On Saturday, August 8th, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Education to extend a payment suspension and stop interest accrual for all student loans held by the Department of Education (ED) until December 31, 2020. The presidential memorandum extends some of the relief provided to borrowers under the CARES Act that would otherwise expire […]

This week, Congress is ramping up its debate about what protections it should extend as student loan borrowers continue to weather the Coronavirus crisis. These protections cannot come soon enough; on August 1, borrowers will begin to receive notices that the relief provided by the ‘‘Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ or the ‘‘CARES […]

Today on this Tax Day, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) has released Voices of Despair: How Seizing the EITC Is Leaving Student Loan Borrowers Homeless and Hopeless During a Pandemic. The updated report builds on a 2018 NCLC report that compiled stories from dozens of borrowers recounting the hardship caused by the federal government’s […]

On March 11, 2020, Congress passed a bipartisan resolution to preserve student loan borrower protections put in place in 2016 (often called the “borrower defense rule or rules”) and to overturn new rules from the current U.S. Department of Education (“the Department”) that would strip away those protections and make it nearly impossible for borrowers […]

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) continues to garnish the wages of student loan borrowers despite some efforts to comply with the law. One of those borrowers is Craigory Lee A. Jenkins, whose wages continue to be garnished, depriving her of exactly the relief Congress decided she needed when it passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, […]

The ‘‘Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ or the ‘‘CARES Act’’ provided much-needed relief to some federal student loan borrowers in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The package, however, fell short in several critical consumer protection areas, including student loans. As we explained in a summary of the key student loan repayment provisions […]

UPDATE (June 4, 2020): The Department of Education has provided more information about implementation of the CARES Act.  Updates are provided in the text below. **************************** On Friday, March 27th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed and the President signed into law the ‘‘Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ or the ‘‘CARES Act,’’ emergency […]

Update: On March, 27th,  Congress passed and the President signed into law the “CARES Act,”  emergency legislation providing. More recent information regarding COVID-19 relief for student loan borrowers can be found at: https://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/what-the-cares-act-means-for-repayment-of-federal-student-loans/ *************************************** This past week has been a dizzying array of announcement after announcement related to COVID-19. The world of federal student loans […]

‘The injustice of the federal government withholding disability benefits for people who it knows are totally and permanently disabled and entitled to debt relief is hard to comprehend.’ by Alex Elson Too often, political blinders thwart commonsense policies that everyone should support. That is why the Trump administration’s decision last month to automatically discharge student […]

By Margaret Mattes Tens of thousands of student borrowers unable to complete their educations at the approximately 1473 postsecondary schools or campuses that closed between November 2013 and November 2015 nationwide are now entitled to have their federal student loans immediately discharged—i.e., cancelled. As of October 16, 2018, the U.S. Department of Education is legally […]