Nearly half of student loan borrowers have not made repayments since billing resumed last year, according to The New York Times.
Student loan repayments were put on a three-year pause during the pandemic, allowing borrowers to put their payments on hold until billing resumed in 2023, according to the Federal Student Aid website. There were nearly 19 million borrowers who were not making monthly payments at the end of March, six months after the end of the pause, according to the NYT.
Some borrowers say they cannot afford to make payments and others stated they are caught up in “bureaucratic snafus,” while others are benefiting from an “on-ramp” transition period that extends through September, the NYT reported. During this time, borrowers who make late payments will not be reported on as delinquent.
“For some time, we’re going to have this group of borrowers who will see, ‘I went delinquent and nothing happened,’ so they think, ‘Why am I making a payment?’” Scott Buchanan, Student Loan Servicing Alliance executive director, told the NYT. said. “That was always the risk of the on-ramp. You want to encourage people to make payments. If you self-cure for them, that doesn’t encourage payments.”
The Biden administration announced a plan in August 2022 to cancel $10,000 in student debt for non-Pell Grant recipients and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June 2023 to strike down the plan.
Two federal judges in Kansas and Missouri blocked parts of the administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education plan, which intended to lower monthly costs, on June 24. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reversed the Kansas decision on Sunday, giving the administration the opportunity to continue with cutting payments.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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