I had my hearing last month for my clearance. My attorney drafted up my sor answers but the doha counsel rejected it and said i had to do a hearing regardless. I turned in receipts where i paid off all old debt and my sor answers and character letters. It probably didn’t help that my AJ changed at the last minute and so did the doha department counsel attorney. My questions is, i have a current borrowers defense case still pending since Jan. of 2020(which was suggested by the department of ed) and i am in a class a suit with other student loan borrowers which was not my choice. So how was i suppose to mitigate the student debt. I recently did a student loan debt repayment plan again after the first 3 failed because Navient collections said they didn’t get the paper work. Second question when I asked The Edmund law firm they gave me a rundown but, they said kiss my clearance good bye because I didn’t have a lawyer and they asked who my AJ and Doha Counsel were and they said definitely kiss it goodbye cause that was a good Doha Counsel attorney and they are sure he chewed me up. I could no longer afford my attorney because he asked for a extra 5 grand to speak at the hearing.
So what could i have done better besides never getting a degree. I lost my job back in 2014 and have been trying to get out of default since, but the DOD isn’t hearing it. I have also held a clearance since 2010 and started paying my loans in 2010 until 2014 when I became unemployed for 6 months then went through the collections and had wage garnishments and tax offset to pay the loans.
Navient recently “settled” or were forced to settle with many “default” accounts because of their shady collection and management practices so you probably are in a better position there than previously. Also, I believe any loans that are in abeyance or deference due to a defense of borrower’s action are also not going to be a problem. If you are actually considered in active default currently that could be a problem. Student loan debt, in general, if not in an active default state is not problematic. I owe over six figures on my student loans and I have a clearance. Never been in default on them, though.
Those accounts were for private loans but either way the DOD still wants its contractors to pay regardless of whats going on with Navient. They view borrower’s defense as escaping debt.
I don’t think they care about this being “escaping debt” since the Public Service Student Loan Program is legitimately acceptable and it is a way to “escape” debt. The problem, I believe, is that these defense in borrowing claims so far have required people to be in default for payments on those loans to qualify. Defaulting on any debt is viewed quite negatively for multiple reasons including, but not necessarily limited to, increased risk of being “recruited” to sell government secrets in order to pay off one’s debt, a lack of character in terms of keeping commitments, poor judgment that led to more debt than can be paid back, etc. (Please note that I am not judging anyone by these statements. I am just listing some of the “justifications,” as I understand them, for why student loans in default are a problem for the government when adjudicating someone’s application for a clearance.)