A student loan discharge program meant to erase student debts for those with significant and permanent disabilities is only helping a fraction of targeted borrowers, writes Cory Turner for the NPR.

The program targets borrowers such as Drew Lehman of Lansdale, who could no longer work following a traumatic car accident.

So far, only 28 percent of the hundreds of thousands of borrowers identified by the U.S. Education Department have had their loans erased or are on track for this.

As a result, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Education Department Acting Inspector General Sandra D. Bruce.

In it they expressed their concern over “the Department of Education’s process to discharge federal student loans for totally and permanently disabled Americans, including veterans.”

The process begins by sending a letter to identified eligible borrowers. Borrowers have to respond before applying to have their debt erased.

“A lot of folks have disabilities that, frankly, prevent them from going through the process,” says Persis Yu of the National Consumer Law Center.

Read more about the issue at the NPR by clicking here.

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