Today, in response to news of the passage of the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act in the U.S. House, which will now head to the President’s desk, Kyra Taylor, student loan staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, issued the following statement:
“We applaud Congress’s long overdue decision to create a path to separate spousal consolidation loans.
“Congress stopped allowing married borrowers to consolidate all of their loans into joint consolidation loans over 15 years ago but did not provide a vehicle for borrowers with those loans to undo the consolidation. As a result, borrowers with these obsolete loan types faced difficulty or were ineligible for new relief programs that were created in the years since, like Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
“Spousal consolidation loans have been a terrible burden for borrowers who have since divorced or been subject to domestic abuse, as these loans financially handcuff them to their former spouses or abusers.
“We hope that the Department of Education works expediently to implement these changes.”