What's Happening to BC's Student Loan Repayment Programs?

 
As described in A Painful Lesson, programs to assist low-income BC students before and after graduation were hit hard soon after the recent BC election.   
 
Some people are asking why they didn't hear the cuts were coming -- or what will now be left.
 
This is what Debt 101 is hearing from officials:
 
One official states that the BC Debt Reduction Program, Interest Relief and the Permanent Disability Beneft were all slated to end July 31 in order to be replaced by BC's version of a new Canada Student Loans program known as RAP.
 
RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan) allows low-income grads to adjust their monthly payments according to income. At writing, it seems that the plan to shift into RAP is over for the foreseeable future. In that case, only Interest Relief and career-selective loan forgiveness programs would remain for BC Student Loans, due to budget cuts.
 
The BC cuts were hasty and disorderly compared to the long-scheduled Canada Student Loans switch to RAP, slated for August 1, 2009. One BC official now predicts that BC Student Loans may not adopt RAP until 2011.