Latest news with #SophieLaing
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Disney+ officially announce reality shows for Jamie Laing and wife Sophie
DISNEY+ has officially confirmed reality shows featuring Jamie Laing and wife Sophie - as well as the Rooney family. Both of the new unscripted original shows follow stars at new stages of their lives. 3 3 One features former Made In Chelsea cast members Jamie, 36, and Sophie, 30, - under the working title "Jamie and Sophie: Raising Chelsea." This new programme features the couple tackling their upcoming parenthood. Earlier this month, it was revealed Jamie and Sophie are expecting their first child. Their new show will highlight the pregnancy, busy professional lives, first family home, support from loved ones and their hit podcast, NearlyParents. Discussing the project, Jamie and Sophie said: 'For nearly a decade, we've brought audiences along the highs and lows of our personal and professional lives through TV, radio, social media and our podcasts. "It's such an honour to now partner with the incredible teams at Disney+ and Dorothy St Pictures to bring our next chapter to viewers across the globe. "Navigating our lives with a baby on the way has opened up a whole new stage of our relationship – we can't wait to give you a front row seat!' Also announced is an observational docu-series featuring Coleen and Wayne Rooney - under working title "The Rooneys". In particular, the 10-part programme will follow Coleen's journey with entrepreneurship while Wayne trades training for the school run. Although the couple are no strangers to public interest in their lives, this new show will include highs and lows of family life - to quality time on holiday. Jamie Laing turns pop star as he releases new track to help wake the nation Earlier this year, it was revealed Coleen had landed a £10million deal with Disney+ for a reality show - following a bidding war. An insider told the Mail: "It has taken months of bidding against one another. "The money has gone up and up and has got to £10 million, which is way higher than was first imagined, but Coleen is very much in demand. "Both streamers were aware of the viewing public's appetite for the inside track on footballers' home lives." Filming is underway for both shows - with a new iteration of dating series Blind Date also announced alongside them. Sean Doyle, Executive Director of Unscripted at Disney+, shared his thoughts on the announcement. He said: "These shows will complement our existing and iconic reality offering from our US studio partners, including The Kardashians and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. "We're really grateful to be working with the Rooney ' s again, along with Jamie and Sophie for the first time, and Blind Date is a brilliant opportunity to bring everyone's favourite dating show to a large scale with the potential to resonate with a whole new generation." 3
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mainers worry about repaying student loans as Education Department resumes collection
May 5—For the first time in five years, the federal government on Monday restarted collections on overdue student loan payments — a process that could impact millions of borrowers across the country and in Maine. The return follows years of lenient COVID-era policies meant to provide relief for borrowers and ever-changing options and rules around payment plans and forgiveness, all as Biden-era affordability plans met court challenges. "Repayment has started at this really confusing time for borrowers, when there are a lot of things already going on in the federal student loan system," said Sophie Laing, a student loan and consumer attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, a nonprofit that offers civil legal assistance to low-income Mainers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, which announced in April that it would resume collections, more than 5 million borrowers haven't made a payment in a year and are in default, and only 38% nationally are current on their payments. Mainers hold a collective $6.5 billion in student loan debt, spread between about 186,700 people (or 13% of people in the state), according to data from the Federal Student Aid office and the Education Data Initiative. The average student loan debt in Maine is $34,280. Maine borrowers say they are anxious about the possibility of their tax refunds or disability benefits being seized, and the end of forgiving Biden-era payment plans. "I want to continue to live and work in Portland, and if things change, $500 a month could be the reason that I have to move away, find a new job and move away from my parents, who I need to take care of," a 2010 University of Maine graduate said. "That's really, really weighing on me." A CHANGING LANDSCAPE Laing at Pine Tree Legal said borrowers in Maine right now are struggling to access accurate information and are concerned about the future of payment plans that they rely on. For three years after the start of the pandemic, she said, borrowers didn't have to make federal student loan payments and couldn't go into default or suffer the consequences. Even when required payments resumed in 2023, there was a yearlong "on-ramp" during which repayment had restarted, but the government wouldn't put people into default for falling behind. But starting last September, Laing said, required