Student Loan/ ODSP

[Lorene]

I am wondering if anyone is on OW or ODSP and have a student loan
(OSAP) to pay back? Can they garnishee your ODSP or OW cheque to pay
back to the student loan centre?

I owe over 15 grand. They want me to make payments of $192 per month
out of my ODSP. I can't afford to pay that much back or else I will be
living out on the streets. I tried forgiveness loan and was turned down
by both provincial and federal student loan departments because my
disabililty didn't happen during the time I was getting a student loan.
I have a hearing disablility since birth. I was told I can't file
bankruptcy until 10 year period is up. I was also told even if I was to
file bankrupcty, I will still be on the hook with the student loan.

What can I do?

[Craig Palmer]

Lorene:

 

The Federal or Provincial Government cannot garnishee ODSP nor  OW. They can only place you in credit recovery and hold your Income Tax along with your GST cheques.But, there is also a way out of that. I was certain you could apply for "Loan Forgiveness" because one is disabled. I would re-check the facts on that one. Whether or not one was disabled then or now, shouldnt be a factor.

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[abrowne]

Lorene,

Are you able to work at all?  If you cannot work or if your ability to work is

limited by reason of disability, they have to forgive or forgo enforcement of

your student loan.  No, they cannot garnish money from ODSP/ OW.  There

is a separate department to apply for this forgiveness/forgoing decision.

A

Lorene <sym...@yahoo.com> wrote:

I am wondering if anyone is on OW or ODSP and have a student loan
(OSAP) to pay back? Can they garnishee your ODSP or OW cheque to pay
back to the student loan centre?

---

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[Malcolm53]

Lorene I am in the same boat at present. You are also a victim of
lying collection agents who will say anything to browbeat you int
paying.

If you have an outstanding Federal Loan you must first receive your
loan forgiveness from Canada Student Loans. You may request these
forms from your collection agency, they will try to tell you that the
forms do not exist but be persistent. You will then need to have part
or the form completed by your doctor. The forms are to be returned to
Canada Student Loans, the address should be on the forms.

Once you have received forgiveness from Canada you can apply for
forgiveness from OSAP.

As for bancrupcy, you can not apply for absolution of your student
loans issued under government plans until 10 years from the date of
completion of your studies. Any bankrupcy issued before this time
cannot include the student loans and you are still responsible for
them. After the 10 years you may claim bankrupcy on the loans and they
will be removed from your responsibility. Once bankrupcy is granted on
the loans you will be free and clear of them and only need to serve out
your 7 year period where the bankrupcy is listed in your credit record.

Hope this is if assistance.
Malcolm

[Frank]

Actually, Malcolm, Equifax only lists negative credit and
bankruptcies/related items 6 years after discharge, in the province of
Ontario. TransUnion lists them for 7, but they are a minor credit
bureau since most mainstream credit grantors and mortgagors use Equifax
exclusively (since they were the only one in Canada for many years).
"Some" use both, but if you shop around, you can get around them.

www.equifax.ca
www.tuc.ca

There is an excellent site on Canada and Provincial Student loans, and
people applying for forgiveness and interest relief, as well as
outstanding advice on how to handle the psychologically abusive
collection industry.

http://www.canadastudentdebt.ca/default.asp is the main site. There
are a few threads on ODSP/CPP-D and how this interacts as well, and all
the legal angles involved.

http://www.canadastudentdebt.ca/forum_posts.asp?TID=2704&PN=1&get=last

http://www.canadastudentdebt.ca/forum_posts.asp?TID=2007&KW=odsp

http://www.canadastudentdebt.ca/forum_posts.asp?TID=1958&KW=odsp

Please do check out these threads everyone, who is dealing with
disability pensions, vis-a-vis any type of student loans, before ever
answering another collection call or letter. Just talking to these
people can restart your six or seven year clock. Then you're euchred.

--Frank.

[Craig Palmer]

Hi Malcolm:

 

Im sure the forms for "Lone Forgiveness" come from the Federal Government not the Collection Agency. One needs  to apply federally and provincially if one has both a CSL and a OSL. Your absolutely correct when you speak about these collection agencies though. They are quite pathetic, but all one needs  to  do is talk to a supervisor and say you are reporting them to the police. No one, a person, a business, can call someone up and harass them even if its for money. Im in the same situation as you and I reported an agency and I never heard from them again. They simply dont get it when you explain to them why you are not working. This is where they step over the line from collections, to harrassment. One phone call, thats all it  takes.

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[abrowne]

Folks,

Collection Agencies are bound by the Collection Agencies Act.  Not only do

the businesses have to be licensed, but each person who works as a collector

has to be licensed.  They have to follow prescribed rules and cannot harass a

person, nor could they threaten people with actions they know they have no

power to carry out.  I've successfully sued collection agencies in the past for

harassment.  The thing to do is tape record your conversations with them each

time they call and mark down the time and number of times they call in a day.

They can also be reported (in writing) to the Registrar of Collection Agencies

Branch, which is in the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations.

 

As for the larger problem, HRSDC and MCTU have a loans forgiveness section.

They are the ones that determine eligibility, not the collection agencies.

Angela

Craig Palmer <micro...@yahoo.com> wrote:

I'm sure the forms for "Loan Forgiveness" come from the Federal Government not the Collection Agency. One needs  to apply federally and provincially if one has both a CSL and a OSL. Your absolutely correct when you speak

[Lorene]

Thanks for all your replies. I appreicate it. I still need help to
clear up my credit record.

