There is no gray area with economic hardship deferments. If you are employed you can get an economic hardship deferment if your student loan payment is over 20% of your monthly income.

I owe $680 dollars a month in student loans. I make $3,500 a month. So you see, I make $2400 a year too much to qualify for an economic hardship deferment.

In fact , I would be better off by taking a pay cut for a year.

This much I understand , even though I could rant about cost of living differences and how this much money in Atlanta is nothing! But lets leave that.

I was hospitalized twice this year.

I was actually in an economic hardship deferment from my previous job that was suppose to last to June 2008. I decided to take a class this summer to try to better my situation.

I did not know , nor is it anywhere in any of my paperwork that if you take a class that the half-time deferment takes precedence over the economic hardship deferment.

I got sick during this time and was hospitalized. When I get out of the hospital I started a new job with a little better pay but now my first economic hardship deferment was canceled and I had to start repayment immediately.

After asking for a forbearance to catch my breathe , I had to go back in to the hospital for surgery to fix the original problem.

I get out to , of course, student loan bill.

I just got off the phone with them. The gentleman was extremely nice but there is nothing he can do.

Economic hardship in this case is based on how much I make. Not that I am actually experiencing economic hardship because of being sick.