It's Not a Student Loan II

Disabled Mom

Kimberly Noland could have used that kind of help.

Noland, 44, lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with her husband, a laid-off factory worker now employed at a Wal-Mart store, and their seven-year-old daughter.

Noland injured her leg while working in a day-care center. She started collecting $828 a month in Social Security disability payments in 2010.

Shortly after she qualified, Collection Technology Inc., an Education Department debt collector, called about Noland’s roughly $30,000 in defaulted student loans from attending the University of Arkansas.

A collector told her she had to pay $325 a month, almost as much as her rent, Noland said in a phone interview. She couldn’t afford it on her family’s $20,000 annual income, she said.

“I have a child,” Noland remembered telling the collector. “I can’t give you every bit of money in my house.”

‘Final Number’

“This is our final number,” the collector replied, saying her boss wanted even more, according to Noland. The phone conversation lasted more than an hour, she said. She was given three days to decide, or Collection Technology would seize part of her disability check “forever,” and she would never have another chance to rehabilitate her loan, Noland said.

She bought a prepaid debit card at Wal-Mart, authorizing Collection Technology to make the $325 monthly withdrawals. She visited churches to collect free bread and canned goods.

Read more from the NY Times.

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