When Lorna Appleby herniated a disc while lifting heavy boxes of paperwork on the job, she was left with debilitating pain from permanent nerve damage in her lower back. She is unable to walk for long periods of time because of the weakness of her left leg. No longer able to work, one comfort was Canada's multiple programs that would financially assist her with her disability—or so she thought.

After a legal battle with her insurance company, Appleby won a settlement that allowed her to purchase a small trailer. She qualified for the BC Disability Benefit and things seemed to be under control. But then interest relief on her student loan—which defers debt without interest for borrowers who are unable to make payments—ran out without warning. Because her student loans were from before 2000, she was denied help from the Canada Student Loan Permanent Disability Benefit and told to pay up, with interest.

Now Appleby is spending $66 per month on student loan payments, $54 of which is interest. Considering that her income from BC Disability is $736 per month, she cannot afford to pay more. That means she is paying interest to the federal government program with money from a provincial program. At this rate, she expects to be making student loan payments for another 10 to 12 years.

NOTE: See Erin Millar's blog for more

"I don't expect anyone to pay off my debt," Appleby said, "but I don't think it is unreasonable to ask that my debt be put on interest relief until I am in a position that I can pay it back without extreme financial hardship."

Appleby is only one of thousands of applicants who were denied the Canada Student Loan (CSL) Permanent Disability Benefit since January 2005. In fact, only one third of the applicants received full or partial support, according to documents obtained by a freedom of information request. However, just why such a large number of applicants are being declined is unclear.

"The program is only there to show that the government is compassionate on the surface," said Julian Benedict, co-founder of the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness, whose organization obtained the information. "If the program was sincere, more people would be approved. Most people know the income requirements. So why are they applying if they know they won't be approved?" Benedict has since filed a further request asking for the reasons behind the rejections.

Why the rejection rate is so high is indeed a valid question. True, the program is only available to those who borrowed after 2000. But surely not two thirds of the applicants have loans from before 2000. The program website shows that applications are evaluated according to two criteria: the applicant must have a permanent disability and financial need. There is a clear chart showing the financial requirements, so one would assume the majority of applicants had checked that they were qualified before going through the trouble of applying. However, the definition used to determine whether the applicant has a permanent disability is not obtainable.

Margaret Birrel, spokesperson for the BC Coalition for People with Disabilities, believes that the criteria the program is using to define a permanent disability must be overly rigid. "Why are they not using the definitions already there?" she asked, pointing out that many of the applicants have already qualified for provincial disability benefits. Birrel explained how her organization lobbied for six years to change the provincial definition to include a number of permanent disabilities that it did not previously cover, including mental illness. She suspects that a similar problem may be occurring.

"It takes a lot of work to convince politicians to create a program like [the student loan disability program]," Birrel said. "When it is not effective because of the bureaucracy, it is very frustrating because it is against the political will that created the program in the first place."

"In some types of cases that we've had, that the criteria is clear, but people's lives are not always simple," said MP Denise Savoie, education critic for the NDP. Savoie's constituency office has dealt with a number of cases like Appleby's. Because there is no appeal mechanism for the disability benefit, student loan borrowers are turning to their MPs. Savoie pointed out that the inflexibility of the system disqualifies many people who genuinely need help.

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