So I got a new job, yay lots better pay and less responsibility. During the interview was if I could get a job with Federal Government. Been working a couple weeks and got the paper work dropped on me for the Public Trust. Now after doing my research I’m a little concerned. I have student loans in default since 2011, and some other defaulted debt that has been written off from around the same time.
The reason for the debt was because I left school after losing my financial aid due to poor grades. I blame the bad grades on a job I had the next to final semester and most of of the last that had me overworked. Lost that job due to getting on the wrong side of the boss and pointing out things he didn’t think I should have. (First and only job I’ve been fired from, it was horrible.) After I lost that I worked for the school for a couple months but the damage was done and I lost my financial aid and my back up job. After that I had a long period of unemployment until I got the job I had before this.
The loans stayed in default for a couple reasons, new job was paying just over minimum wage when I started. Then my parents house burned down, then my dad got cancer, then he passed away. I spent a lot of my disposable income helping support my parents over the years. Additionally I’ve been chipping away at the loans with a tax offset the last couple years and in my mind that was sufficiently taking care of my obligations. Now I’m realizing that may not be good enough.
I’m willing and able to start on the track to get the loans out of default, but it’ll have to be through loan rehabilitation or consolidation. My question is do you think putting this effort in now will be sufficient? That if I state in my application that I’ve just entered a program to get out of default that it’d show that I’m now willing and able to tackle this debt? Or will the last 8 years of neglect overshadow anything I could do right now to take care this? There shouldn’t be anything else counting against me besides older credit related stuff. My record is clean, I’ve never been in trouble with the law. This job is really the reason why I can finally tackle these loans and I should be able to pay it off in a year or less.
Secondly how long do you think I’ll have if I do get denied? I know it can take a bit to approval but would the deny me in a much shorter time frame once they see the student loans?
Thanks for your time.