US President Donald Trump signs decrees relating to higher education institutions, alongside the American Secretary for Education Linda McMahon (R), at the White House Oval office in Washington, DC, April 23, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty images
Trump administration Resumption of collection efforts on default student loans on Monday after an interruption of approximately five years – and Affected borrowers could start to feel the financial consequences earlier than the experts expected.
The American Department of Education published new details On the actions he plans to take when.
Here's what you need to know.
Federal advantages could be garnished by June
Risk salary during the summer
THE Treasury Department Will send opinions to 5.3 million in default borrowers on the activity of collecting their salary “later this summer”, wrote the Department of Education in the press release on Monday.
How efforts to collect student loans have changed
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the collection activity on federal student loans has been mainly interrupted. The Biden administration focused on the extension of rescue measures to borrowers in difficulty following the cocovio pandemic and helping them to update.
The aggressive collection activity of the Trump administration is a lively turn of this strategy, according to experts.
“Borrowers should repay the debts they take,” said US Secretary for Education Linda McMahon in a video Posted on X on April 22.
The US government has extraordinary covering powers on federal debts and can seize borrowers' Federal tax reimbursements,, wagesAnd Social Security retirement and disability services.
But in the past, student loans have generally received a notice of 65 days before the seizure of their federal advantages, said Mark Kantrowitz, higher education expert.
“Weird that they say 30 -day notice,” said Kantrowitz.
Historically, compensation for people's retirement and disability benefits were also “a last appeal,” said Kantrowitz, “occurring a year after the salary seizure and other collection attempts failed.”
“Given the calendar, it seems that they do not continue the normal calendar of reasonable diligence to collect federal student loans by default,” added Kantrowitz.
The United States Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Social security garnishes can affect retirees
Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Assistance Consumer Assistance Program in New York, recently told CNBC that she was particularly concerned about the consequences of the collections taken up on retirees.
“The loss of part of their social security services to reimburse student loans may mean that it does not have enough for food, transport to medical meetings or other basic necessities,” said Rodriguez in an interview in April.
There are approximately 2.9 million people aged 62 and over with federal student loans, in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the Department of Education. This represents an increase of 71% compared to 2017, while there were 1.7 million borrowers of this type.
How to avoid collection activity
Borrowers In default, the emails will make them informed of the new policy, said the Department of Education. You can contact the government Default resolution group And continue a number of different tracks to obtain the current on your loans, in particular the registration for a reimbursement plan focused on income or registration at loan rehabilitation.
Some borrowers can also be eligible Reformations Or a tremissive, which are different ways to suspend your payments, said Rodriguez.
“We advise customers to request a retroactive fund to cover missed payments and temporary abstention until they can be listed on an income-based reimbursement plan,” she said.
Are you at risk of collection activity because you are late on your student loans? If you are ready to share your experience for a story to come, please send me an email in Annie.nova@nbcuni.com
