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As Americans face unprecedented economic and financial pressure, having wages seized can mean the difference between having enough money to pay rent or to put food on the table.
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For three years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has failed to execute its job of protecting hundreds of millions of American consumers. The repercussions of this failure are vast, and they are painfully visible in the ongoing crisis in the student loan market and its effects on the most vulnerable consumers.
On March 25, 2020, the Trump administration announced that it would end wage garnishment for student loan borrowers, going back to March 13 and extending for at least 60 days. However, this process is not simple.
As the world grapples with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, student loan companies cannot be allowed to continue making billions on the plight of student loan borrowers. And yet, even for many borrowers of federal student loans, this is precisely what the CARES Act will permit.
On February 21, 2020, legal scholars and advocates from around the country gathered at the campus of UCI School of Law for the first ever law review symposium dedicated exclusively to the question of student loan law.
Today we are releasing a snapshot of state-by-state statistics on student loan debt. This data should be front and center as policymakers consider actions to protect Americans from the economic effects of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Student loan companies were woefully unprepared to help borrowers grapple with the coronavirus long before tens of millions of borrowers were told they would need to contact their student loan servicer to secure payment relief. As borrowers in distress seek help over the coming days and weeks, the student loan system, including the large private-sector financial services firms at its center, is clearly not up to the task.
As America is gripped by a once-in-a-century public health crisis and hurtles toward a long and deep recession, policymakers in the Trump Administration and on Capitol Hill are looking for policy levers to blunt the effects of this turmoil. Helping student loan borrowers in distress needs to be a key part of any effort to protect the economy as a whole from the worst consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are co-hosting a free webinar focusing on student loan repayment during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Department of Education’s (ED) most recent quarterly update on its student loan portfolio contained a crucial number that seems to have gone widely overlooked: 1,228,600. That figure represents the cumulative total of unique federal student loan borrowers who defaulted on their loans (that is, reached a full 361 days of delinquency) during the 2019 federal fiscal year.