Getting relief from burden of student loans when ill
Easing financial stress during treatment an important part of healing process
Andrea Zwarich hopes to soon return to the “heart work” she refused to give up in exchange for relief from her monthly student loan obligation when she was off work while fighting cancer.
Before she qualified for the student loan repayment assistance plan as someone with a permanent disability, the stress of her strained finances kept her up at night. She wants others to know that it’s possible to get some relief from student loans if they are faced with a cancer diagnosis or other unexpected medical situation.
Zwarich was diagnosed in March 2015 with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer that also affects the marrow and leads to fractures. By the time she was diagnosed, she had sustained multiple rib fractures.
She had to go on leave from her job providing equine therapy to youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
In 2016, she was raising her son Joshua alone. Her housing costs had doubled as a result of a relationship breakup.
Her monthly income through insurance and work benefits was about $3,000, but housing cost $1,400 and her student loan repayment cost $500, leaving her stretched to cover other living expenses.
At the same time, she also wanted to continue to provide Joshua with opportunities to take part in the activities he enjoyed.
“It was so important to me to continue giving my son the same stability of life that he’s always known because ... my background is social work, so I knew the best predictors for him to be solid in high school is to continue to do things like gymnastics and for us to keep our horses, and I didn’t want to just lose everything,” she said.
She sought relief under the student loan repayment plan, but that was before the rules were revised. Zwarich learned that if she were to get relief, it would be in exchange for not returning to work, which would have been an emotional setback.
“I did not want to do that. I thought I wasn’t going to allow them to take away hope if I was to fight for my life,” she said.
The cancer returned while she was working on her master’s degree. When she was taken off immunosuppressants, donor cells transplanted from her sister started to “kick in,” she said.
Zwarich tried to return to work early, realizing she couldn’t afford her expenses otherwise.
“When they talk about financial toxicities for cancer patients, the impact’s real. You’re not only losing sleep thinking about the cancer-related fatigues, the treatments, ‘Am I going to live another few years?’ I’ve now made it past the prognostic factor of two- to four-year survival rate,” she said.
In late 2016, the rules governing the student loan program had changed, unbeknownst to her. She said none of the banks or financial advisers she spoke with told her about the rule changes. She found out in 2017, two years into what would be a four-year cancer battle.
The federal repayment assistance plan allows successful applicants to have their monthly repayment amount reduced or eliminated entirely.
Relief is also available specifically for people with permanent disabilities, who can also apply to the federal student loans program to have their student loans cancelled. They must be able to show that they have a disability that will prevent them from continuing their studies or from working.
Since Zwarich was accepted under the repayment plan for people with permanent disabilities, she doesn’t have to make monthly payments and likely won’t until she returns to work. Having relief from the repayments allowed her to “screen through” which of her symptoms were related to treatment and not stress, she said. She could focus on recovery.
The financial stresses faced by cancer patients and families vary and can include expenses for transportation to appointments and prescriptions for other, unrelated health conditions.
Martie Davies, interim site manager of supportive care with the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, said sources of financial stress also vary by the patient’s age group.
“It’s sort of balled into a giant mess, depending on what your circumstances are,” she said.
Parents of pediatric cancer patients may lose income because of time taken off work to provide additional care and supports for their child.
A young adult in post-secondary education may already have financial burdens related to school; adults in the workforce may lack savings or benefits through work plans, and may be single-income earners or self-employed. Retirees without sources of income apart from old-age security benefits would also be financially strapped, Davies noted.
The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency tries to help patients who need to apply to the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability program or to the Kinsman Foundation for financial help.
The agency has patient lodges in Saskatoon and Regina with low-cost accommodations ($40 per person), as well as its patient comfort fund, which helps with short-term needs.
Davies said the agency knows some people ask to return to work before they may be ready. In some cases, insurance companies want a patient to return to work before they’re ready, she said.
“And that’s because those insurance companies don’t want to keep paying that person. We kind of see all kinds of, I guess, untoward events in terms of that piece of it and just a general lack of understanding that people’s recovery really is post-cancer care, of course depending on diagnosis and treatment.”
Zwarich said she is regaining her physical strength through physiotherapy and is now in the process of looking into returning to work.
“It’s definitely a part of me I didn’t want to lose, and I’m just really grateful to have my heart back.”
It was so important to me to continue giving my son the same stability of life that he’s always known ... I didn’t want to just lose everything.