Disabilities-R-Us

Hello and happy new year!

I’m new to the forum and am seeking advice regarding the discharge of student loans on the basis of total and permanent disability. Does anyone have any experience with this, particularly with regard to having a clinician endorse the federal form for student loan discharge?

This is my situation. I currently subsist entirely on my disability benefits and am on an Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) program under which I am paying $0.00 per month. My reason for wanting to discharge these loans is primarily to improve my credit-worthiness for a USDA home loan, thus affording access to the level of housing that I need. Living in shared housing or section 8 multifamily rentals tends to exacerbate many of the negative consequences of my disabilities.

SSA has placed me on the 3 year CDR (Continuing Disability Review) cycle which means that I would need a clinician, licensed as either an MD or DO to sign and endorse the Federal Student Aid form for student loan discharge. The problem is that I have never maintained any sort of ongoing clinical relationship with a clinician. I simply don’t see the point of it as there are no medical interventions that would better enable me to integrate into the normal workaday world. Moreover, I function just fine in most non-work related aspects of life, I just can’t work efficiently enough to satisfy the unreasonable and unreal productivity demands of our sick,destructive and unsustainable global capitalist system.

Typically what will happen with regards to my student loan discharge is that I will call a clinician’s office, tell them what I am looking for and won’t be able to get an appointment. On the few occasions in which I have been able to get an appointment, they lose all interest in assisting me after I walk into their office and they perceive me to be perfectly healthy and capable of working. Unfortunately most practicing doctors have no understanding as to the social model of disability.

My work disability is of a neuropsychological origin and includes dyspraxia (i.e. psycho-motor, equilibrium, and perceptual impairment) as well as some mood disorders and emotional dysfunctions that make me very sensitive to the types of derisive treatment that is all too commonplace in a typical work setting. I could literally become suicidal and/or homicidal when placed in such an environment.

Has anyone managed to find a clinician who willingly endorsed a student loan discharge during a one time only appointment? If so, what approach would work best?

I’m actually willing to travel anywhere within the US to find such a clinician and even pay out of pocket if necessary. So if anyone knows of a specific provider to recommend, please send me the contact details in a private message. I am at my wits end with this matter.

Thanks and best regards!

Maybe you should talk to a psychiatrist. They would be willing to look into your non-obvious disability, and they are a md. I doubt that any respectable doctor though would be willing to sign the paper on just your say so. They either will need your records and then also do an evaluation, which could take a few visits.

Thank you. Yes, it would probably be necessary to develop some type of ongoing clinical relationship with an MD, before even bringing up the idea of student loan discharge. That's most likely what I'll start working on this year.