How hard is it to get a student loan discharged due to hardship

Undue hardship is very difficult to prove.  The elements that need to be proved vary depending on the case law of the courts in your jurisdiction, but for most courts you have to show: 1. that you cannot maintain, based on current income and expenses, a 'minimal' standard of living for yourself and your dependents if forced to repay the loans; This is usually the easiest prong to satisfy. 2. that additional circumstances exist indicating that this state of financial affairs is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period of the student loans; and, 3. that you made good faith effort to repay the loans. This does not just include making payments on the loans. It requires doing things over time such as making efforts to increase your income (which includes going back to school to get additional degrees or experience), consolidating loans with the Direct Loan Servicing Center, and other similar efforts. The above is known as the "Brunner Test" named after an appeals court decision by that name. Courts do have the authority to issue partial discharges of student loans, in cases where the debtor shows the ability to repay some, but not all, of the loans. This is a huge improvement in the ability to possibly discharge some of these debts, but all three of the above factors must be still be met. It is very difficult to prove all the necessary elements. You should consult with a bankruptcy attorney in your area for more details. Mark J. Markus, Attorney at Law Handling exclusively bankruptcy law cases in California since 1991. http://www.bklaw.com/ bankruptcy blog: http://www.bklaw.com/bankruptcy-blog/ Follow Me on Twitter:  @bklawr