D Phi E is the same way...no inactive status for financial reasons. That's not a chapter rule for us, it's an international rule. Inactive status is awarded for student teaching, full-time internships, semester or year abroad, or serious family situations/illness/death sorts of things.

We have an "inactive" status that a sister can take for one semester only, if she's having financial problems (which I personally never understood...our dues were only $75 a semester...). To take that status she had to pay national dues (which I think were $40 or so) but she could elect not to pay chapter dues for that semester, and not attend social functions, etc.

If she didn't pay national dues, however, or simply didn't pay without making any sort of statement of taking inactive status, she would become a "sister in bad standing" and was supposed to have her letters pulled.