Social Security

Apr 22, 2022

Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR: Recertification

This memo lays out how unwieldy Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) requirements such as annual recertification contribute to blocking borrowers from accessing relief.

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Blogs

Apr 21, 2022

No, the Student Loan Pause is Not Driving Inflation

This line has been parroted in the opinion sections of mainstream news outlets, but it’s empirically unfounded.

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Press Releases

Apr 20, 2022

New GAO Report Demonstrates True Fix for Broken Student Loan System is Widespread Cancellation

Piecemeal remedies are insufficient to address prolific systemic failures.

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Press Releases

Apr 19, 2022

Education Department Announces Major Effort to Repair Student Loan Safety Net, Deliver Debt Relief for Millions of Low-Income People with Student Debt

With new fix to income-driven repayment, Education Department looks to remedy allegations of past mismanagement and industry abuse but fails to help defaulted borrowers who are the most financially vulnerable.

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Press Releases

Apr 11, 2022

Financial Institutions are Nickel-and-Diming Students into Financial Ruin with Junk Fees

The SBPC and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund submitted comments to the CFPB’s request for input on harmful “junk fees,” exposing how financial service giants and universities are preying on students.

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Letters & Memos

Apr 11, 2022

Advocates Call on CFPB to Eliminate the Junk Fees Harming Students

SBPC and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund call on the CFPB to use its broad authorities over enforcement, supervision, and regulation in the consumer financial services marketplace to investigate and eradicate junk fees.

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Press Releases

Apr 7, 2022

The System is Still Broken: 115+ Organizations Renew Push for the Biden Administration to Aid Millions of Student Loan Borrowers with Overdue Reforms to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR)

A group of 116 diverse advocacy organizations sent a letter to the Biden Administration calling on U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to reform broken, dysfunctional income-driven repayment programs and fulfill the promise of IDR.

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News Clips

Apr 7, 2022

The Student Loan Pause Has Been Extended Until the End of August

NPR’s Leila Fadel talks to Mike Pierce of the Student Borrower Protection Center, about plans to extend the student loan payment pause and a reset for roughly 7 million borrowers who are in default.

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Press Releases

Apr 6, 2022

New August End Date for Student Loan Payment Pause Puts Pressure on Biden to Move Fast to Cancel Student Debt

The federal student loan payment pause and new “Fresh Start” loan program are an opportunity to fix the broken student loan system.

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Letters & Memos

Apr 6, 2022

Older Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR

This memo highlights how an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) fix will only provide relief to older borrowers with decades-old loans if it provides credit towards relief for time in default, forbearance, and deferment.

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Blogs

Apr 1, 2022

Explosive New Evidence of Mismanagement of Student Loan Program Shows Need for IDR Waiver

The results of an NPR investigation show why an IDR waiver is needed now more than ever.

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News Clips

Apr 1, 2022

Exclusive: How the most affordable student loan program failed low-income borrowers

“That is one of the most concerning things that you’ve highlighted because the people with the $0 payments are the folks in financial distress,” says Persis Yu of the Student Borrower Protection Center. “If that payment is not tracked adequately, it means that they’re in debt that they don’t owe. And to build a system in which we utterly fail the lowest income borrowers so explicitly is just inexcusable.”

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News Clips

Apr 1, 2022

How the pandemic unfairly saddled low-income California college students with debt

Voice piece by Jonathan Glater, Charlie Eaton, and Laura Hamilton

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Letters & Memos

Mar 31, 2022

Purdue Must Stop Illegally Profiting at Students’ Expense—or Risk Losing its Access to the Federal Financial Faucet

In a letter to the Department of Education, the SBPC exposes how Purdue University’s notorious “Back-A-Boiler” private student loan program puts students at risk and flagrantly violates the law.

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Comments

Mar 31, 2022

Coalition Comments on Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Third Party Authorization

Groups warn that, in light of the delayed implementation of the STOP Act third-party access system, Section D.3 risks blocking vulnerable borrowers from getting necessary legal assistance.

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Press Releases

Mar 30, 2022

SBPC Statement on CFPB Action to Halt Student Loan Company Scheme to Deny Debt Relief to Public Service Workers

In response to the CFPB’s announcement of an enforcement action against Edfinancial, SBPC executive director Mike Pierce released the following statement.

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Letters & Memos

Mar 30, 2022

PHEAA Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR

This memo details how borrowers such as those whose loans have been serviced by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), also known as AES and FedLoan Servicing, will still be left behind if fixes to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) do not provide credit towards loan forgiveness for borrowers’ time in default, forbearance, and deferment.

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Press Releases

Mar 24, 2022

New Poll: As Restart of Student Loan Payments Approaches, Vast Majority of Latino Voters Expect Major Shift in Families’ Financial Security

More than 6-in-10 Latino Voters Expect “Major Changes to Saving or Spending” if Payments Resume in Five Weeks; Supermajority of Latino Voters Support Action by President Biden to Extend Payment Pause, Cancel Student Debt

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Polling

Mar 24, 2022

Poll: As Restart of Student Loan Payments Approaches, Vast Majority of Latino Voters Expect Major Shift in Families’ Financial Security

More than 6-in-10 Latino Voters Expect “Major Changes to Saving or Spending” if Payments Resume in Five Weeks; Supermajority of Latino Voters Support Action by President Biden to Extend Payment Pause, Cancel Student Debt

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Reports

Mar 17, 2022

Creditor Colleges: Canceling Debts that Surged During COVID-19 for Low-Income Students

According to this new report, when students owe debts to “Creditor Colleges,” the consequences can be catastrophic.

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Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR: Recertification

No, the Student Loan Pause is Not Driving Inflation

New GAO Report Demonstrates True Fix for Broken Student Loan System is Widespread Cancellation

Education Department Announces Major Effort to Repair Student Loan Safety Net, Deliver Debt Relief for Millions of Low-Income People with Student Debt

Financial Institutions are Nickel-and-Diming Students into Financial Ruin with Junk Fees

Advocates Call on CFPB to Eliminate the Junk Fees Harming Students

The System is Still Broken: 115+ Organizations Renew Push for the Biden Administration to Aid Millions of Student Loan Borrowers with Overdue Reforms to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR)

The Student Loan Pause Has Been Extended Until the End of August

New August End Date for Student Loan Payment Pause Puts Pressure on Biden to Move Fast to Cancel Student Debt

Older Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR

Explosive New Evidence of Mismanagement of Student Loan Program Shows Need for IDR Waiver

Exclusive: How the most affordable student loan program failed low-income borrowers

How the pandemic unfairly saddled low-income California college students with debt

Purdue Must Stop Illegally Profiting at Students’ Expense—or Risk Losing its Access to the Federal Financial Faucet

Coalition Comments on Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Third Party Authorization

SBPC Statement on CFPB Action to Halt Student Loan Company Scheme to Deny Debt Relief to Public Service Workers

PHEAA Borrower Voices on the Incomplete Promise of Relief through IDR

New Poll: As Restart of Student Loan Payments Approaches, Vast Majority of Latino Voters Expect Major Shift in Families’ Financial Security

Poll: As Restart of Student Loan Payments Approaches, Vast Majority of Latino Voters Expect Major Shift in Families’ Financial Security

Creditor Colleges: Canceling Debts that Surged During COVID-19 for Low-Income Students

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