This was very interesting as I had never heard of these loans before. It sounds as if parents who availed themselves of the program in order to, as one quote said, “finance their children’s hopes and dreams” are wishing they hadn’t.

Maybe should have settled for a less expensive “dream” education? Just saying.

They’re called “Parent Plus Loans” (PPL) and the rules for getting any sort of a “student loan” break or forgiveness don’t apply to them as with IDR or Income Driven Repayment. That also explains the two acronyms in the woman’s kind of frantic tweet below.

She has realized, apparently, after not paying on those loans during all these pauses, that the looming payments (which restarted this month after being suspended in 2020) are more than she can afford.

I’ve been hold over two hours, Nelnet. I really need help. I cannot apply for IDR because they are Parent Plus Loans. The amount due is way more than I can afford. Please help. pic.twitter.com/J8gJXVI9Kn

— Donna Marie (@DonnaSlaybaugh) October 30, 2023

Back in January, I wrote about yet another student loan forgiveness maneuver the Biden administration was trying, after their waving a “your debt’s all gone” magic wand trick was shot down by the Supreme Court. They’d repeatedly promised greedy, gullible fools who’d voluntarily signed loan papers – for educations that may or may not have been worth the price of admission – that they wouldn’t have to repay after all. Now that the dang, radical right-wing MAGA SCOTUS had crushed what was blatant Election Year pandering, it left a good swath of Democratic foot soldiers royally pissed off that they soon would be forced to cover their responsibilities as adults. POTATUS and Co. were hard pressed to come up with a solution to pacify the mob.

What they concocted sounded so ridiculous, it seemed as if it had to be a Babylon Bee story. But, no – it was real and it’s how things are going to be done. It’s all being massaged on an “Income Driven” basis. You can qualify to have your loans forgiven – that’s wiped clean – after faithfully making 10 years of IDR adjusted payments, even if those payment amounts were zero dollars.

…Income-driven repayment plans were designed to help lower earners borrow for college, but few have been able to use them effectively because of technical problems and onerous amounts of income-verification paperwork. If enacted, the proposed changes would provide qualifying borrowers with significantly more-generous options that could leave them debt-free sooner, while paying off only a fraction of their total loan balances.

To prevent student-debt balances from ballooning in the future, the administration plans to halve, to 5% from 10%, the amount of discretionary income borrowers must pay each month on their undergraduate loans if they are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan.

Borrowers with incomes below 225% of the federal poverty line wouldn’t have to make monthly payments on their loans.

The administration estimated that that level corresponds to an individual income of less than roughly $30,600 annually or any borrower in a family of four who makes less than about $62,400 a year.

Here’s where it gets tricksy.

…Borrower loan balances won’t grow as long as they make their monthly payments, even if a low-income borrower’s monthly requirement is set at $0. The change would also forgive loan balances for people enrolled in income-based plans after 10 years of payments, down from 20 under many of the current options, for borrowers whose original loan balances were $12,000 or less.

So, am I reading this right? If you qualify for no loan payments, not making payments still qualifies as having made payments and after 10 years, your student loans are forgiven? Pretty sure that’s what that says.

If you are required to remit X amount, if you then make your minimum payments for 10 years, your student loans are forgiven. Pretty sure that’s what that says.

Not being a financial whiz-kid nor even a calculator-friendly type, I still think that adds up to “free” or damn near, and epic mountains of cash.

That’s right. #Bidenomics

So I am sure parents, who like the woman above were just realizing they were in a financial hole up to their eyeballs, thought they might well be coming in for a softer landing, too.

But, no. Parents are supposed to know better than the princely, spoiled, clueless morons they’ve raised. “Supposed to” being the operative phrase.

Now, it’s all “HELP!!“

Millions of parents who took out student loans on behalf of their children were left out of the Biden administration’s new repayment plans.

Parent Plus loans, which account for more than $111 billion in outstanding student debt, aren’t eligible for the lower monthly payments and shorter paths to forgiveness offered under the new Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program announced in January. Neither were they part of the one-time adjustment in July to other income-driven repayment programs that awarded borrowers nearly $40 billion dollars in debt relief. There is a way to convert Parent Plus loans into one that is eligible, but it is complicated.

“We are committed to continuing to explore options for parent borrowers,” the Education Department said.

I guess parents don’t vote as far as Joe is concerned. Or maybe it’s just that they’re so focused on keeping their shock troops happy they didn’t bother looking at anything else.

But my goodness – what have these people done to themselves, regardless? parent Plus Loans are generally a higher interest rate blank check available for every dime of the student’s educational costs, with only any additional financial aid deducted. That’s pretty tempting, but holy smokes, folks.

You have to use that wisely…parsimony and prudence wouldn’t hurt, either.

…People often choose Parent Plus loans when standard federal loans and grants from schools don’t cover their child’s tuition and expenses. “It is so much more emotional. When parents are trying to decide whether or not they’re going to sign on the dotted line, they want to realize their children’s dreams,” said Rodriguez.

The consequences can be so dire.

…Howard Fulton, a 71-year-old retired technology and risk professional and father of seven from Monmouth County, N.J., is carrying nearly $100,000 in Parent Plus loans.

“It’s hanging over me,” he said of the payments, which total more than $1,000 a month. “It’s an extra mortgage.”

Fulton learned that being behind on his Parent Plus loans can mean part of his Social Security benefits would be withheld to pay the loans. He and his wife eventually worked with their servicer on a reduced payment plan, but he said the experience woke him up to the reality of the loans’ ballooning balances.

“No one explains anything,” he said.

Seven. Kids. SEVEN

I hope whoever in that household who got the education those loans paid for is cutting dad a check every month and eating Ramen.

I mean, DAMN. The man is SEVENTY ONE years old!

I can’t even.

Then again, some parents raise ingrates. They might be doing the right thing, considering the recipient.

who else got parents making you pay for parent plus loans in full under their name 😐

— Froyo Tam 📕 (@FroyoTam) October 28, 2023

There is relief of a sort to be had, according to the article, but it is a time consuming, confusing, and arduous process which is considered a “loophole.”

… Borrowers interested in this option must move swiftly, as the Education Department is expected to close the loophole for these double consolidations by July 2025.

Essentially, the borrower consolidates their loans twice. First, each loan is consolidated separately with a different servicer. Then they consolidate the new loans again with yet another servicer.

Having never been able to afford college myself and as we wrote checks – and ate Ramen – for the 126 credits Ebola has, I have little patience or sympathy for most of these sob stories. Especially as we working class stiffs get to foot the bill. Our kid also did not go to a trendy $$$ school – he went to the great education, affordable state U.

It really irritates me to no end, to be honest.

And to see a retired 71 yr old man, collecting Social Security, with 7 kids, and their hundred grand in college tuition hanging over his head, which I’m also assuming he did nothing about during the payment pause – I’m not sure sure who I’m more disgusted with.

All that “education” money and it doesn’t sound as if one brain cell ever engaged.

Got “bail-out” written all over it.

*sigh*