peewee, I would be very interested to learn how those people managed to get discharges after less than 10 years. Is there any way you could find out from your trustee?

I have 4 and a half years left before I can apply, if I decide to do that, which I will if I'm in the same financial situation (hopefully I will be making more money by then!). If I don't apply for bankruptcy, I have another 8 years to pay on my loan. If I was just paying on the principal, I would probably have it paid off in 2 more years! When I stated that to my credit counsellor, he told me to wait it out and apply for bankruptcy when I am eligible to do so. Clearly, he also sees the hopeless situation we are all in.

sorry, you misunderstood.

in each case discharges occurred under the rules that applied at the time.  i.e. when the rule was 2 years after the last day of study the trustee had a client who satisfied this criteria and successfully discharged under those rules.  as well, when the rule changed to 10 years, the trustee had 3 clients who had been out of school for at least 10 years and could therefore apply to have their loans included in their bankruptcies and successfully had them discharged.

i was responded to a previous message that stated that SL never got discharged.  i was simply stating that yes in fact they do some of the time when all criteria are met.

I filed bankruptcy in 2001 was discharged in Feb 2002

I completed school in April 1997.  My last student loan was Sept. 1996 for the last year.  So when does the 10 year rule start from the last day attending school or the last day a student loan was given?  If it is the last day of school April 15 ,1997 am I eligible under the bankruptcy for April 1997 to ask for discharge on my student loan considering they were not discharged in 2001????

here is quote taken from the Report of the Personal Insolvency Committee of the Insolvency Institute of Canada entitled:

Recommendations for Reform and Further Amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. (link below) http://www.insolvency.ca/papers/PICReport.html - http://www.insolvency.ca/papers/PICReport.html

Bankruptcy Act Amendments – 1998

"During the 1995 to 1997 time frame, the financial institutions were becoming increasingly alarmed as a result of the significant losses they were now seeing in their loan portfolios.  We assume there were frank discussions between the government and the financial institutions voicing their concerns.  Accordingly, without consultation with other stakeholders in the insolvency process, the federal government announced in the budget speech of 24 February 1998, less than 5 months after the implementation of the 2 year rule, that students would not be dischargeable by bankruptcy from any student loan obligations for 10 years.  No ability was granted to courts to deal with hardship cases until after the expiry of the 10 year period.  This new rule became effective on 18 June 1998.

To mitigate somewhat the impact of this provision, the Minister of Finance announced, in the same budget speech, a number of worthwhile measures to help students better manage their CSLP debt.  These included deductibility of interest payments, extended repayment periods up to 15 years, and interest relief, based on formula, for up to 5 years.  In situations where payments exceeded 15% of income, loan principal reductions could be sought of up to $10,000, or 50% of the loan, whichever is less.  However, such reductions would not be available until 5 years had elapsed.  We note, however, that none of these relief measures are available to students who have allowed their loan repayments to go into default.  Further, if a former student sometime later renews studies, the 10 year period starts all over again, even for the older loans.  The 10 year rule relates to the time last attended an institution, not when a loan was made or was outstanding."

hope this is informative

also note that i was wrong on the date of implementaton.  the 10 year rule became effective on June 18, 1998.  so if you filed bankruptcy after this date then you have to wait 10 years after you have ceased to become a student to have you loans discharged.

[.s. sorry for all the posts

 That is exactly how it it is, peewee. Also,. you had touched on the 1995-97 time frame. actually, it goes back a bit further than that - the year 1989-1990. The governments and banks were taking heavy losses as a result of the increase in bankruptcy assignments. Many people were going bankrupt specifically because of student loans. Many of these people could have paid towards their student loans, however, the bankruptcy route seemed to be a better movement for many. This is how the governments and financial institutions viewed it. The federal government has closed and tightened up every window to protect their investments.

 Another alarm was the 1990/91 recession. Despite the economic recovery, bankruptcies had climbed to record highs.

or any suggestions

I'm in a very similar situation.

What if I registered for an online TESL certificate ( Teaching english ) through a school in Britain and paid with my own cash. Does the bankruptcy law recognize this as being a student and reset the clock on my ten year wait.

Thanks in advance to anyone with some thoughts