GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Starting on May 5th, the Department of Education will begin the involuntary collection of student loan payments that are in default.
Student loan defaulters are those who have missed loan payments typically after the span of 270 days.
All borrowers in default will receive email notifications from the Federal Student Aid over the next 2 weeks. The Department says that later this summer, notices will be sent out beginning the garnishing of wages for roughly 5.3 million borrowers in default.
Some students who are not in default but are borrowing loans to attend ECU, or witnessed their parents paying them back, shared their opinions.
“I definitely think there should be some grace around it because the cost of education is just outrageous in certain places. Like I know ECU is not horribly high, but especially at private institutions, the cost of education is just outrageous especially for students that don’t have support from their parents,” Zachary Wood said. “It is just almost impossible for them to pay it back on their own.”
Another student says with the state of the economy, paying back loans is not as easy as it sounds.
“In today’s economy, things with like housing and minority disparities and just having to work around the economic system itself, it’s not as easy as other people have it,” Dasaun Robertson said. “There’s definitely an imbalance, people are struggling day and day.”
One student who says he’s fortunate enough to pay out of pocket for schooling says that while garnishing wages may be a stretch, borrowers do have an obligation to pay loans back on time.
“I think that it’s a definitely a good thing that the government offers and I mean if it’s a legal binding agreement then you should have to pay it back and you’re signing off on something,” said Lion Aivado. “You do have to give back on what you take I feel like that comes around.”
In 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the National Education Association, President Donald Trump put a temporary pause on student loan repayments, with a final grace period ending last October.
The Department of Education says that 42.7 million borrowers owe student loan debt that has reach $1.6 trillion.
In an article by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which cites U.S. Federal Reserve Data, for 4-year college students, the average amount borrowed in student loans was $45,300.
It also explains that double the percentage of Black and Latino students fall behind on student loan payments, a majority of Black students still owing a big amount, on average 20 years post graduation.
The Department of Education says that borrowers will be urged to contact the Default Resolution Group “to make a monthly payment, enroll in an income-driven repayment plan, or sign up for loan rehabilitation.”
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