Student Debt Collectible by Social Security

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 - The Supreme
Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the government may withhold Social
Security benefits in order to collect old student loan debts.

At that time, Social Security payments were still off limits for use in
collecting student loan debts. The 1996 law, the Debt Collection Improvement
Act, extended the administrative offset program to student loans, without
mentioning the 10-year time limit or its partial abolition by the 1991 law.

The
plaintiff in this case, James Lockhart, argued that the limit was therefore
still in effect.Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's opinion on Wednesday explained why the court
agreed with the federal government that the limit did not apply.

The decision
in Lockhart v. United States, No. 04-881, upheld a ruling last year by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco