Education Department to resume seizing wages for student loan debt

Millions of borrowers in default on their student loans also could have their tax refunds and Social Security benefits garnished to make good on their debt.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/21/student-loan-debt-collection-education-department/

https://archive.ph/1fApY



Beginning next month, the Education Department will resume withholding money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits to pay down the debt of people in default on their student loans, ending a five-year pause on involuntary collections. Wage garnishments will restart this summer.

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default, having failed to make a payment on their loan for at least 360 days before the federal government stopped referring past-due debts for collection because of the pandemic. Those borrowers could face some of the most severe consequences of default when the agency restarts collections May 5.

“American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday. “The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear.”

The resumptions arrive as delinquencies on federal student loans climb. Four million people who are supposed to be making payments on their loans were more than 90 days and up to 180 days past due as of late March, according to the Education Department.

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