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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Lynne Hughes lost her mom at 9 and her dad at 11.</li><li>Now, she runs a bereavement camp, serving hundreds of kids each year.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lynne Hughes, founder and CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://comfortzonecamp.org/">Comfort Zone Camp</a>. It has been edited for length and clarity.When I was 9, my three brothers and I were watching our parents <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-made-new-friends-playing-tennis-we-talk-everyday-2023-8">play tennis</a> near our Michigan home. It was nothing out of the ordinary until my mom pulled a muscle. She came hobbling off the court, and my dad offered to take her to the hospital, but she said it wasn't necessary. She called her doctor, who told her to ice and elevate her leg.A few days later, I woke up to my dad calling my mom's name in the bedroom next to mine. She had died in her sleep from a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/conditions-symptoms/how-to-get-rid-of-blood-clots">blood clot</a>. It almost never happens, but it happened in my family.After that, my family life became chaotic. Instead of coming together in grief, it was every man and child for themselves. My dad was racked with guilt, so he turned to alcohol for comfort. He quickly remarried, but soon after that, he died from a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-signs-of-heart-failure-from-nurse-who-missed-arrhythmia-2022-12">massive heart attack</a>.<h2 id="4c3575ad-8e2f-4122-81ca-0f5a97c6e809">My family fractured, but at summer camp I felt normal</h2>That happened the day before I was set to start <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-junior-high-teacher-pay-cut-hit-student-anime-name-2024-3">junior high</a>. Despite being newly orphaned at 11, I went to school the next day. I didn't want to be known as the girl with no parents.My siblings and I didn't support each other. Although we had all experienced the same thing, we pulled away and processed it differently. It felt like survival of the fittest.One place where I could escape from my difficult home life was at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-parents-try-to-get-their-kids-into-summer-camps-2023-1">summer camp</a>. There, I existed in a bubble. I didn't need to think about the parents I'd lost or the stepmom I was now forced to live with. I could just be a kid.<h2 id="a8bf670d-2c7c-4d65-9f20-819bb387a5c9">I worked on my own grief and volunteered with others</h2>Like lots of people who experience loss, I was stuck on the question of "why?" As a kid, I became convinced that my parents had died for a reason and that I was special. I knew I had to do something with my life because I felt this deep sense of purpose.I met my husband at camp and started a normal-ish, happy life. I did a lot of work to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/stages-of-grief">process my own grief</a>, and I worked in hospice to help others with theirs. I started volunteering for a group of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hopeedelman.com/">motherless daughters</a> after the book by the same name came out.At one of our first events, there were about 45 women. One of them, Barbara, was in her 70s. She had been carrying her grief for 60 years and had never talked about it. The youngest woman that day was a 14-year-old who had just lost her mom.I started to think: what if we could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mom-shares-how-support-kids-grieve-a-dead-family-member-2022-7">catch kids early in their grief</a> process and give them coping tools so the ripples of their loss don't continue to shape their lives?<h2 id="3902487f-def1-48a1-81a5-40e493638005">Kids don't process grief the way adults do</h2>For years, I ruminated on the idea of a camp for bereaved kids. Then, finally, I was ready to do it. <a target="_blank" href="https://comfortzonecamp.org/">Comfort Zone Camp</a> started in 1999 near my home in Virginia. Twenty-five years later, we operate in nine states and served more than 1,300 kids last year.Kids don't sit with their grief the way adults do. They move close to it, then back away. They can go from crying one second to laughing and being silly almost instantly. They're able to compartmentalize.So, that's the approach we take at camp. We do intense therapeutic work in healing circles but intersperse that with all the typical camp activities: ropes courses, bonfires, and sports. There's a lesson in all of it, though. After the ropes course we talk about grief obstacles and trusting people to help you through. During the bonfire, we have a somber moment when kids can burn notes to the loved ones they lost.Lots of first-timers are worried that camp will be sad and heavy. We start with games and fun, and you can practically feel the relief. After that, kids are eager to share their stories of loss. They heal by sharing and by listening to others.<h2 id="ca19c9e1-2745-4195-b4b0-401893f7c423">Silly but meaningful interactions go a long way</h2>My favorite part of camp comes at the end: our closing memorial service. Funerals are often for adults, not kids. So, with this ceremony, we give kids the chance to memorialize their loved ones in a way that resonates with them. It's like a talent show, all done in honor of the person they lost.The acts might be a child singing for their mom, who loved music, or tossing a football with their friend because dad loved to play.Recently, one of my groups of 9- and 10-year-olds came up with a skit about "Grief-fil-A." It's better than Chick-fil-A, they said, because it's open even on Sundays. They acted out ordering grief, with a side of coping skills, like talking with a friend or journaling. The whole thing was so silly but meaningful — the exact recipe for helping kids process loss.

