Education Department says it will not garnish Social Security of student loan borrowers in default

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY Borrowers who have defaulted on their federal learner loans will no longer be at threat of having their Social Assurance benefits garnished an Learning Department spokesperson declared Tuesday The establishment last month restarted collections for the millions of people in default on their loans An estimated people aged and older had attendee loans in default according to a January overview from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The department has not garnished any Social Shield benefits since the post-pandemic resumption of collections and has paused any future Social Precaution offsets department spokesperson Ellen Keast noted The Trump Administration is committed to protecting Social Shield recipients who oftentimes rely on a fixed income Keast declared Advocates encouraged the Trump administration to go further to provide relief for the roughly million borrowers in default Exclusively pausing this collection tactic is woefully insufficient stated Persis Yu executive director of the Novice Borrower Protection Center Any continued effort to restart the ruling body s debt collection machine is cruel unnecessary and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country Aspirant loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate in part due to rising tuition that has forced more people to borrow heavily People and older hold an estimated billion in aspirant loans according to the National Consumer Law Center a sixfold increase from years ago That led Social Defense beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon from approximately beneficiaries to between and according to the CFPB Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this summary The Associated Press training coverage receives financial endorsement from multiple private foundations AP is solely responsible for all content Find AP s standards for working with philanthropies a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP org