University In California Seizing Tax Refund 12 years after Graduation

UC Davis is a first party/OC so they are not bound by the FDCPA. School debts, particularly public schools have no SOL either.

Did you take a Perkins Loans out?

I would suggest calling...writing wont get you a response.

Hello and thank you for your response. It turns out it was a reduction in Pell Grant (that I had no knowledge of!). UCD claims they billed me and then turned the item over for collections. I never received any notices. UCD says that the collection agency wrote the debt off as a "bad debt," around 2001, which is when I was forced to file for bankruptcy due to a disability. UCD claims they didn't have a current address for me, but I'm a lifetime Alumni Association member, plus I paid for and had them mail me my diploma in 2005, so obviously I wasn't hiding from them. Also, I've actually DONATED more money to the school than they removed from my tax return. The letter they sent reiterated that I shouldn't have received my diploma or any transcripts with a balance owed. I still can't help but feel that after 12 years, UCD is looking for ways to balance their current budget.

Nice job of reminding me of an amazingly difficult time in my life and souring a relationship with a lifetime alumni, now former benefactor.

I'm still waiting for a copy of the full accounting, because I just have such a hard time believing that this is happening 12 years later!

Thanks again for the response.

Yeah, have heard of this happening before. However Alumni data bases are not usually accessable to everyone....when I worked financial aid, we did not have access to it nor did our collection department. When it comes to Pell grant over payments, they have to be collected...the Department of Education will charge the school back for the over payment and with UCD being a state school, they in turn must do whatever they can do to collect.

THEY (Government) should put a Statute of Limitations on student loans these days. Student loans are so much higher now and jobs don't pay much more than they did 10 or 20 years ago. If these loans are going to capitalize interest as much as they do and schools are going to charge so much more than they ever have in history there should be a limit put in place concerning these indefinite payment periods. I think you should add to that phone call a letter to the senate and whoever else would be appropriate to write to concerning this. I know your situation is from 12 years ago but this just proves to me that these loan programs can make the rules up as they go along, which means they can do what they want when they want. Maybe there's a petition somewhere you should be getting involved with relating to this matter as well. If not, one should be started. It sounds like to me once you have a student loan it can be reclaimed as some portion of that loan not being paid at any given time with no explanation owed or even real traceable evidence of it being actually true. This sounds like a case of too many liberties that can be taken, which I think happens more often than anyone would like to admit.

Is it fair that people pay their loans on time and that others get out of it by an SOL? No....there will never be and should never be an SOL on loans. The DOE set up the Direct Loan Program with affordable payments and after 25 years in repayment, your loan balance is written off. Do you know any lender that will do that.

Only 25 years eh... how generous.

Post secondary education is not a right and nobody is forced to go. Nobody makes you borrow and with borrowing come responsibilities. Try telling your mortgage company you want an SOL.

I didn't mean to make you cry. You get upset really easily don't you?

See this is what I mean. You're generalizing. My point is if ALL education is going to be Sooooooooo expensive then there should be a limit put in place. Of course not as strict of a limit like they put on credit cards per-state put some kind of limit by the Gov. If not then there should be a much stricter regulation on what you can get a loan for because of all the Bogus fields that there are educational programs out there and the money that it cost's for that program should equal the potential of what a person can make when they get out in that field after they graduate. Why go to college for 4 years to become a teacher when you can't make enough to potentially pay off the loans you got for your education with in a reasonable time? Why even go to college for a technical field that's going to disappear in 5 years. This is what I'm getting at. Limitations. If not an SOL across the board then a limit on loans all together on what programs should have them. Then these programs would be forced to charge what ever someone could afford out of pocket.