HUG Your Student Debt, Inc.^™

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.

Student advocates have for years complained about the complex set of options borrowers must navigate to repay their student loans. Student loan borrowers are faced with a dizzying nine repayment plans based on their income, in addition to a standard 10-year loan-repayment plan.

There's a growing consensus that Congress should reduce those options to one income-based option on top of the standard plan.

The national default rate for Parent PLUS loans has nearly tripled in recent years, but it remains well below the

default rates for other federal student loans, according to data released for the

rst time last week by the U.S.

Department of Education.

Of all parent borrowers whose PLUS loans entered repayment in the 2010

scal year, the data show, 5.1

percent were in default three years later. That

gure has risen steadily from the 1.8 percent default rate for the

cohort of borrowers in the 2006

scal year.

I can’t believe I have already been an attorney for about five years!