I became an orphan at age 12. Now, I run a summer camp for kids like me.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A group of student-loan borrowers who attended boot camp Prehired are getting $30 million in debt relief.</li><li>The CFPB sued Prehired over the summer, accusing it of offering "illegal" income-share agreements.</li></ul>More student-debt relief is on the way for a group of borrowers who attended a tech boot camp.On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — in partnership with 11 states — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-11-states-order-prehired-to-provide-students-more-than-30-million-in-relief-for-illegal-student-lending-practices/">announced</a> a federal court order requiring boot camp Prehired to provide over $30 million in debt relief to student-loan borrowers who entered income-share agreements with the company.The CFPB and the states <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cfpb-states-sue-prehired-predatory-student-debt-tech-bootcamp-isa-2023-7">sued Prehired in July over claims that it "misrepresented" the nature of the income-share agreements</a> it made with students who enrolled in the 12-week online training program. ISAs typically require a borrower to pledge a certain amount of their income to the lender in exchange for funds to pay for their education, but the CFPB said the nature of those agreements were "illegal" and did not properly disclose its cost to borrowers."Prehired lured student borrowers into debt with false promises of job placements and claims that students wouldn't have to pay until they got a job," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. "Today's action with our state partners ensures that borrowers harmed by Prehired can receive redress and have their illegal loans canceled."According to the CFPB, Prehired falsely marketed the ISAs by saying a borrower would not have to repay the loan until they received a job placement with a yearly salary over $60,000, when the terms required graduates to pay the loan back regardless of employment.Monday's <a target="_blank" href="https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_prehired-stipulated-judgment_2023-11.pdf">court order</a> requires Prehired to refund $4.2 million to borrowers who made payments on ISAs between May 2019 and March 2023, along with canceling all outstanding ISAs — valued at around $27 million. The judgment also permanently bans Prehired from offering ISAs in the future.Borrowers who believe they qualify for a payment because they signed an ISA with Prehired <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.www.prehiredclaims.com/">should email</a> info@PreHiredClaims.com to confirm the CFPB has their information on file.Prehired did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Monday's announcement.The CFPB's initial complaint also said that Prehired filed more than 280 lawsuits in 2022 demanding former students who defaulted on their loans pay the company $25,000 each. Prehired ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2022, and while those lawsuits have since been dropped, Prehired said in its bankruptcy filing that it "believed that in these lawsuits, it acted in the defaulted members' best interests, as well as Prehired's, because it reduced the amount owed on the ISAs from $30,000.00 to $25,000.00, and the members could participate in the proceedings virtually."This was not the only legal challenge Prehired has faced over the past few years. In May 2022, the Delaware's Justice Department launched an investigation into the company, and Washington's attorney general filed a lawsuit the same year accusing it of deceptive practices.

A group of student-loan borrowers are getting $30 million in debt relief after a tech boot camp offered them 'illegal' payment plans, a federal watchdog says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Advocates are planning to camp out at the Supreme Court the night before the student debt arguments.</li><li>One leader of the event told Insider it's important "the justices look into the eyes of borrowers" as they hear the cases.</li></ul>Advocates want to pack the court — with student-loan borrowers.In just over a week, Supreme Court justices <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-is-supreme-court-hearing-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-february-2022-12">will weigh</a> whether President Joe Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers is legal. It's been a tumultuous lead-up for millions of borrowers — since the online application for the relief opened in October, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-student-loan-borrowers-could-have-gotten-relief-map-2023-1">26 million borrowers applied</a> with the expectation that, if approved, their balances would be reduced.But weeks after the online form was launched, two conservative-backed lawsuits <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lawsuits-delay-biden-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-where-they-stand-2022-10">paused the relief's implementation</a>, leaving the fate of the relief at the hands of the Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide whether the president's route for relief is legal.To Democratic lawmakers and advocates, the answer is clear: the relief is legal and should be upheld. And they're making sure the Supreme Court justices hear — and see — them."I think that when people see who is impacted, if they themselves are not, they start to understand that this is about fairness and this is about opportunity, and not ruining someone's life with decades of unpayable debt just because you're trying to earn an education," Max Lubin, CEO and co-founder of Rise — a student and youth-led nonprofit working to make higher education free — told Insider."In these kinds of DC fights, oftentimes real impacted Americans, real people are not considered and not present, and they are ignored by either elected, or in this case, appointed decision makers," Lubin said. "So we're showing up up in full force."Lubin said that his organization alone is planning to bring out around 100 college students from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — all swing states — to the Supreme Court to participate in a rally led by a coalition of groups, including the Student Borrower Protection Center, NAACP, Student Debt Crisis Center, and Young Invincibles, outside the Court on February 28, the day of the arguments. His group is also camping out overnight to ensure students and borrowers can get a seat in the courtroom.Melissa Byrne, executive director of We The 45 Million, a campaign of borrowers working to win student-debt cancellation, is leading Supreme Court rallies as well, both the day of the arguments and the night before. "We're going to have fun with it in the evening, starting at 6pm," Byrne told Insider. "With a brass band, mariachi, acapella, people telling their stories, pizza and just to really show and demonstrate that borrowers are just like your neighbors, and that this relief is helping out your communities around the country."And Byrne said it's especially important to bring out borrowers in light of the staunch opposition to Biden's debt relief. Over the past few weeks, dozens of conservative organizations, former lawmakers, and even former GOP education secretaries <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/block-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-conservative-groups-tell-supreme-court-2023-2">have filed amicus curiae briefs</a> to the Supreme Court saying that broad student-loan forgiveness is illegal and should be struck down. Republican lawmakers have been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-lawmakers-rescind-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-repayment-biden-2023-2">arguing</a> that relief at the scale Biden proposed should require Congressional approval, but Biden's administration has stood by its authority to use the HEROES Act of 2003 to cancel debt, which gives the Education Secretary the ability to waive or modify balances in connection with a national emergency, and it's expressed confidence the Supreme Court will rule in its favor.Advocates hope the same."I wanted to make sure that the justices look into the eyes of borrowers while they're doing the hearing," Byrne said, adding that "our actions will show that the people with debt are just regular people from around the country." <h2>"We're going to move forward and stay in this fight"</h2>The Supreme Court will be taking on two lawsuits that blocked Biden's debt relief. One was filed by two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of debt relief. Another was filed by six GOP-led states who argued the relief would hurt their states' tax revenues, along with the revenue of student-loan company MOHELA.The White House has made clear that it believes the lawsuits are "meritless," and it said it is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-doesnt-have-backup-plan-for-student-loan-forgiveness-2023-1">not deliberating a backup plan</a> for the relief right now because it's confident in the legality of Biden's relief. Lubin agreed that it's "premature" at this point to be considering alternative scenarios, but he added that "it's important to be prepared for every scenario.""We know that we're going to move forward and and stay in this fight, irrespective of what the court decides to do," Lubin said. Still, some borrowers are nervous of what would come next if the Supreme Court strikes down the relief, especially because student-loan payments <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-payment-pause-extended-6-months-supreme-court-2022-11">are set to resume</a> 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the lawsuits are resolved, whichever happens first. One borrower <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-if-student-loan-payments-resume-without-debt-relief-2022-12">previously told Insider</a> that he's worried "the White House is so desperate to restart payments and get back to normal that they've forgotten that 'normal' is a decades-long debt sentence; either way, it will be an excuse to say they'd done all the can."But getting through oral arguments is first on the agenda — and the White House is confident it'll go their way."It's simple: our Administration is confident that our student debt relief program is fully legal," Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1619455278688133123" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on Twitter. "And we're not backing down that easy."

Student-loan borrowers are gearing up to camp overnight outside the Supreme Court ahead of arguments on Biden's debt relief to 'make sure that the justices look into the eyes of borrowers'

<ul><li>The Delhi government launched a custom Google Map to help residents locate <keyword id="8979341" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hunger-relief-centers">hunger relief centers</keyword> across the city.</li><li>Lunch will be served between 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm and dinner between 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm every day. </li><li>Since many people who really need this service may not necessarily own a phone or be familiar with <keyword id="97416" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-maps">Google Maps</keyword>, it’s recommended that you either guide them through the process.</li></ul>Delhi has a large number of migrant workers and slum dwellers who are facing troubled times as the city is under lockdown leaving them without a job, shelter or a way to go home. To help them, the Delhi government launched a custom Google Maps platform where people can find hunger relief centres spread across the city — many of which are schools that have been turned into shelters for the needy. 
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 According to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, over 500 such relief camps have been set up to help those without a place to go and no supplies to tide them through the lockdown. Each municipality should, on average, have at least two shelters. 
	<div type="twitter" handle="AamAadmiParty" handlename="AAP" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/928455612014280704/Xb5vG_TP_normal.jpg" favoritecount="411" retweetcount="207" status="Help anyone who is hungry and cannot buy food. Delhi Govt is providing free food to all the needy people. Share wi… https://t.co/JOgGl3TOeq" createdat="1585464834000" id="1244155807182114818"></div>



 The relief centers will serve lunch between 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm and dinner between 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm every day. Even though everyone is welcome, social distancing will be strictly followed within the shelters under the watchful eye of a nodal officer appointed by the district magistrate. Since many of the people who really need this service may not necessarily own a phone or be familiar with Google Maps, it’s recommended that you either guide them through the process. How to use Delhi’s Google Map of hunger relief centers Anyone can access the map either from their laptop or mobile phones by clicking on the link shared by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or navigating through the window above. You can zoom in and zoom out of the map the map to find your locality and the relief centers close by. The blue pins indicated schools that have been turned into shelters and the red pins are the government-owned camps. Clicking on a pin will reveal the address of a particular shelter. Once you’ve selected the relief center, since its a Google Map, you can also click on directions to see the best possible route to reach a particular camp. The entire list of shelters can also be found if you tap on #DelhiHungerReliefCentre on your mobile. Tapping the arrow next to shelter homes and school list will display all the respective options. On the desktop, the tab will already be open on the left. See also: <a href="http://businessinsider.in/tech/news/in-tamil-nadu-humanoid-robots-are-set-to-work-with-coronavirus-patients-in-quarantine/articleshow/74884135.cms">In Tamil Nadu, humanoid robots are set to work with Coronavirus patients in quarantine</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/how-pollution-levels-across-europe-are-dropping-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown/articleshow/74882117.cms">Satellite images show how pollution levels across Europe are dropping during the Coronavirus lockdown</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/coronavirus-lockdown-in-india-see-animals-return-to-the-streets-but-the-malabar-civet-is-not-one-of-them/articleshow/74875643.cms">Coronavirus lockdown in India lets animals return to the streets — but the Malabar Civet is not one of them</a>

Custom Google Maps in Delhi lead the way to relief centres with shelter and food

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Anne, 46, received notice in June that her loans were forgiven thanks to her years of public service.</li><li>But in late February, MOHELA told her the relief was an error, and her balance was reinstated.</li></ul>Anne breathed a sigh of relief in June when she received the notice she waited years for: her nearly $200,000 student-loan balance was forgiven.After making payments since 2010 through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments, Anne, 46 — who requested her last name be withheld for privacy — said she was "ecstatic" to see her balance wiped out."I actually didn't believe it. I kept saying, 'I can't believe this happened. I really can't believe this is true," Anne told Business Insider. "I was crying, I was tearful, because it worked. It just felt like I did the right thing."Upon receiving confirmation of the loan forgiveness, Anne said she started putting money aside for retirement — something she couldn't afford while paying for her kids' parochial school."I'd been ignoring my own future, so with the relief, I was able to put more into retirement, and I started making plans for my kids, for their future schooling," Anne said. She works in education at a nonprofit organization.But all those plans got crushed when Anne received a letter from her student-loan servicer, MOHELA, in late February informing her that her loans were forgiven in error. She's again on the hook for payments, and her $192,000 debt load was reinstated."We recognize you currently participate in the PSLF Program. However, you have not yet achieved the 120 qualifying payments required for this loan forgiveness," MOHELA's letter to Anne, reviewed by BI, said. "Your account has been corrected and updated as explained below. We sincerely apologize for any confusion these errors may have caused."According to MOHELA's letter, the company applied an incorrect end date to Anne's public service employment history, resulting in an incorrect number of qualifying payments toward PSLF.MOHELA did not respond to a request for comment from BI on this issue, and an Education Department spokesperson <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mohela-reversing-student-loan-forgiveness-payments-reinstated-pslf-borrowers-forbearance-2024-2">previously told BI</a> that "the Department will not stand for egregious servicer errors that have harmed borrowers and perpetuated problems in the broken student loan system."Anne isn't sure what to do next, but she knows she'll have to "cut things out" of her budget to afford payments again."My kids were going to do summer camp. I was going to study for the bar exam. So I might have to put that off because I don't think I'll have money to pay for the course," she said. "I'm very upset. I'm not going to be able to buy a new car. My whole world has been flipped over in a matter of a week."<h2>'I would've done things differently had I known'</h2>Anne's student debt comes from her teaching and law degrees, and she said that since she started consistently paying off her loans in 2010, she ensured her jobs were eligible for PSLF. She currently works for a qualifying nonprofit employer, but with her student loans reinstated, her timeline to move to a better-paying career is delayed."We're lucky that we still have jobs. We're lucky that we can pay our bills and we can do what we do. But I don't wish this upon anybody, and I really feel bad for the people who are really much more cash-strapped than I am," Anne said."I was hoping things would get better for my kids; not harder," she said.BI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mohela-reversing-student-loan-forgiveness-payments-reinstated-pslf-borrowers-forbearance-2024-2">previously spoke to another borrower</a>, Okwara, who MOHELA told that the loan forgiveness he received last year was a mistake. While the Education Department and MOHELA did not confirm the number of borrowers who received that notice, Okwara said a MOHELA representative told him about 500 borrowers were told they no longer have debt relief, meaning hundreds of people are likely reconfiguring their budgets as a result of this error."We just have to sit down and do our budget and figure out what we have to go back on because we have a mortgage now and everything that goes with owning a house," Okwara said.Going forward, Anne said she's planning to resubmit her paperwork for PSLF while contacting her state representatives and the Education Department to get more information on MOHELA's error — and while she plans to make her payments once again, she knows it'll be a strain."It just doesn't make any sense. There was no notice to borrowers. I had no notice that this was a possibility," she said. "I've lived my life for eight months, but I would've done things differently than I had, had I known."

