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BC Student Loan Aid Cuts: A Painful Lesson
BC students got a painful lesson in recent weeks.
Even while their award, bursary and loan repayment aid programs were still posted on BC government websites, many students and grads who applied this year were shocked to open letters stating that their program was gone.
The cuts were apparently made quietly in June, after the BC government won re-election and announced that the economy was in worse shape than it had thought. There seemed no hint that student aid cuts were coming. Students applied as directed, then got their bad-news letters.
Students graduating in the following educational or training programs had thought when they began training that they would get advertised student loan reduction grants or repayment assistance. Instead, the government retroactively cut off their eligibility:
Residential Care Aides
Home Support Workers
Early Childhood Educators
The care aides and home support students were informed in letters that loan reduction would only go to students who had graduated on or before March 31, 2009.
At writing, Debt 101 lacks details about the letters going to Early Childhood Educators, but their loan assistance program is declared to be cancelled.
Health care students lost their bursaries, but have kept their Loan Assistance programs for now.
No awards will be given to the high-achieving high school students who would normally receive the Premier's Excellence Awards.
At least one program was cut so suddenly that applications being processed were stopped mid-way. This was the BC Debt Reduction in Repayment (DRR) Program. The same may have been true for others, including the Permanent Disability Benefit Program (now reinstated until July 31).
Low-income grads who struggled to stay in good standing for the minimum five years required before Debt Reduction must have been shocked to have their applications turned back even though no end-date was posted for the program.
So what's next for BC Student Loan repayment aid?
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Low-income grads with Permanent Disabilities will also share the pain.
BC's Permanent Disability Benefits Program (PDP) had been slated to end July 31,2009. At writing, some t StudentAid BC call centre staff are telling people that program is over, but officials have said that they'll take applications through the original July 31 deadline.
For details, click here.
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These are the BC student aid programs that were cut:
Premier's Excellence Award
Permanent Disability Benefits Program (after July 31)
Debt Reduction in Repayment
B.C. Loan Reduction for Residential Care Aide and Home Support Worker Programs
Health Care Bursaries
Early Childhood Educator Loan Assistance Program
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Take-Home Lesson from the 2009 BC Student Aid Cuts
If you're a student, know that the student aid program illustrated by smiling students in pamphlets and websites is not guaranteed to be there for you. It can vanish without a word of warning -- or even retroactively.
So study what you really want, not what's being advertised to come with freebies. And keep your debt as low as you can, just in case.
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