payments have restarted in earnest, and now the department has marked a new step by beginning to seize funds from defaulted borrowers. There are several ways the government can collect on defaulted loans, including through tax refunds, Social Security retirement and disability payments and wage garnishing. "So that means they can take your tax refund before it ever gets to you and apply it to your student loan," Laing said. "And that can be really difficult. ... A lot of people rely on their tax refund, or earned income tax credit or child tax credit, as an important source of income through the year, to pay for necessities or unexpected expenses that come up." Right now, the government is only focusing on tax refunds and Social Security benefits, but Laing said she expects the department to begin garnishing paychecks by the summer (up to 15% of your disposable pay). At the same time, the status of several income-driven repayment plans has been uncertain because of court challenges. Millions of people had signed up for the Biden administration's SAVE Plan, which offered low monthly payments based on income and family size. However, in February, a U.S. appeals court blocked the plan, siding with Republican-led states that challenged it. Many of the individuals using the plan will now have to apply for another that will increase their monthly payment. Laing said her message for federal student loan borrowers in default is that there are ways to get out of it, like loan consolidation and loan rehabilitation. And she said there are ways to get some or all of your debt canceled, like for borrowers with a disability, or someone who attended a for-profit college that misled students, or Public Service Loan Forgiveness for government and nonprofit employees. "There are steps people can take to prevent the consequences," Laing said. The state of Maine offers its own relief. Since 2022, Maine has offered a Student Loan Repayment Tax Credit program, which provides a tax credit of $2,500 a year and $25,000 total to anyone living and working at least part time in Maine who is paying off students loans from a college degree program. BORROWERS' REGRET A University of Maine alumna, who agreed to talk to the Press Herald on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her employment, said she graduated in 2010 with about $48,000 in student loans and her final two years covered by federal Pell Grants. Now, she said, she regrets the decision. "I didn't understand what I was signing up for. I was really, really young, and it was just, 'Get into college and sign on the dotted line so that you can be accepted,"' she said. "Obviously, we can't know exactly how things would play out, but if I could have the lifestyle that I have now, without a degree, absolutely, I would have not taken out loans." She wanted to be a teacher, but couldn't afford to work in the field, pay off loans and live in southern Maine, so she switched industries. She said the process of paying off her loans has been incredibly confusing, and has had to constantly reapply to income-based repayment plans. But in 2022, then-President Joe Biden announced up to $20,000 of debt cancellation for Pell Grant recipients. "I was ready to go out and buy a bottle of Champagne. I also knew it was probably too good to be true," the UMaine grad said. She applied, and received notice that her application for debt forgiveness had been accepted. "And then it was not even a week before the court said, 'Nope, just kidding, we're not going to forgive that debt.'" Today, she has a job she's happy with in a field unrelated to her degree, but her Portland rent takes up 35% to 40% of her income, and she's the sole caretaker for her parents, who have high medical needs. If an income-based repayment plan is no longer an option, she said, that might be the final straw. Fifteen years after graduation, she still has over $30,000 in debt. Denver Vandrey took out about $5,500 in loans to attend the University of Southern Maine. He said the path from high school straight to college seemed like the only choice. But he didn't graduate, ended up transferring to Southern Maine Community College, and said he has regrets about signing up for loans. "They seem to make it way too easy for you to apply and acquire, but are not really giving you enough information to effectively pay off," he said. "They asked for a lot of trust, and unfortunately, that is something that many people just cannot afford to do." When it came time to pay off his loans, Vandrey said he received an inaccurate number from a payment calculator that led him to pay just barely above interest, so his debt wasn't really moving. Then when he was between jobs, the calculator told him to pay just $64 a month, which resulted in his debt actually increasing. But once he landed a solid job, he paid off most of his debts in one fell swoop. Today he works as a commercial painter. He said he's lucky that he noticed the problem, and that he has a family support system, but said many of his friends with four years worth of student loans are under enormous stress. Vandrey said the normalization of the high school to college pipeline, and a lack of economics education, are leading to regrettable student loan decisions. If you're interested in talking with the Press Herald about your experiences with student loan default, please email rboard@ Copy the Story Link
