Consumer Reports: How Seniors Crushed by Old Student Loans Can Get Relief (12/21/2016) Many seniors are being pushed into poverty due to old student loans. An increasing amount of seniors are having their Social Security income garnished by the government to pay off student debt. Justice in Aging’s Kate Lang says that “this is something that was not common till recently. The rising cost of higher education means that the debt itself is much larger and it’s much more difficult to pay it off over time. What’s really troubling is that there will be more and more people in this situation.” The number of seniors affected is expected to rise as baby boomers retire.