The Trump administration will begin to garnish the pay of student loan borrowers in January, the Department of Education said, stepping up a repayment enforcement effort that began this year.
Beginning the week of Jan. 7, roughly 1,000 borrowers who are in default will receive notices informing them of their status, according to an email from the department. The number of notices will increase on a monthly basis.
The collection activities are “conducted only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans,” according to the email, which was unsigned. The email did not contain any details about the nature of the garnishment, such as how much would be deducted from wages.
The Trump administration ended a five-year reprieve on student loan repayments in May this year, with forced collections on federal student loans in default — which meant tax refunds and other federal payments could be withheld and applied toward debt payments.
That move signaled the end of pandemic-era relief that began with pauses on payments in March 2020.
After several extensions by the Biden administration, payments resumed in October 2023, but borrowers weren’t penalized for defaulting until last year. About five million borrowers are in default, and millions more are expected to be close to missing payments.
The government had signaled earlier this year that it would send notices that would lead to a portion of a borrower’s paycheck being garnished. Being in collections and in default can damage credit scores.
Emmett Lindner is a business reporter for The Times.
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