What is Interest Relief?
• Interest Relief is a reprieve from making payments on government loans for increments of six-months. The loan is treated as though the student is in full-time studies—that is, the government pays the interest and the principle is frozen. Any student who cannot make payments because of unemployment or underemployment can apply, but he or she must be living in Canada. • It is the students responsibility to notify lenders if repayment requirements cannot be met. If the student fails to make loan payments, the loan will go into default. • Default means that a payment is more than 90 days overdue. At this point, the lender and/or the federal government will take steps to recover the debt. If the loan continues to be in arrears, the student will be reported or their loan sold to a collections agency. Any future application for loan funding will likely be denied.