A mom got $192,000 in student debt wiped out last year. But her servicer just told her the relief was a mistake — and she has to figure out how to afford monthly payments again.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Students of the Bloom Institute of Technology have filed a class-action lawsuit against the school.</li><li>They say the coding boot camp, formerly known as Lambda School, advertised false job-placement rates.</li></ul>Four students at the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coding-bootcamps-worth-it-how-to-code-tech-careers-2022-1">coding boot camp</a> Bloom Institute of Technology, formerly known as Lambda School, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the school.Student Defense, along with cocounsel Miner, Barnhill &amp; Galland and Cotchett, Pitre &amp; McCarthy, filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of the students. The school, known as BloomTech for short, offers students the option to pay up-front tuition or pay no up-front tuition fees but pay back their tuition through an <a href="https://www.bloomtech.com/tuition/income-share-agreements" target="_blank" rel="noopener">income-share agreement</a>, meaning that when they land a job paying $50,000 or more, they must pay back 14% of their income for four years or until they hit a cap of $40,000. The students, who attended from March 2020 until the present, say in the lawsuit that they enrolled because they were attracted by the high job placement rates in tech. They allege that the school had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-graduation-placement-rate-2020-2">false and misleading information</a> about job placement rates on its website and on CEO Austen Allred's Twitter account. What's more, they allege that BloomTech engaged in unlicensed lending and point out that the school operated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-california-bppe-2019-8">without California state approval</a> until August 2020. The students are asking for equitable relief, such as canceling their income share agreements or getting a refund.While students have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-isa-arbitration-misrepresenting-job-rates-2021-5">previously taken legal action</a> against BloomTech, this is the first class action lawsuit against it. Alex Elson, vice president at Student Defense, says the firm has received many complaints about the school, particularly about the misleading job placement rates, as well as dissatisfaction with the quality of education. "They wouldn't have gone if they didn't know what the true rates are," Elson told Insider. BloomTech has raised over $129 million from investors like GV (formerly Google Ventures), Stripe, and even Ashton Kutcher. Former BloomTech students said that the school fell short of its promise with under-qualified instructors and an incomplete curriculum, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-y-combinator-cult-2019-10">Insider first reported</a>. They said they often had to rely on self-teaching and were brushed off when they voiced concerns about the program or complained about harassment. Leaked documents also showed that BloomTech's job placement rates were much lower than advertised, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-promised-lucrative-tech-coding-career-low-job-placement-2021-10">Insider previously reported</a>.Income share agreements have become popular <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coding-bootcamps-outcomes-lambda-school-bloomtech-flatiron-2021-12">among coding bootcamps</a> as students don't have to pay upfront tuition. One risk is they're not clearly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/isa-income-share-agreements-lambda-school-purdue-2020-4">regulated by federal laws</a>, which focus on consumer loans.BloomTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:rmchan@businessinsider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rmchan@insider.com</a>, Signal at 646.376.6106, or Telegram at @rosaliechan. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request.

Students of BloomTech, formerly known as Lambda School, filed a class-action lawsuit against the coding boot camp

