A surprising number of borrowers missed their first student loan payment since the pandemic freeze ended

Nearly 40 percent of student loan borrowers missed their first payment this fall following the Biden administration's freeze on student loan debt payments, according to Politico.

About 26% of borrowers who owed a payment in October 2019 had not made a payment by mid-November 2019, seconds to the politician Of about 22 million borrowers who had outstanding payments in October 2023, about 8.8 million were in default by mid-November 2023.

“While most borrowers have already made their first payment, others will need more time. Some are confused or overwhelmed with their options. We want to make sure borrowers know that our top priority is supporting loan borrowers students as they return to repayment,” said Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal. he wrote in a blog post on Friday.

The Department of Education (ED) announced in June that when student loan debt payments restarted on Oct. 1, defaulting borrowers would not be reported to the credit bureaus or would be considered delinquent until September 30, 2024, seconds to an ED blog post.

The Supreme Court governed 6-3 against the Biden administration's student debt forgiveness program for non-Pell Grant and Pell Grant recipients in June. The ED announced another plan on June 30 to expand income-based repayment plans.

ED announced in August that they would use the Higher Education Act to forgive student loans, and the new plan reduced payments for people making $32,800 a year or less to $0. The White House announced another program in December that would relieve debt by forgiving public service loans for borrowers who have been paying off for at least 20 years but haven't gotten credit for the payments.

The Biden administration has forgiven billions in student debt for more than 3.6 million borrowers, seconds to a December press release from the White House. It has forgiven nearly $51 billion for 715,000 borrowers through public service loan forgiveness, nearly $42 billion for 855,000 borrowers through income-based repayment programs, and $11.7 billion for nearly 513,000 borrowers with disability

ED did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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