Federal Oversight

Even with extremists in power, we can still defend borrowers from attempts to sabotage existing relief programs, make servicing companies follow the rules, and expose predatory practices that keep people in debt.

Protect Borrowers engages in research and analysis to show the crushing effect that debt has on working families and the economy writ large. We collaborate with legal experts across the country to develop novel legal theories and approaches to ensure that borrowers get the relief they are entitled to under the law and to end the crushing burden of debt for borrowers trapped in an unjust system. We also advocate for policy change to strengthen borrowers’ rights and alleviate the burden of student debt.

Protect Borrowers conducts groundbreaking research and investigations to expose corrupt and abusive servicer misconduct and is shining a light on the ways that these abusive practices are crushing student loan borrowers’ financial lives and denying them access to their rights under the law.

We demand accountability through litigation and rigorous advocacy to federal, state, and local regulatory and enforcement agencies, putting money back in the pockets of borrowers and forcing companies to stop their abusive practices.

Protect Borrowers is fighting to end abusive debt collection tactics by exposing predatory collection practices and companies that are threatening the financial security of millions of Americans and the broader economy, working to apply critical consumer protections, and demanding accountability. We also work to develop robust policy solutions to end the seizure of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Social Security benefits and protect working families’ wages.

Incarcerated borrowers face significant barriers to managing their federal student debt. Correctional facilities’ restrictions on computer and internet access, costly telephone and mailing fees, and extremely low (or no) wages, combined with rampant servicing abuses and failures, make it uniquely difficult for incarcerated borrowers to navigate the administrative roadblocks that characterize the student loan system. In collaboration with organizations that work on behalf of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, Protect Borrowers investigates and exposes the conditions that are detrimental to incarcerated student loan borrowers’ financial wellbeing.

Cities serve on the front lines and see firsthand the devastating burden debt poses on our communities. Following years of chaos in the student loan system, and amidst an extremist political environment, it is imperative that local governments form a line of defense in the fight to protect borrowers. We’re working with cities and counties to address this crisis, empowering local leaders to stand up for borrowers.