This website is a testimony to the problems Canadian Student Loan borrowers experienced from approximately 1996 to 2008 and until their loans were paid off.

The privatization of the Student Loans system by the Chretien and Martin Liberal governments broke the system and defaulted thousands of borrowers who were trying to pay their loans. There were even stories of suicide due to the harassment of borrowers.

Read the report that I prepared back in 2007 here. Canada Student Loans-The Need for Change Fortunately the new Conservative government at the time revamped the program and fixed the system for new borrowers, but borrowers under the previous program were left with ruined credit and continued harassment from debt collectors.

I call on the Canadian Government to apologize to the borrowers affected by this fiasco and make amends.

Unfortunately the Liberal government is again clobbering the Education system with their changes to International Student Visas. Yes, there's a problem, but instead of a well thought out plan, they have pulled the emergency brake on the train causing a derailment. This has introduced unprecedented instability for both private and public education institutions who serve both international and local students.

Universities have been forced to cancel programs and layoff hundreds if not thousands of full-time and contract instructors.

Again, the Liberal government has messed up the education environment.


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rc33 View Drop Down
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Joined: 13/December/2012
Points: 3 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rc33 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Collection ODSP situation
    Posted: 14/December/2012 at 12:43am
I'm just helping a friend who is currently on ODSP with a recent collection issue on a very old loan and I would greatly appreciate any advice on the matter.

A brief chronology of events is as follows:
She was studying over 10 years ago and while she was studying she was on ODSP. After completing her studies she applied for the loan to be forgiven around 8 years ago. The federal portion of the loan was forgiven at this time and while the application seemed to be successfully sent in it is unclear if the Ontario portion of the loan was forgiven. She was most definitely under the impression that all the loan amount was forgiven. After not hearing anything about the matter for over 8 years she got a letter from a collection agency yesterday saying that she was owing $10000 on the loan. She is on ODSP for permanent disability and due to being unable to work and being on ODSP she clearly has no ability to pay off this debt at the moment (ODSP has a $5000 maximum on assets but she has far far less than this). To me it seems as though this 8 year gap in hearing anything about the loan seems ridiculous, does this in any way relate to statute of limitations? If so how do we proceed now?

She talked to the collection agency today and they were strongly suggesting that she apply to have the loan forgiven and they were very insistent on this. This seems strange to me, why does the collection agency want to have her contact the government/OSAP on this if the loan is to them? In general they seemed to want her to send them info and generally go through them a lot.

This makes me ask, who is it that we are actually meant to be in contact with here? Ontario MTCU or the collection agency or someone else entirely?

Given that she is completely unable to make a payment here what is the best plan?

Are there advocacy/legal services that could help here?

Once again any advice is greatly appreciated.
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Joined: 05/November/2003
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Points: 5996 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SolveStudentDebt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15/December/2012 at 9:57am
When you approach some senior debt collectors with a serious hardship they lose their tactical collection mojo. Takes the steam right out of them and their first thought is to "dump" the file. They don't want to get involved in a lengthy painful process because it takes them away from working other files. With newer less senior collectors they sink their teeth right into the flesh and still try hammer you down. This is in their training.
 
This collector obviously has concluded that there is no commission for him or her this. The two most common dump tacts are to tell you to go bankruptcy, or approach the student loan provider and ask them to forgive the debt somehow. THis way, they can ship the file to a hold desk or even close it (in cases of bankruptcy).
 
A debt collector needs productive accounts in his section to make himself his bonus pay. If there is dead weight they try to get rid of it as quickly as possible so they can replaced with new accounts to work.
 
See?
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting.

solvestudentdebt.com
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rc33 View Drop Down
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Points: 3 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rc33 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15/December/2012 at 6:25pm
Thankyou for the reply, it makes more sense now.

We were strongly of the impression that the entire loan (provincial and federal) was already forgiven many years ago but somehow they are claiming that only the federal portion actually got forgiven. Unfortunately since this all happened 8years ago not all the paperwork has survived, we found the confirmation letters for the federal portion but not the provincial portion. We found correspondence with both groups about applying for the loan to be forgiven and both the federal and provincial groups acknowledge that an application was made, it's just not clear what the outcome was from the provincial application.

Is the best course of action now to try to get the provincial portion of the loan to be forgiven by the relevant provincial department? To arrange this do we contact the relevant department who the collections agency is working on behalf of? Or do we go via the collections agency?

Your advice is greatly appreciated here.
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