I did get forms from both federal and provincial governments on loan
forgiveness and that included such a form called "medical forgiveness
form" too. I got them both forms filled out by my doctor and included
all my medical records. That included all my audiology records since I
am hearing impaired. I made sure I made copies to keep on file for
myself just in case.I send one to Thunder Bay, where the provincial
office for Ontario loans are and one to Ottawa , where the federal
office for Canada loans out by courier, just in case they did get lost
in the mail as I was not taking any chances out just before Xmas 2004.
Both federal and provincial departments turned me down when I got
letters - one last Janaury and another last February from both
provincial and federal. All they said was that my disability did not
happen during the time I was on student loan and that there was no
"provisions" made for those on ODSP or OW if they can't find employment
and they can't forgive loans for that reason. That is what I was told.
THey keep changing laws or policies all the time. So I am stuck with it
for now. The creditors kept hounding me day by day. However few weeks
ago, I did get a letter from a credit agency who said they are
suspending all calls to me for some reason and they wanted a photocopy
of my ODSP statement, which I did send them one. This one credit agency
begged me not call a lawyer when he was hounding me months ago. I can't
understand why I was not allowed to call.

[abrowne]

Lorene,

I've done a number of loan forgiveness applications on the basis of medical

disability.  The capacity to work as opposed to the inability to find work is what

needs to emphasized here.  It doesn't matter whether you were born with the

disability or you developed it during your schooling.  Many times, people go to

school believing at the time their disability isn't going to disable them, particularly

if - for example - they were able to hold a part-time job before going to school or

even while attending.  What matters is that you cannot even hold a job now or

work more than part-time.  I got people who even worked part-time off their loans

because ODSP claws so much of their earnings back, they would not be able to

afford to repay the loan even in increments.

 

If the collectors are off your case, that's good.  However, only the collectors' clients

can instruct them to stop or their license authority can.  In this case, if you got

foregiveness or a non-enforcement letter from either the feds or the province, the

collectors are called off.  If the collectors continue, then a copy of the federal or

provincial government letter should be faxed to the collector immediately and if

they still don't stop, a complaint to the Registrar would certainly make them stop.

I've even seen some collection agency licenses pulled because of these stunts.

They are governed fairly strictly under the Act.

 

As for clearing up your credit file, ask for a copy of your credit file from Equifax

and TransUnion.  Equifax can be reached via website:  http://www.equifax.ca/

and TransUnion can be reached at http://www.tuc.ca/ .  If there is still something

on your file about your student loans, and you have received a foregiveness or

postponement period, file a copy of it with those two agencies.  Even if they do

not take it off the record, a record of your objection and the letter should be there.

Angela

Lorene <sym...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for all your replies. I appreicate it. I still need help to
clear up my credit record.

I did get forms from both federal and provincial governments on loan
forgiveness and that included such a form called "medical forgiveness
form" too. I got them both forms filled out by my doctor and included

[Bonnie Briggs]

Hi Lorene,

  I'm on OW and I do have a student loan, from when I was in George Brown College. My advice would be to get a lawyer from a legal clinic or from Legal Aid. OSAP keeps sending me notices, but I have no money to give them. I'm letting my lawyer handle it. Hope this helps.

Bonnie
______________________________________________________________

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[immortal...@yahoo.com]

I am on ODSP and I also have student loans. I've been on Interest
Relief for the past 3 or 4 years now. I believe you can collect a total
of 5 years of IR. Have you exhasted yours, yet? I, too, applied for
Loan Forgiveness but was denied. Not for the same reason as you, but
because they decided that sometime in the future I had the chance of
getting better. However, it is true that you would not qualify for Loan
Forgiveness if your disability didn't happen during school or up to six
months (or possible seven) after you finished your studies.

There is also the Debt Reduction program to apply for. If you've been
out of school for 5 years (and therefore have exhausted Interest
Relief) and in dire financial straits, you can apply to have your loan
reduced by a maximum of $10,000 or half the loan, whichever is less.
You can have your loan reduced up to three times, once every twelve
months.

There are ways to negotiate the amount of your monthly repayment, too.
I believe it can be lowered right down to $25/month.

Call the National Student Loans Service Centre to inquire about any of
these options. Note that your loan needs to be in good standing for any
of these, but I believe you can get payments held off while in
application (and call your bank, too, and talk to them about your
situation).

[Digitald...@aol.com]

there have been changes to the bancruptcy laws regarding student loans. Instead of ten yrs you can apply after 7.

check the link http://www.bankruptcycanada.com/PropChngsBIA.htm

 

Vanessa

[abrowne]

Hi,

They will only consider you for loan forgiveness if you had used up all

your interest relief periods.  I've gotten all kinds of people with different

disabilities onto forgiveness.  What matters to them I found is not WHEN

you were disabled or how caused, but your difference in your ability to work.

For example, I had a client who went to school, took a job and held that job

for four years, then he had a very bad marital separation that resulted in a

severe depression.  He always had a depressive disorder that was controlled

by medication and he was always only able to work part-time (e.g. 30 hours

a week).  When he got sick, he wasn't working for a long time, then when

he came to our office, he managed to find a part-time job in a different field,

but he still collected some ODSP.  I managed to straighten this out on the

basis that even though this fellow can work part-time, ODSP claws back most

of it and therefore, his total household income was not sufficient to cover the

cost of repaying a loan.  I also indicated that he will likely always receive some

ODSP throughout his life, due to his history ... (and he was disabled with this

before he went to his courses).

When you do your forgiveness application, emphasize on the change in your

ability to work and less emphasis on when or how your disability arose.  You

need GOOD medical documentation that shows a longevity or indeterminate

period of time for your disability.

A

immortal...@yahoo.com wrote:

I am on ODSP and I also have student loans. I've been on Interest
Relief for the past 3 or 4 years now. I believe you can collect a total
of 5 years of IR. Have you exhasted yours, yet? I, too, applied for
Loan Forgiveness but was denied.