Court filing claims Education Dept illegally got SSN data

WASHINGTON – Students who were defrauded by Corinthian Colleges are claiming in court that the Education Department has illegally obtained and used their earnings data in order to limit their student loan relief.

A group of former Corinthian students are making the claim in a motion filed over the weekend in federal court in California.

The Education Department announced in December that it will use earnings data in order to determine how much of federal loans to forgive for students of the now defunct for-profit school.

The motion claims that the agency “secretly and illegally co-opted Social Security data.” Attorneys with the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University say the agency should have notified students that it would use their data.

The Education Department declined to comment on pending litigation.