Consumer complaint received 2016-07-30
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Having problems with customer service
Company: Performant Financial Corporation (HI)

My social security was offset in XX/XX/XXXX for an outstanding student loan, at a time I was collecting unemployment after a lay-off.from a job. I had just started receiving social security. It was a difficult time, but I kept paying.the offset, even though I never received a letter informing me that I would have a lien in the first place.. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted XXXX XXXX because I was home taking care of my mother after she had a XXXX. Our financial difficulty was so great, that we barely had enough food at the end of the month. XXXX XXXX told me my student loan went to a company called " Performant Corp. '' I called Performant Corp and started working with a gentleman named XXXX, a likable customer service representative, who told me he would help me bring my student loan current, and take my social security lien off within six weeks of my first payment. I waited for forms to fill out my income verification information, but they did not arrive in the mail. What arrived instead, was a threatening letter demanding the full payment of the loan. I was shocked. I called XXXX and he said the forms he sent out were returned in the mail, and to ignore the threatening letter. 

He sent out new income verification forms and I filled them out and sent them to him. When I called him again, he said he got the forms.. He told me my social security lien would be lifted after I started making payments. 

I also told him I never received the full history of my student loan payments and loan origination I requested from him. I only received notice of the payments from my social security lien. He said he would look into it. I never heard from him again. 

I am complaining about the way Performant Corp handled my student loan restructuring. 
I called today to try and find out why XXXX had not communicated with me. I did not get to talk to him. I was told by a representative who answered the phone that my loan was sent to another agency, XXXX. When I called XXXX, the customer representative was very helpful, but did not know why my loan was transferred to her. She told me I needed to start the entire process over with her, although she said she could use the e-mail to send out forms to me, instead of making me wait for the mail. ( We have to drive to the post office which is miles away ). 

I am complaining about the way Performant Corp handled the restructuring of my student loan. They did not follow through with the things they told me they would do to help me bring my student loan current, and they did not communicate with me about transferring me to another agency. 

The lien on my social security should have been removed by now. It is hard to be home with a parent who needs around-the-clock care. It is hard to buy her the supplements she needs and to gas the car up to get her to her doctors appointments and to her physical therapy, when I can not go out and make an income to help us get out of poverty. The financial hardship I tried to remedy has worsened for me. 

For years, I have tried to get more information about this loan. It is very difficult to get answers in writing. I believe this Stafford Loan was eligible for forgiveness because I worked in Title I schools teaching, tutoring, and counseling learning-delayed students for many years. 

I ca n't get answers, No one will give me the payment history that goes back to XX/XX/XXXX when I made payments before I suffered lay-offs. I ca n't get a copy of the original loan, and it keeps climbing to insurmountable levels. 

I just came out of a two-year period of XXXX. Should n't my loan be credited? Should n't debtors receive information from creditors, if creditors are demanding information from them? It does not seem to work that way.