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Federal Updates
Changes to the federal minimum wage impact Federal Work-Study
In just a few weeks, your students with Federal Work-Study (FWS) awards will find a pleasant surprise in their paychecks: a pay raise courtesy of Congress.
TG Updates
Join TG at the 2007 NASFAA Conference
TG presents several sessions at the NASFAA conference including a workshop on the regulatory intricacies of managing graduate and professional student aid and a forum on the various ways you can improve your office's customer service.
TG sponsors Mapping Your Future™ chat event on providing advice for students and families
TG and Mapping Your Future (MYF) will offer a live chat event on July 17, 2007. The event is interactive, allowing students and families to ask questions about careers, college, financial aid, and money management — all from the privacy and convenience of a computer.
Notice: Default Aversion Assistance Request (DAAR) cancellation policy change for lenders
Current TG policy requires lenders to cancel a previously submitted Default Aversion Assistance Request (DAAR) when a borrower brings an account completely current — zero days past due. Effective August 1, 2007, TG is changing this policy and requiring DAAR cancellation notifications when the account is less than thirty days past due.
Meet Ann Derrick, lender partnership consultant
Ann Derrick is a tireless communicator. Up to 70 percent of her time, she's on the road, meeting lender customers, presenting at trade associations, or offering training on TG's many products and services. Her schedule can be demanding even for a professional used to the pace, but Derrick brings to it energy that never flags and a degree of enthusiasm that never fails to impress her many lender customers.
Reminder from TG and Mapping Your Future: New archive policy for Online Student Loan Counseling records
TG and Mapping Your Future (MYF) wish to remind schools that a new archive policy for MYF's Online Student Loan Counseling (OSLC) records will be implemented, effective July 1.
Trends and Issues
Question of the week
I am a lender and one of our borrowers has applied for a Consolidation loan through the Direct Consolidation Loan Program. The Direct Consolidation Loan Program has sent us a Loan Verification Certificate (LVC) to complete and return with information on the borrower's loans. However, the LVC is missing the lender ID number. Per Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) FP-07-07, should we return the LVC to the Direct Consolidation Loan Program with a written explanation that we cannot complete the LVC unless this number is provided?
Common Manual
2007 Common Manual has arrived
The 2007 annual update of the Common Manual is available for download. The update contains all of the policies approved since the 2006 update, including numerous policies derived from the final rules that followed the passage of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA).
Legislative Update
The FY 2008 budget reconciliation process, the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization process, and various "ad hoc" HEA reauthorization bills are moving ahead in both houses of Congress.
On June 20, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reported its budget reconciliation bill — the Higher Education Access Act (HEAA) — and its version of the reauthorization of the HEA — S. 1642, the Higher Education Amendments of 2007.
The HEAA bears some similarity to HR 2669, the House Education and Labor Committee's budget reconciliation bill. Among other things, the HEAA proposes to reduce the lender special allowance by .50 percent (.80 percent for non-auction PLUS loans) for for-profit lenders and .35 percent for nonprofits and small lenders (.65 percent for non-auction PLUS loans); maintain lender reinsurance at 97 percent; repeal the FFELP Exceptional Performer program; increase the lender fee to 1 percent; reduce the FFELP guarantor collections retention from 23 percent to 16 percent (the Account Maintenance Fee is proposed to be paid on a "per loan" basis); repeal the income-contingent and income-sensitive repayment options and replace them with a single "income-based" repayment option for both the FFELP and FDLP; increase the length of student loan deferments from three to six years and expand the program; establish a nationwide pilot auction program for the FFELP PLUS program with two lenders per state; and create a new supplemental Pell Grant called the Promise Grant for Pell recipients with greatest need.
To learn more about this legislation and other education bills being considered by both houses of Congress, read the full Legislative Update report on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/lege_report/index.cfm.
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