When Unpaid Student Loan Bills Mean You Can No Longer Work (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/business/student-loans-licenses.html
When Unpaid Student Loan Bills Mean You Can No Longer Work
Twenty states suspend people’s professional or driver’s licenses if they fall behind on loan payments, according to records obtained by The New York Times.
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG, STACY COWLEY and NATALIE KITROEFF | NOV. 18, 2017

Fall behind on your student loan payments, lose your job.

Few people realize that the loans they take out to pay for their education could eventually derail their careers. But in 19 states, government agencies can seize state-issued professional licenses from residents who default on their educational debts. Another state, South Dakota, suspends driver’s licenses, making it nearly impossible for people to get to work.

As debt levels rise, creditors are taking increasingly tough actions to chase people who fall behind on student loans. Going after professional licenses stands out as especially punitive.

Firefighters, nurses, teachers, lawyers, massage therapists, barbers, psychologists and real estate brokers have all had their credentials suspended or revoked.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This is uncalled for.

[angrychair]

2. Yep

Nothing enables you to repay your debt like the inability to drive and working at McDonalds.

[EL34x4]

10. Seriously?!?!?! WTF is this idiocy???

I mean, Jeezus! Even the mafia would make sure the guy who owes them money could go out and earn it!

I don't know if the article gives a rational behind this. I'm afraid to read it and wind up even stupider than I already am.

Edit: I read the article. Apparently, it works.

"In Louisiana, the nursing board notified 87 nurses last year that their student loans were in default and that their licenses would not be renewed until they became current on their payments.

Eighty-four paid their debts."

[Binkie The Clown]

3. That just turns my stomach. What the hell kind of country have we become? nt

[Initech]

7. Ask the Kochs, Mercers, and Waltons.

[Doreen]

4. So where in the fuck are they supposed to come up with the money to pay for it if

they can no longer work? So, because they are having a difficult time with money they are going to get it taken away? Your children are going to be starved because you are at this time unable to pay for the loan?

[dragonlady]

5. A modern version of debtor's prison n/t

[Matthew28]

6. Conservatives

Are turning this nation back to the 18th century and worse. Pretty soon if you're poor = you're subhuman.

Makes me sick.

[liberalhistorian]

8. Here in South Dakota, not having a driver's license

can literally be a matter of life and death. The vast majority of the state is rural, and even the cities have little, if any, public transportation and private transportation services are expensive.

This makes no fucking sense at all. If the goddamn repubs don't care about the humanitarian aspects of it, you'd think they'd at least put their cold, calculating reptilian brains to use and realize that, economically, it makes NO sense if you want people to actually be able to pay their student loans back. Then again, this is the party whose tax bill eliminates the interest deduction for student loans as well as the deduction for tuition waivers for graduate students, which could mean an extra ten or twenty thousand dollar tax bill for broke grad students making almost nothing as it is, but working on innovation and research.

They hate the idea of education for anyone but the rich and powerful, and have never been reconciled to all of the programs and loans that allowed the "little people" to get any kind of an education. I don't know who they expect to become the teachers, first responders, nurses, social workers ,etc., of the future, but they probably figure such won't even be needed in the dystopian libertarian hell they're so gleefully planning.

[Xolodno]

9. Debtors prison...without the prison.

Good luck on getting a job with shitty credit. And if you do, better hope it within walking distance. Doesn't matter how qualified, experienced, etc. Your screwed.

Oppress the poor and sooner or later, they realize they have nothing left to lose.

[Dawson Leery]

11. How the F*** are you supposed to get to work to pay the debt???

[BigmanPigman]

12. With the new GOP Tax scam

you can no longer deduct student loan payments...this is beyond fucked!

[liberalhistorian]

16. It's actually the interest on the student loans

that could no longer be deducted under the GOP screw-everyone-but-our-rich-donors bill, not the loans themselves. But it still sucks and it's still bullshit.

[BadgerMom]

13. Do any of those states require a license as ID in order to vote?

I wouldn’t put it past the Republicans.

And what is California doing in this list? Something else to call about.

[Jim Beard]

15. Texas has 6 types of identification to be able to vote.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. But is they were "businessmen" they could default on loans

right and left and go through bankruptcy multiple times and have those loans dismissed or restructured.

[crosinski]

17. Only in republi-think is this a smart idea.

sigh.