Last month, the province made it clear that student debt is a problem they are not giving up on.
The provincial Liberals introduced a new government policy, using one of the few tools available to track down people who aren’t paying off their student loans, by linking defaulted debt to driver’s licence renewals.
With about $185 million currently on the books as defaulted and unpaid, there is no doubt that student debt is a problem for the province. But it is a problem for the students as well.
There isn’t a student heading into college or university who doesn’t expect to find a well-paying job waiting for them. In many cases, that is exactly what happens, and their student loans are paid back easily.
For others though, it is not so easy. After four years of university, the job market may have changed and the expected job is no longer there, or entry-level wages are so low it becomes a choice between rent and making student loan payments.
And once the six-month grace period for beginning to repay student loans expires, finding those who aren’t paying can be a costly effort, hence the move to deny driver’s licence renewals to anyone in arrears.
The province has long used the withholding of driving privileges to collect unpaid provincial court fines and traffic tickets, so it is no great leap to see how the same methods could be used in this instance.
The bump in this road of political logic and good intentions, though, is that driving is often necessary to making a living. Denying a driver’s licence isn’t likely to increase anyone’s ability to pay back an outstanding loan.
A better approach would be to find a way to work with defaulters in order to help them meet their obligations, rather than penalizing the disadvantaged further.
–Black Press
