60% of student loan borrowers made first payment back after pause: DOE
- DOE: 28M student loan borrowers were required to continue payments
- 60% of 22M borrowers with October due dates made a payment by mid-November
- Americans have options to help them readjust to added monthly expense
More than 43 million borrowers have federal student loan debt, with an average loan balance of at least $37,500. (Getty Images)
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(NewsNation) — Student loan payments resumed in October after Congress ended the temporary pause earlier this year. For the first time in three years, 28 million student loan borrowers were required to continue payments.
However, new data relieved by the Department of Education revealed that only 60% of the 22 million loan borrowers with October due dates made a payment by mid-November.
Among the borrowers, four million of them had to make student loan payments for the first time ever, the report said.
While most borrowers have already made their first payments, DOE is offering Americans solutions to readjust to the additional monthly cost. It has created a 12-month “on-ramp” period that will allow a little leniency when it comes to paying money back.
“Borrowers will be protected from the harshest of consequences of missed payments, such as delinquency, default and mandatory collections,” U.S. Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal said.
President Joe Biden also created the SAVE Plan for borrowers with high debts and low incomes. So far, 5.5 million borrowers are enrolled in this plan.
However, the plan has been giving incorrect calculations and student loan servicers are struggling to handle the volume of calls placed to fix it.
