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Student Loan Law: 31 C.F.R. § 285.4 Offset of Federal benefit payments to collect past-due, legally enforceable nontax debt.

(a) Scope.

(1) This section sets forth special rules applicable to the offset of Federal benefit payments payable to an individual under the Social Security Act (other than Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments), part B of the Black Lung Benefits Act, or any law administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (other than payments that such Board determines to be tier 2 benefits) to collect delinquent nontax debt owed to the United States.

Student Loan Law: Student Assistance Forms

The Department of Education (Department) maintains applications and other forms for the various discharge, repayment, deferment, and other federal student loan programs. Many of these forms are available on the Department’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) Forms Library website (https://studentaid.gov/forms-library). However, the forms are not always available and can sometimes be hard to find or moved to a different webpage.

Student Loan Law: Introduction

Most of the statutory authority for federal student assistance can be found at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1070–1099e. This appendix reprints selected authority for the Direct Loan Program (the complete statutory authority is found at §§ 1087a–1087j), the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program (the complete statutory authority begins at § 1071), and the Perkins Loan Program (the complete statutory authority is found at §§ 1087aa–1087ii), as well as selected general provisions and provisions relating to federal debt collection protections and private student loans.

Student Loan Law: 1.9.1 First Steps

While private student loan issues are similar to other areas of consumer law, federal student loans are a different animal. Advocates helping clients with private student loan issues should refer to Chapter 16, infra. This section focuses on federal student loan issues and will help advocates prepare for, organize, and review a student loan case.

Student Loan Law: 1.9.2 Collecting Information About a Borrower’s Federal Loans

The most important information available to an advocate is a specific TXT file report—now called the MyStudentAid Data Report—which can be accessed on studentaid.gov. Given borrowers’ confusion about what types of loans they have, advocates should not provide student loan advice to a borrower without first analyzing the information from this report. The borrower can download their MyStudentAid Data Report by clicking the “View Details” button on the borrower’s studentaid.gov dashboard.

Student Loan Law: 1.9.5 Evaluating a Borrower’s Repayment Options

If a borrower is not eligible for full discharge or cancellation of their student loans, and they are not currently in default, a top priority should be developing a repayment strategy that meets their financial goals and will help them avoid default in the future. Borrowers who are in default but working to get out of default will also need help with a repayment strategy to avoid redefaulting.

Repossessions: 1.4.1 Overview

When analyzing a repossession case, it is helpful to break down the transaction into stages. The following subsections identify the issues that arise and the questions the advocate should ask at each stage of a secured transaction. This discussion is intended as a broad-brush description of the issues.

Repossessions: 1.4.12 Special Issues in Manufactured Home Repossessions

Manufactured home repossessions raise special issues. The state may treat a particular manufactured home as real property rather than personal property, in which case foreclosure law rather than repossession law will apply. See § 5.5, infra. Some states prohibit self-help repossession of a manufactured home even if state law considers it personal property.

Repossessions: 1.4.13 Repossession of Leased Property

In general, UCC Article 2A rather than Article 9 applies to most closed-end automobile leases, the type of lease that is commonly used today. Many provisions of Article 2A, such as the prohibition of breach of the peace during repossession, are comparable to Article 9, but there are significant differences. Because the lessor already owns the automobile, sale of the vehicle is not used to reduce a credit obligation, but to help compute an early termination charge.

Repossessions: 1.4.4 Does the Creditor Have an Enforceable Security Interest?

Before there can be any repossession, there must be a valid, enforceable security interest in the collateral. Article 9 sets forth the requirements for the creation of an enforceable security interest, and places some limits on what can be taken as collateral. Federal law and other state laws place additional limits on the types of security interests that creditors can take.