankruptcy could leave homeowners in foreclosure
The New York Attorney General’s office is trying to block the approval of a bankruptcy plan for the mortgage company Ditech. The New York AG office released a statement that objected to the sale of the company as a part of its bankruptcy deal that would release Ditech from any obligation to pay the $1…
Read MoreMore than meets the eye: New Yorker satire closer to truth
“Pay Off Your Student Debt in Three Easy Lifetimes” advertises a recent satirical piece by Colin Nissan in The New Yorker’s recent August issue that follows a Q&A interview between an outraged interviewer and a calm expert on this new software program for student loan debt. The conversation winds around this bizarre solution to debt…
Read MoreDepartment of Education being sued by Teachers
First states and now teachers are suing the Department of Education for the faulty program intended to help student loan borrowers: the public service loan forgiveness program. Previously last summer, four states including California, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Illinois sued the government agency Navient for its mismanagement of private and federal student loan debt, especially for…
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