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- Dawn Rose, 53, has $610,000 in student debt after combining balances with her then-husband in 1999.
- They divorced in 2015, but Rose is stuck paying off her ex-husband's debt.
- She's waiting for a law to be implemented that allows for the separation of those loans.
Dawn Rose, 53, has a huge student-debt load. But she says most of it isn't even hers.
After taking out student loans for four semesters of college, Rose said her husband — now ex-husband — was finishing his master's degree, which was also financed by student loans. In 1999, they decided to combine their balances under the idea that it would be a cheaper repayment option for them with just one interest rate. But about eight years later, they had to put their loans in forbearance because of financial difficulties. Interest continued to accumulate on the balance during that time.
Rose and her husband divorced in 2015. At that point, the combined student-debt balance had surged because of the prolonged forbearance period. She asked her divorce lawyer for help separating the balances, but the law at the time prohibited the separation of joint spousal balances. Now Rose is stuck paying off $610,000 in student debt, per documents reviewed by Insider — the majority of which she said belonged to her ex-husband.
Dawn Rose
"I'm trying to rebuild my life and myself, and I have the seven children that I'm supporting and taking care of," Rose told Insider.
"It's been nine years since we divorced, and I'm on track, except for this giant ball and chain that's hanging on to me of this huge student-loan debt," she added. "It's affecting my life, my credit. I can't even get a mortgage because the bank looks at my finances and says my income-to-debt ratio is too high. My portion of the debt is probably 10%, and the rest is his."
To ensure borrowers like Rose aren't stuck paying off debt that doesn't belong to them, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. David Price introduced the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act of 2021 to allow borrowers with spousal loans to separate their balances. It was signed into law last year, and Price told Insider at the time that affected borrowers would "be immediately able to apply for the severance of their loans."
But it's been months, and Rose is still waiting for the law to be implemented. An Education Department spokesperson told Insider it's "working hard to establish a process that provides borrowers with joint consolidation loans the option to separate their loans, if they choose."
On Friday, the department released some new guidance on what borrowers who want to separate their loans can expect. There will be two options to apply for separation — a joint application and a separate application — but the department said the process will not be implemented until late 2024, at the earliest.
The spokesperson added that the department would continue to reach out to borrowers with joint-consolidation loans in the Direct Loan Program to give them an opportunity to tell the department whether they want to separate those loans. That way, those borrowers will be targeted once the process to split loans becomes available.
But the uncertainty keeps Rose in financial limbo as she continues to hold the burden of a huge debt load that isn't all hers.
"I am literally, every two weeks, checking the website to see if there's an application up or emailing and reaching out to people who had something to do with this," Rose said. "I assumed erroneously that when the bill was passed, it would be a month or two for them to get a plan and a system together and application ready."
"It's been very frustrating to know that there's a bill on the books that will help me get away from this and be responsible for my own student debt, which, of course, I will pay it and begin to pay, repay immediately," Rose added. "But there's a law on the books to help, and yet it's not implemented. What good does the law do if it's just sitting there on paper and it's not put into action?"
'This one thing is still holding me stuck to him'
Rose said her ex-husband had not made an effort to repay his portion of the debt. As a result, the balance has remained in forbearance because of her inability to afford payments on her own, she added. While she acknowledged she was an adult at the time she signed paperwork to consolidate their balances, she said there was no way she could have foreseen her divorce and the ballooning debt load she would be responsible for.
"I had no idea that in the long run, it would mean I would be responsible regardless of what happened to him. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that I would end up divorced and doing all of this on my own," Rose said. "And that's nobody's fault. But the law was poorly written, and it's been a huge burden in that it has just stayed with me and this one thing is still holding me stuck to him."
The strict requirements of the law have left many borrowers suffering the consequences of consolidating their balances years prior — even couples who're still married. Insider previously spoke with Kate and Russell Case, a couple who wanted to separate their balances so they could qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments. But to get relief through that program, loans must be consolidated into the federal Direct Loan Program — and doing so requires separating the balances, which this couple was barred from doing.
"If divorce allowed us to separate our loans, we would absolutely divorce and then remarry," Kate Case said. "Because it's crazy to think, essentially, because you're a married couple, you're now being penalized."
For now, all borrowers with spousal loans can do is continue to check studentaid.gov and wait for an update from the Education Department. Sen. Warner told Insider that his office "has been in close contact with the Department of Education because we know that borrowers, especially those who have been victims of domestic violence and economic abuse, are eager to separate their joint loans and move on with their lives."
"With implementation efforts underway, I will continue to urge the department to communicate with affected individuals and move with efficiency to provide the much-needed relief they need," Warner said.
The law's implementation is long overdue, Rose said, and she just wants to be able to move ahead with her life, plan financially for retirement, and no longer be obligated to pay off student debt that was never hers to begin with.
"I don't have any idea of what I'm looking at repaying over the course of my life, and I'm 53, so, you know, I'm looking at retirement in the next 20 years," Rose said. "I really need to be able to plan for getting this paid so this is not something that follows me into retirement."