If I withdraw, is there a way to delay paying back? Even just for a bit of time?
Also is the amount you pay back per month based on current employment? What if you have no job at the time you break contract?
(I am aware of how silly it is to break if you have no job, but trust me its a weird situation).
Delay payback
Re: Delay payback
You cannot just 'delay' any payback, at least not on your terms. The best you can do is use the current dispute process.
Once you get served notice (and that could take a long while, it took almost a year and a half for me to get my debt letter despite being kicked out for my PhD taking too long only a couple months before the collection process started), you have 30 days to either write them a lump sum to repay, have it be sent to DFAS for gradual repayment OR dispute the validity of the debt with the SMART program.
The repayment notice will include the pages of info on what that would entail, which amounts to writing and submitting a big ass report with whatever evidence/testimonies would be relevant for them to "review" internally [yes, I'm very much cynical of the idea of SMART internally reviewing their own decisions as well...]. Assuming you get that in within the deadline, any collections are put on hold while your case is being reviewed.
They say "30-60 day timeline," but literally no one who has gone through the process formally had anything close to that fast. Some participants in the original collection wave from May 2018 are ***STILL*** waiting to hear back. A couple [literally two] of the most egregious cases of SMART fucking up have resulted in participant debt being forgiven, but that decision will simply come as a bolt from the blue with no warning.
From what people who have consulted lawyers on this have heard, these disputes can often take years even when being 'fast tracked' as the SMART cases supposedly are.
I submitted my review document mid-July and haven't heard anything. I won't be surprised if I don't until well into next year...or it could come in an email tomorrow. There is no way to really know and plan around it.
Once you get served notice (and that could take a long while, it took almost a year and a half for me to get my debt letter despite being kicked out for my PhD taking too long only a couple months before the collection process started), you have 30 days to either write them a lump sum to repay, have it be sent to DFAS for gradual repayment OR dispute the validity of the debt with the SMART program.
The repayment notice will include the pages of info on what that would entail, which amounts to writing and submitting a big ass report with whatever evidence/testimonies would be relevant for them to "review" internally [yes, I'm very much cynical of the idea of SMART internally reviewing their own decisions as well...]. Assuming you get that in within the deadline, any collections are put on hold while your case is being reviewed.
They say "30-60 day timeline," but literally no one who has gone through the process formally had anything close to that fast. Some participants in the original collection wave from May 2018 are ***STILL*** waiting to hear back. A couple [literally two] of the most egregious cases of SMART fucking up have resulted in participant debt being forgiven, but that decision will simply come as a bolt from the blue with no warning.
From what people who have consulted lawyers on this have heard, these disputes can often take years even when being 'fast tracked' as the SMART cases supposedly are.
I submitted my review document mid-July and haven't heard anything. I won't be surprised if I don't until well into next year...or it could come in an email tomorrow. There is no way to really know and plan around it.
Re: Delay payback
Just DMed you