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The CFPB and state attorneys general sued a career boot camp that declared bankruptcy in 2022.</li><li>They accused the company, Prehired, of misrepresenting the nature of its income-share agreements.</li></ul>A federal watchdog hit a tech boot camp with a lawsuit accusing it of loading students up with a "predatory" form of debt.Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau joined 10 state attorneys general and California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/state-partners-and-cfpb-sue-prehired-for-illegal-student-lending-practices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suing</a> Prehired, a boot camp that <a href="https://www.prehired.io/about">said it aimed</a> to "help 10,000 overworked and underpaid people launch 6-figure potential sales careers by 2025."The CFPB and the states <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_prehired_adversary-proceeding-complaint_2023-07.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in their complaint</a> that Prehired "misrepresented" the nature of the income-share agreements it made with people who enrolled in its 12-week online training program. Income-share agreements, or ISAs, generally require a borrower to pledge a certain portion of their income to the lender in exchange for money to pay for education."Prehired failed to advise consumers about the cost of these loans, and deceptively represented that the ISAs are not loans and did not create debt," the complaint said. "Prehired also represented that consumers would pay nothing until they got a job and 'partner[ed] with' Prehired in their career. However, Prehired required consumers to pay even if they never obtained a job that Prehired purported to train them for, and, in many cases, calculated minimum monthly payments based on projected rather than actual income."The lawsuit also accused Prehired of "falsely representing the amount of debt owed by consumers by stating that Prehired could collect more than the consumer legally owed."Prehired did not respond to Insider's request for comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.The states and the CFPB are seeking to void the ISA loans, compensate consumers who were harmed, and obtain a penalty from Prehired to be deposited into the CFPB's victims-relief fund.Prehired filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. In its bankruptcy <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.313762/gov.uscourts.nysb.313762.2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filing</a>, it said that during its "startup phase," it "had to turn away hundreds of potential members who did not have the savings or income to pay Prehired's training costs, nor did these potential members qualify for a third-party loan."The complaint said Prehired filed more than 280 lawsuits in 2022 demanding that former students who it said had defaulted pay $25,000 each. Those lawsuits have since been dropped. Prehired said in its bankruptcy filing that it "believed that in these lawsuits, it acted in the defaulted members' best interests, as well as Prehired's, because it reduced the amount owed on the ISAs from $30,000.00 to $25,000.00, and the members could participate in the proceedings virtually."In a <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=00de692d42ab042fb1d56ca43967dd588d26f066751bffa9f076448ca99277f8&amp;postID=64b6948ad81c4d0a155be337&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Ffeed%2Fupdate%2Furn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6900152020188192768%2F%3FcommentUrn%3Durn%253Ali%253Acomment%253A%2528activity%253A6900152020188192768%252C6900155971113414656%2529" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comment on a post on LinkedIn</a> last year, one person said: "Nearly 2 years later I still do not make close to 6-figures. I have exhausted my savings to keep me afloat but I am just ashamed to have gone through PreHired's training bootcamp."Another commenter said that "the ISA payment and the fear of defaulting have been my single &amp; biggest stressor financially since I started working after finishing the course."Prehired has faced several other legal challenges from states. Delaware's Department of Justice <a href="https://news.delaware.gov/2022/05/27/attorney-general-jennings-announces-investigation-into-tech-sales-bootcamp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched an investigation</a> into the company in May 2022. The next month, Washington's attorney general, Bob Ferguson, <a href="https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-ferguson-files-lawsuit-shut-down-predatory-tech-sales-program-recover-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed a lawsuit</a> accusing the company of "offering a deceptive online training program that duped Washingtonians into paying $30,000 for an online course."A company spokesperson <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/state/prefiled-accused-scamming-washingtonians-online-training-courses/281-07d12dff-5a30-4403-a852-31850fcf478d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the time Prehired was "shocked and surprised by the filing of the complaint by the Washington Attorney General's Office, and the allegations contained therein. We categorically deny the allegations in the complaint and look forward to defending these allegations in court."The CFPB has cracked down on boot camps accused of misrepresenting their ISAs. In 2021, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cfpb-student-loan-debt-income-share-agreement-misleading-borrowers-2021-9">the agency said one ISA provider</a>, Better Future Forward, misrepresented its product by saying the money it was giving borrowers was not a loan and therefore not affected by consumer-protection law."Law enforcement at the state and federal levels should and must continue to chase down the untold number of scam bootcamps still out there, deliver relief to the countless borrowers already stuck in predatory loans and create a safer environment for individuals trying to increase their education and training," Ben Kaufman, a fellow with the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center who has <a href="https://protectborrowers.org/a-predatory-school-is-dragging-290-defrauded-students-into-court-in-the-latest-example-of-the-exploitative-state-of-the-income-share-agreement-market/">investigated Prehired</a>, said in a statement."With tens of thousands of students now trapped in tens of millions of dollars of predatory ISAs taken on under fraudulent pretenses, inaction by consumer protection officials is not an option."

A federal watchdog is suing a tech boot camp, accusing it of loading students up with 'predatory' debt and telling them it could collect 'more than the consumer legally owed'

You Searched For "relief camps" and got 7 results

I became an orphan at age 12. Now, I run a summer camp for kids like me.

Kelly Burch

A group of student-loan borrowers are getting $30 million in debt relief after a tech boot camp offered them 'illegal' payment plans, a federal watchdog says

Ayelet Sheffey

Student-loan borrowers are gearing up to camp overnight outside the Supreme Court ahead of arguments on Biden's debt relief to 'make sure that the justices look into the eyes of borrowers'

Ayelet Sheffey

Custom Google Maps in Delhi lead the way to relief centres with shelter and food

Prabhjote Gill

A mom got $192,000 in student debt wiped out last year. But her servicer just told her the relief was a mistake — and she has to figure out how to afford monthly payments again.

Ayelet Sheffey

Students of BloomTech, formerly known as Lambda School, filed a class-action lawsuit against the coding boot camp

Rosalie Chan

A federal watchdog is suing a tech boot camp, accusing it of loading students up with 'predatory' debt and telling them it could collect 'more than the consumer legally owed'

Ayelet Sheffey

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