Student Loan Toolkit
The Student Loan Toolkit explains the basics of the student loan system, how to assess your own student loan situation, and your options for managing your student loan debt.
Search Results
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New Federal Student Loan Servicing Contracts, New Promises: Will it Make a Difference for Borrowers?
We acknowledge that USDS represents an improved servicing environment for borrowers and offer recommendations to ensure a successful transition to the USDS servicing environment.
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Examining the States’ Role in Protecting Online College Students from Predatory Practices
This report provides background on the states’ role as student consumer protector and a brief history of the federal government’s fraught efforts to regulate state authorization for distance education. We call on policymakers to keep in mind the states’ role as student consumer protector in state authorization and reciprocity rulemaking, particularly with respect to distance…
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Pushed into Poverty: How Student Loan Collections Threaten the Financial Security of Older Americans
Student loan debt is threatening the financial security of an increasing number of older Americans. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the number of consumers age 60 and older with student loan debt has quadrupled over the last decade. Tragically, a large portion of older student loan borrowers struggle to afford basic needs.…
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Pounding Student Loan Borrowers: The Heavy Cost of the Government's Partnership with Debt Collection Agencies
The U.S. Department of Education refers every eligible defaulted debt to one of 22 private collection agencies. Despite the history of consumer abuses by the collection industry, the United States government hires collectors not only to collect money, but also to communicate with borrowers about options to address student loan debt and to help borrowers…
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Report: Inequitable Judgments - Examining Race and Federal Student Loan Collection Lawsuits
Of the 44 million student loan borrowers, nearly one in five is currently in default on one or more federal student loans. The consequences of federal student loan default—such as wage garnishment, offset of federal benefits and tax refunds (including the Earned Income Tax Credit), and for some borrowers, a federal lawsuit—are devastating. A judgment…
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Report: Road to Relief - Supporting Federal Student Loan Borrowers During the Covid-19 Crisis and Beyond
Even before COVID-19, student loan borrowers struggled under the weight of more than $1.6 trillion in debt. One in four borrowers was in default or serious delinquency, and many worried about their ability to make student loan payments while covering other basic needs. Because of decades of structural inequities and discrimination, student loans have burdened…
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Collection At All Costs: Examining the Intersection of Mass Incarceration and the Student Debt Crisis
The collateral consequences of ending up on the wrong side of America’s criminal legal system are increasingly recognized as wide-ranging and harmful. Incarceration or even simply a criminal record can limit nearly every aspect of a person’s life even after their sentence ends, interfering with the ability to keep or get a job and support…
