Latest Work
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Memo: More Broken Promises to Working Families with Student Debt
ED Secretary McMahon instructed student loan companies to begin charging interest to nearly 8 million student loan borrowers trapped in the SAVE forbearance. This memo analyzes the financial harm the Trump Admin will cause these borrowers and the broader economy as a result.
More
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Deep Dive: The Hidden Costs of Delinquency: Subprime Credit, Predatory Loans, and Debt Traps
Recent data shows that one student loan in delinquency can make borrowers of every credit tier subprime, which can cause their interest rates for lines of credit to more than double, making it substantially more difficult—if not impossible in some cases—to buy a home or car, open a credit card, rent an apartment, and more.
More
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Statewide Fact Sheets: Students and Families Under Threat as Congress Advances Reconciliation Bill Slashing Critical Higher Education Funding
The data underscore how default has disastrous consequences for borrowers and their families. For many, default is a lifetime sentence, and America’s most vulnerable communities—older, low-income, borrowers with disabilities, and Black borrowers—are disproportionately impacted.
More
Latest Work
-
Memo: More Broken Promises to Working Families with Student Debt
ED Secretary McMahon instructed student loan companies to begin charging interest to nearly 8 million student loan borrowers trapped in the SAVE forbearance. This memo analyzes the financial harm the Trump Admin will cause these borrowers and the broader economy as a result.
More
-
Deep Dive: The Hidden Costs of Delinquency: Subprime Credit, Predatory Loans, and Debt Traps
Recent data shows that one student loan in delinquency can make borrowers of every credit tier subprime, which can cause their interest rates for lines of credit to more than double, making it substantially more difficult—if not impossible in some cases—to buy a home or car, open a credit card, rent an apartment, and more.
More
-
Statewide Fact Sheets: Students and Families Under Threat as Congress Advances Reconciliation Bill Slashing Critical Higher Education Funding
The data underscore how default has disastrous consequences for borrowers and their families. For many, default is a lifetime sentence, and America’s most vulnerable communities—older, low-income, borrowers with disabilities, and Black borrowers—are disproportionately impacted.
More
Latest Work
-
Memo: More Broken Promises to Working Families with Student Debt
ED Secretary McMahon instructed student loan companies to begin charging interest to nearly 8 million student loan borrowers trapped in the SAVE forbearance. This memo analyzes the financial harm the Trump Admin will cause these borrowers and the broader economy as a result.
More
-
Deep Dive: The Hidden Costs of Delinquency: Subprime Credit, Predatory Loans, and Debt Traps
Recent data shows that one student loan in delinquency can make borrowers of every credit tier subprime, which can cause their interest rates for lines of credit to more than double, making it substantially more difficult—if not impossible in some cases—to buy a home or car, open a credit card, rent an apartment, and more.
More
-
Statewide Fact Sheets: Students and Families Under Threat as Congress Advances Reconciliation Bill Slashing Critical Higher Education Funding
The data underscore how default has disastrous consequences for borrowers and their families. For many, default is a lifetime sentence, and America’s most vulnerable communities—older, low-income, borrowers with disabilities, and Black borrowers—are disproportionately impacted.
More
Latest Work
-
Memo: More Broken Promises to Working Families with Student Debt
ED Secretary McMahon instructed student loan companies to begin charging interest to nearly 8 million student loan borrowers trapped in the SAVE forbearance. This memo analyzes the financial harm the Trump Admin will cause these borrowers and the broader economy as a result.
More
-
Deep Dive: The Hidden Costs of Delinquency: Subprime Credit, Predatory Loans, and Debt Traps
Recent data shows that one student loan in delinquency can make borrowers of every credit tier subprime, which can cause their interest rates for lines of credit to more than double, making it substantially more difficult—if not impossible in some cases—to buy a home or car, open a credit card, rent an apartment, and more.
More
-
Statewide Fact Sheets: Students and Families Under Threat as Congress Advances Reconciliation Bill Slashing Critical Higher Education Funding
The data underscore how default has disastrous consequences for borrowers and their families. For many, default is a lifetime sentence, and America’s most vulnerable communities—older, low-income, borrowers with disabilities, and Black borrowers—are disproportionately impacted.
More
Latest Work
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Documents from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency on Employer Certification Form Denials and Reasons for Denial
In an effort to continue investigating ongoing breakdowns denying borrowers access to PSLF, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the SBPC uncovered thousands of pages of documents from the company the Department of Education contracts with to manage PSLF: PHEAA.
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Driving Runaway Debt: How IDR’s Current Design Buries Borrowers Under Billions of Dollars in Unaffordable Interest
This report highlights how the design of the main protection meant to deliver affordability to federal student loan borrowers, Income-Driven Repayment (IDR), ignores the widespread effects that runaway student loan balances have across borrowers’ financial lives.
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Advocates Public Comment to Department of Education on Federal Preemption and Joint Federal-State Oversight of Federal Student Loan Servicing and Collections
In a public comment to ED, SBPC, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Center for Responsible Lending, and the National Consumer Law Center, representing students, student loan borrowers, teachers, and consumers, applaud ED’s affirmation that states are important partners in protecting student loan borrowers and call for more support by states as they continue this important work.
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Driving Unaffordability: How Income-Driven Repayment Currently Fails to Deliver Financial Security to Student Loan Borrowers
This report highlights how the payment formulas currently underlying Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) can harm low to middle-income borrowers, forcing them to choose between meeting basic needs and paying their monthly student loan bills.
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Driving Down Distress? The Principles & Incomplete History of Income-Driven Repayment
This report examines the history of Income-Driven Repayment (IDR), identifies its key founding principles, the ways that policymakers have tried to meet them, and how the current design of the protection has fallen short of achieving its original goals.
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Advocates Highlight Evidence that Guaranty Agencies Harmed Borrowers and Violated Department of Education Orders During COVID
SBPC sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to highlight new evidence of illegal conduct by Guaranty Agencies and to call on CFPB to protect borrowers.
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Co-Opting California Courts: How Private Creditors Have Turned the Judiciary Into a Predatory Student Debt Collection Machine
In a report, SBPC fellow Claire Johnson Raba, a SBPC fellow shows the effect of predatory private student loan collection practices on borrowers in California. With creditors dragging borrowers into court for debts they often do not owe and lacking the documents necessary to back up their claims, the report lays out the harmful long-term impacts to borrowers’ credit and finances.
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Legal Analysis, and Need for Increased Enforcement, of the Student Loan Sunshine Act
In a memorandum, Sabita Soneji and Leora Friedman of Tycko & Zavareei, LLP outline the legal tools available to hold bad actors accountable for an ongoing scheme to drive students toward predatory private credit.
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Advocates Public Comment on Virginia Student Borrower Bill of Rights Implementation
In a public comment to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, SBPC and 12 organizations representing consumers, students, student loan borrowers, and teachers draw attention to industry attempts to circumvent the legislative process, and call on the regulator to faithfully implement the Commonwealth’s new consumer protections.
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