Student Loans

Student Loan Servicers Told Not to Contact Borrowers as Payment Pause Deadline Nears

President Joe Biden in April extended a pause on repayments of federal student loans to Aug. 31.

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A little more than a month before the student debt moratorium is scheduled to end, the federal government has told loan servicers not to contact borrowers about resuming payments, a trade group official said Monday.

According to Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, which represents all of the companies that service the federal loans subject to the administration’s moratorium, the Education Department has been telling loan servicers not to reach out to borrowers as recently as “the last couple weeks."

NBC News has asked the Education Department for comment.

President Joe Biden in April extended the pause on federal loan repayments until Aug. 31, saying the nation was still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. A White House official said Monday night that “no decision has been made" about whether to extend it again. The official said Biden will make a decision before Aug. 31.

“While theoretically they can wait until the 31st, if they do, they are de facto delaying it,” said a source familiar with the matter, citing the operational challenges of restarting the program.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.

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