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Meet Janet Dupree:72, Alcoholic, HIV-Positive, $16,000 In Student Debt: "I Won't Live Long Enough To Pay It Off"
One would think that Janet Lee Dupree, 72, a self-professed HIV-infected alcoholic, would be slowly putting aside material worries as she prepares to set the intangibles in her life in order for one last time. One would be wrong.
Janet Dupree has had her wages garnished
As she admits, "I am an alcoholic and I have HIV," she tells the BBC. "That's under control." So what is the cause of most if not all consternation in the final days of Dupree's life? "I was sick and I didn't worry about paying back the debt." As a result, Dupree defaulted on her loan, and since she turned 65 she has had money withheld from her Social Security benefits.
"Just recently I received a notification that they are going to garnish my wages because I am still working," says Dupree, who works 30 hours a week as a substance abuse counsellor.
The debt in question: Dupree owes $16,000 in student loans she acquired in 1971 and 1972.
Or make that "student loans" - debt which is crippling the last days of a person who hasn't seen the inside of a classroom in four decades.
Dupree, who lives in Citra, Florida, admits she forgot for many years that she had borrowed the money - originally $3,000 - in order to complete her undergraduate studies in Spanish.
The stunning story of how the exponentially rising...
... notional amounts of (anything but) student debt is crushing millions of Americans as recounted by the BBC:
- Outstanding student loan debt in the US amounts to $1tr
- 3% of households headed by individuals 65 or over carry student debt (706,000 households)
- 24% of households headed by individuals 64 or under carry student debt (22 million households)
- The outstanding federal debt for older adults grew from $2.8bn in 2005 to $18.2bn in 2013
- 27% of federal student loans held by individuals aged 65 to 74 are in default, compared to 12% of loans to people between the ages of 25 and 49
In 2005, older adults owed $2.8bn (£1.61bn) in federal student debt. By 2013, that figure that had ballooned to $18.2bn, according to a report released last month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
These seniors account for 706,000 households in the United States - small compared to the 22 million households with non-seniors who hold student load debt, but a growing problem. People over 65 also defaulted on their student loan debt at a much higher rate than other segments of the population, says Charles Jeszeck, author of the GAO report.
Students in the US often take out loans, both privately funded and financed by the US Department of Education, to pay their school fees. While other loans, such as a home mortgage, can be forgiven if a borrower files for bankruptcy, student loans cannot.
According to the GAO study, the number of individuals whose Social Security benefits were offset to pay student loan debt increased from about 31,000 to 155,000 between 2002-13. Jeszeck tells the BBC that this situation can cause considerable problems for older adults who, like Dupree, may have to extend their working life well beyond retirement age.
"They face the potential of reduced social security benefits and a lower standard of living, possibly a poverty-level standard of living in retirement," Jeszeck says.
Rosemary Anderson, 57, says she is fortunate not to have defaulted on her student loan, but she already knows she will grow old with a debt "hanging over her head".
Between 1991-2000 she borrowed $64,000 in order to complete both her undergraduate and her graduate studies in organisational behaviour and development.
Soon after, though, she began what she calls a "steep decline into financial hell".
She says she divorced her husband of 24 years, had health issues that prevented her from working full time, and had her salary reduced when the financial crisis hit.
Anderson, who works as a member of the emergency management team at the University of California, Santa Cruz, couldn't afford her monthly loan payments, so she entered into a series of deferment options with the Department of Education.
Today, she owes $128,000 and is hoping to get additional help from the government in reducing that amount.
The vast majority of older borrowers took out their loans in order to pay for their own studies, although a small percentage used the loans for their spouses, children or grandchildren.
Many borrowed money to pay for mid- or late-career retraining, or may have acquired loans with a very long repayment term. Others defaulted at a younger age, were unable to dig themselves out of the problem and carried it through into retirement.
The Department of Education says it is "committed to working with older borrowers to help them understand and manage debt", as William Leith, chief business officer for federal student aid, explained in a recent Senate hearing where different measures were discussed.
A department spokesperson told the BBC that there are "many repayment options available, including those based on income, as well as forgiveness programmes".
Meanwhile, Rosemary Anderson is worried. She says never imagined that she would have this problem at her age.
She feels fortunate to have a job but recognises that she will have to continue working as long as she is physically able to.
"Retirement is not part of my vocabulary," she says.
"I will never live long enough to pay off my loan."
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well, heck, what do ya'll think ross perot told you would happen? for example, in the last twenty years the US immigration service has created a de facto new state of Wyoming every year via immigration from third world countries (no europeans need apply, only those who can help de-white and bow the heads of whites for their sins and that's not racist because it is true). liberia, for instance, where the nice mr. duncan who brought ebola with him, has 4.2 Million people. in the last twenty years the US has "immigrated" into the US 1.2 MILLION Liberians meaning that every single Liberian now has a "family reunification" opportunity to be granted US citizenship.
After all even if we immigrate Entire countries while California dies from lack of water, what the heck eh? Your kids can just live in the Blade Runner world of cesspool humans.
And lest we forget, if California only had "natural" birth rate population increases it would now be at around twenty million peole and not the current 40 MILLION that has collapsed its water systems, its sewer systems, its hospital systems, its school systems, driven out business and white people who don't care to have their food spit in or to be shot at in drive bys.
And how does this relate to the article futher, besides the righteousness of ross perot's statement? The fundamental principle of a communist country is to get yours now versus the Christian principle that ran this country previously. The Christian principle is to achieve via effort and aspiration and energy.
Wanna have some fun? If you have a ball cap with a conservative slogan go to walmart while wearing it and watch the faces turn and bear their teeth...they don't like the idea of having their free taken away..
Tylers ... half the comments are hidden behind the giant block of "Sponsored Financial Content" column on the right side of the page. If you could remove that damn thing or banner it to the bottom it would be much appreciated.
You are all whining about how she has failed and how you have to pay for her an blabedi blah blah.
First of all, education should be FREE. As long as you get a degree in a certain amount of time, you shouldn't have any loans. My dad got his engineering degree without a dollar in loans. He worked part time during the time he studied and lived like a poor man a couple of years. In the US, Government has provided a guarantee for college loans up to a certain number. Suddenly, everyone has the "right" to an education and suddenly, all educations are exactly as expensive as the guaranteed loan. This means that people study to become what they dream of being instead of realistic real job degrees and they end up driving a bus. The fact that she failed to pay back obscures the fact that most people do. Education is big business.
Second, she is ill and shouldn't have to worry about money. Put yourselves in her shoes and stop being so judgemental. The reason to why you are so well off is that someone else on the planet is equally less well off. Every action has an equal opposite reaction.
Were you born a human tick or did you undergo metamorphosis?
Wow, is that the worst insult you could come up with? Took you a while to think of what to write, didn't it? But I am impressed you made the effort to google how metamorphosis is spelled.
Just like Thomas Jefferson, she will die huge in debt. Nothing wrong with that.
Gee If only she had a printing press and fool everyone with fiat and not worry about debt collectors yet.
Then everything would be above board..
I wonder what will happen when we can't...I guess our fathers and ancestors collateral built over 300 years will do..same as repo the car..pots and pans golf clubs and stuff..of course everyone has, as the Potus said,..some skin in this. That means your pensions . or anything that resembles one. Banks are supposedly going cashless. by 2016 ..so hoarding cash at home will not save you..something I had in mind..
The Government keeps any earned income every other year iif one is in default. at her income she as a single would not qualify for it.You have an opportunity to make arrangement withstudent loan authority and pay after listing your expenses..and she would not have this problem when it reaches garnisment..its kinda late . Her credit is probably screwed and can't borrow to repay and then default. People are now gong to jail in some places for debt...and its not a shrinking trend.
I wish the lady well..I wish all the honest savers having their interest garnished by some other name well..I wish the pensioners and good girl and boy scouts that never stole cheated anyone and are going to be raped well I even wish the government well and some people wih common sense get in there. There gotta be good guys besides snowden somewhere. I see exposures..but no reforms..so we will keeep the diving to doom in accelerated mode..sooner than later.
Somebody said..to the effect...when they come for them in the morning..they will certainly come for you in the night That about says it all.
Perfect example of why the government shouldn't be in the student loan business. Or a lot of other business categories.
With no backing of student debt, banks wouldn't loan money to students, and tuitions would have to be reduced to attract students who either can pay their way or work their way through college. It used to be that way, not all that long ago.
We might have a few less liberal arts colleges and professors, and I submit that would be a good thing.
She's had 42 years to pay them off, and yet she had plenty of money for booze and drugs. I do not want to hear it.
I'm glad you said that its a valid argument..does she need an analysts care or a year in the pen? a Theme of Blame Game well done in WestSide story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq28qCklEHc
She should be melted down for her lard value. Nevermind, she's HIV. Her claim to value is her mere fucking existence and TaxPayer slaves are obliged to pay for her lofty value.
is she single? i mean you can't find the really good ones on any of those phony dating sites.
She should try to get another student loan so she can go back to school to get a better job so that she can pay back her student loan.
When I. Turn 75 I am gonna get me a student loan so I can study the great beers of Europe.
Yep, the poster child for responsibility.
Actually, now that I mentioned responsibility, I have to say I'm sorry. If JPM, Citi, BOA, the BIS, the FED and the GOV were responsible we wouldn't be in this mess. It just goes to show that the Austrian Economists were correct. Never trust anyone with power, because it'll go to their heads and we'll all be fucked.
I'm supposed to feel sympathetic to these two females? The HIV whore has cost the TaxPayers probably 50x her original debt with her self inflicted maladies. She's a fucking deadbeat kunt. The second female borrowed 65k for what bullshyt major at both the undergraduate and post graduate level? I have a b-i-l who still owes a couple of thousand from the 70's. How do I know this? Because the cacksucker lived with us for a few months and after we told him to move on, we got his BigGovtEd debt notices at our home. He's a fcking deadbeat homo, who also thinks he's owed something; like money earned by TaxPayers from whom he borrowed and then spent decades trying to stiff the taxpayers.
The great American life
and death by debt
a juice banker's dream come true