Today, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the following new measures intended to relieve federal student loan borrowers amidst the COVID-19 national emergency.
- The Department will halt collection actions and wage garnishments related to federal student loans for a 60 day period beginning March 13th, 2020. Private collection agencies have been requested to stop proactive collection efforts.
- The Department will not request Treasury to withhold money from federal tax returns and social security payments.
- The Department will refund $1.3 billion in offsets to more than 800,000 borrowers. This represents offsets which were in the process of being withheld as of March 13th, 2020.
These measures are in addition to previously announced steps; federal loan interest rates have been adjusted to 0%, as well as all borrowers have the option to halt payments for 60 days from March 13th, 2020 by contacting their loan servicer.