Issue Brief Archives

Restoring the Promise of Income-Driven Repayment: An IDR Waiver Program Proposal

January 11, 2022

By the Center for Responsible Lending, Student Borrower Protection Center, and NCLC ‘s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, 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 more struggled to make student…

2022 Consumer Protection Federal Priorities

February 18, 2022

Delivering on the Child Tax Credit: Protect Payments from Government Offset

September 15, 2021

Congress is working to extend its historic improvements to the Child Tax Credit that will slash child poverty. Congress made significant improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for 2021 that are projected to cut child poverty by more than 40%. Legislation to extend these improvements is currently being considered as part of the reconciliation…

Predatory Rent-a-Bank Schemes are Evading State Law Across the Country; Congress Must Repeal the OCC's Fake Lender Rule

May 12, 2021

Voters across the country, on a bipartisan basis, support state interest rate limits. Voters also strongly support enforcement of the law and oppose evasions by rent-a-bank schemes. But the “fake lender” rule by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) allows predatory lenders to evade state interest rate laws by hiding behind a…

Summary of COVID Bankruptcy Relief Provisions

March 31, 2021

This chart provides a summary of the bankruptcy provisions in the CARES Act and Consolidated appropriations Act. To help attorneys deal with the different dates when these temporary provisions expire, the chart lists the provisions by sunset date. Each provision is accompanied by the Public Law and United States Code cites, and links for more…

The Credit Score Pandemic Paradox and Credit Invisibility

February 12, 2020

It’s been one of the most confounding economic paradoxes of the COVID-19 pandemic – why have credit scores remained steady, or even increased, despite the financial ruin caused by record unemployment, with entire industries such as restaurants and tourism decimated? The average FICO score has risen from 703 to 711, while delinquencies for credit card…

Doing Special Purpose Credit Programs Right: Why Programs to Assist Black Communities Should Avoid Conventional Use of Traditional Credit Scores

February 9, 2021

After racial justice protests and Black Lives Matter activism last summer, advocates and policymakers have proposed a number of programs for lessening the yawning racial disparities in Black-white homeownership and wealth. These include proposals for downpayment assistance, homeownership counseling, and special lending programs for Black borrowers. The latter are referred to as “special purpose credit…

Protect Tax Refunds from Offset and Garnishment: Preserve Stimulus Payments, Earned Income Tax Credits, and Child Tax Credits for Suffering Families

February 16, 2021

Congress has enacted extraordinary relief for families hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. That relief includes two rounds of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) and measures to help the poorest families, who got even poorer in 2020, to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) despite a lack of income in 2020. President Biden has also…

Criminal Justice Debt: 2021 Federal Priorities

January 12, 2021

Criminal justice debt has soared in recent years as governments have attempted to use fines and fees to cover the growing costs of the bloated criminal justice system, as well as government operations generally. The result has been disastrous.

Issue Brief: CFPB Changes Needed to Prevent New Debt Collection Rules from Hurting Consumers

January 1, 2021

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued debt collection regulations at the end of 2020. These rules enacted some provisions to benefit consumers, such as requiring collectors to comply with oral “stop calling” request and prohibiting credit reporting without first giving notice of the alleged debt to the consumer.

A Free Stimulus to Support Struggling Families & the Economy: First Suspend, then Reform, Wage & Bank Acct. Garnishment

January 21, 2021

To protect families who are struggling to make ends meet in the face of mushrooming debt, and tohelp workers and the economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis, Congress should: ▪ Adopt a temporary moratorium on the garnishment of wages and bank accounts.▪ Permanently increase the amount of wages protected from garnishment to prevent pushingfamilies into…

Wake-Up Call to State Governments: Protect Online Education Students from For-Profit School Fraud

December 9, 2015

Distance online education is now the fastest growing segment of higher education. Most states, however, have abdicated their responsibility to protect the increasing number of online education students from predatory and illegal practices of for-profit education companies. Most allow out-of-state companies to enroll online students without complying with important state consumer protections for postsecondary students,…

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