What are the chances Biden extends the student loan pause again?

President Biden faces a ticking timer on the resumption of student loan payments by the end of the summer — but will he allow it to go off? The payments, paused amid the coronavirus pandemic, are set to begin either 60 days after the Supreme Court makes a ruling on Biden’s student debt forgiveness program or 60 days after June 30, the White House has said. Biden had also previously said the payments would resume at the beginning of 2023, and that there would not be another extension of the pause, which began under then-President Trump in 2020. Although the White House won’t discuss the possibility of a Plan B if the high court strikes down Biden’s relief proposal, experts believe yet another extension of the loan payment pause is a possibility.

“I definitely think this is on the table,” said Rebecca Natow, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at Hofstra University and a higher education policy expert. Policy-wise, the move would put the Democratic president in line with student debt advocates and others in his party who are demanding an extension of the payment pause. “From a political standpoint, this is popular among a cross section of voting demographics, and that should always be a a consideration going into a presidential election year,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist. Borrowers have not had to make their payments since March 2020, as the pause has been extended nine separate times. Even if the legality of Biden’s student debt relief plan isn’t resolved by June 30, the administration insists borrowers will have to soon begin repayment of student loan debt. “If the program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, 2023 — payments will resume 60 days after that,” the White House said when the last pause was extended. Trump and then Biden paused the payments under the authority of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act, which gives the Education secretary more power over student loans during a national emergency. Biden previously tied the resumption of payments to his proposal for up to $20,000 in student loan relief, but if that plan is struck down by the Supreme Court, the resumption of payments could be a blow for voters going into a presidential election year. “Anybody that takes the pause off is going to be relatively unpopular for a while and not just with Democrats,” said Daniel Collier, assistant professor of higher and adult education in the Department of Leadership at the University of Memphis. 7.8M people at high risk of struggling to pay student loans if pause expires However, if Biden sticks with payments resuming at the end of this summer, there is another whole year until the election, which could give borrowers time to move on from the decision. “The 2024 elections are still a year and a half away, so any action that occurs in the next few months would probably not be as impactful on the next presidential election as an action that happens closer to next November,” Natow said. The Biden administration could face difficulty either way, as it has not given a specific reason defining when the pause is no longer needed. “I believe the Biden administration has made several blunders with the repayment pause in the way that they’ve extended it,” Collier said. “They’re doing this seemingly arbitrarily, you know, there’s no economic targets for like when is it OK to turn this on.” Even if the political climate would seem ripe for another student loan extension, the legal headaches that follow might be costly. Currently, the administration is arguing that although the COVID-19 national emergency declaration is ending in May, they can still forgive student loan debts under the HEROES Act because it relates to the lingering effects of the pandemic. The White House could use the same argument for extending student loan payments yet again. “There’s nothing in the HEROES Act that limits the relief that the secretary can provide to the end date of the national emergency,” said Abby Shafroth, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. The administration could point to its data that shows resuming student loan payments without debt relief could increase the number of delinquency and put borrowers in a worse financial position than before the pandemic. “There isn’t like a date certain. It’s not like you can only use [the HEROES Act] for one year after the end of the national emergency or anything like that. It’s just based on the facts. It’s based on when and whether relief is still needed to ensure that people aren’t left worse off as a result of the national emergency,” Shafroth added. FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE GO TO https://thehill.com/homenews/education/3937687-what-are-the-chances-biden-extends-the-student-loan-pause-again/

THE LATEST INFORMATION ON STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS

The Biden administration has yet again quietly updated the timeline for borrowers seeking student loan forgiveness under a one-time account adjustment, according to reports.

Student Loan Forgiveness: Relief for Public Loans Pushed Back Due to Lack of Funds Find Out: 10 Affordable New Items Coming to Dollar Tree This Spring In April 2022, the Department of Education announced updates that “will bring borrowers closer to forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.” Said updates include a one-time adjustment of IDR payment counters “to address past inaccuracies and permanently fixing IDR payment counting by reforming ED’s IDR tracking procedures going forward,” the department stated. As the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) indicated, IDR was originally designed to offer borrowers a reduced monthly payment tied to their income, not their outstanding balance. “In theory, federal law also provides that after a 20 or 25 year IDR repayment term, the borrower’s debt is canceled in full. However, in recent years, investigations by SBPC and the National Consumer Law Center, National Public Radio, and the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread problems with IDR,” the SBPC wrote in a January 2023 post. Forbes reported that when the Education Department announced the one-time adjustment last April, the guidance indicated that borrowers could start receiving student loan forgiveness by the fall of 2022, and that all others should receive their one-time retroactive credit by January. Then, in an updated guidance statement delivered October 2022, the department “maintained that borrowers eligible for immediate student loan forgiveness would still receive those benefits under the IDR account adjustment before the winter of 2022,” and that “all other borrowers would not receive retroactive IDR credit until July 2023,” according to Forbes. In a further December 2022 update, the department extended this timeline further, “pushing out expected student loan forgiveness under the adjustment to the spring of 2023, with all others receiving the benefits of the adjustment in the summer of 2023.” And now, the key dates have been pushed even further, Forbes noted. Take Our Poll: Do You Think Bankruptcy Is an Acceptable Way To Escape Student Loan Debt? Live Richer Podcast: How To Get Rid of Your Student Loan Debt In the latest guidance document released this week, the Education Department declared it still expects borrowers eligible for immediate student loan forgiveness under the IDR account adjustment to receive those benefits in the spring. But now, “All other borrowers will see their accounts update in 2024,” according to a press release — which, as Forbes noted, could translate to a delay of more than one year. FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE:https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loan-forgiveness-rule-quietly-170841968.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJEwQv4N00WJmpJwuoy_Oi7214TOJHmyDSxBrMd4JpORsa6TOnqAJBIFUmegl27KazkntrCDgo2iR728wE20wmt3KyDbRnQsEiVZ0dKiAXtuWVs9YV5__omJX3KReGWmYWkF1da7eAd3Cz--8HW8WeRObAbY6ycYBnCkbZMljAEp According to Forbes, the delays are due to Congress not providing additional funding to the Office of Federal Student Aid in a recent budget bill.