Coronavirus and Student Loans: Relief for Student Loan Borrowers

The CARES Act signed by President Trump last week provides immediate assistance to those struggling with student loan debt.

Payments on all federal student loans are now paused until September 30th, 2020. Borrowers do not have to take any action, lenders will do this automatically. Furthermore, lenders will have to send out repeated reminders when payments are set to resume.

During this pause, no interest will accrue on student loan debt. Furthermore, there will be no attempts to garnish wages or tax return refunds and non-payment will not affect credit scores.

Also, these six months of non-payment will qualify toward the 120 month repayment obligation for those borrowers in the public sector participating in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

These benefits do not apply to privately held student loans. Also, some federal loans issued under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and Perkins loans do not qualify.

For more information about this program, and other helpful information on how to deal with your student loan, you can visit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at:

www.consumerfinance.gov