3.30.21
On March 30, the Biden administration announced it is pausing more student loan payments for borrowers who are in default on government-backed loans owned by private lenders. The move extends relief to 1.14 million students who borrowed under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL) and not yet covered under previous pandemic reprieves. According to the Education Department, without the policy move, more than 800,000 borrowers in the FFEL program were at risk of having their federal tax refunds seized to repay defaulted loans. Interest rates on privately held defaulted FFEL loans were also set to 0%, retroactive to March 13, 2020, effectively suspending interest payments. Any loans that went into default since that time will also be restored to good standing, which could help repair borrowers’ credit scores.