WSJ—Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors

Posted by Kendall Harmon

A little-noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.

Social Security benefits are off-limits to creditors, such as credit-card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments.

The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student-, farm- and small-business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government

2 Comments
Posted March 9, 2010 at 8:36 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. TiffanyG44 wrote:

I have to admit that I have not heard about this event before but I totally agree with your opinion about this question. Our financial situation is really complicated and such changes can affect many people I think. Speaking about myself, before several months I have got cash payday advance but now I am really worrying if this decision to get it was right. I hope that everything will be great in the future and all this crises will end soon. Thanks a lot for the ability to express my own opinion and keep up publishing these great posts in the future.

May 15, 7:40 am | [comment link]
2. SusanE88 wrote:

I agree, the financial situation is really difficult after the crises not only in the US but in the whole world either. Besides, it’s much harder for those who have debts and, unfortunately, it’s the larger part of all the people. Economics was rather steady for rather long time, so people were not afraid of taking loans and mortgages. And what should they do now? They are fully in debts. My brother took a mortgage and now he constantly takes the loans online in order to pay the fees off.

September 20, 5:13 am | [comment link]
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