Student Loan Borrowers May Get an Extended Payment Pause

Student loan payments are expected to restart in just a little over month and many borrowers are already worried.

The Biden administration may put an ease to these worries as it considers extending the current payment pause and interest waiver for most federal student loan borrowers.

The pause is currently scheduled to expire next month.

“Since day one of the Biden Administration, we’ve been hard at work delivering meaningful relief to student loan borrowers,” a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education told CNBC on Tuesday.

“That started with an extension of the pause on federal student loan repayment until Jan. 31, 2022,” the spokesman said. “Later this week, we will be announcing whether to extend the pause further.”

Since March 2020, borrowers have been given the option to pause their monthly bills without interest accruing on their debt. Almost all borrowers have accepted the relief, research shows.

Many Democrats have been urging President Joe Biden to give the 42 million Americans with student debt more time.

Student Debt Crisis Center (SDCC), the nation’s largest student debt advocacy organization, and Savi, a social impact technology company working to help solve the crisis, completed a nationwide survey of 33,703 student loan borrowers.

Among fully-employed student loan borrowers, a staggering 89% say they are not financially secure enough to resume payments on February 1. One-in-five say (21%) they will never be financially secure enough to resume payments again.

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