Cheyenne Munfrey
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said on Tuesday that borrowers who defaulted on federal student loans were no longer at risk of obtaining Social Security benefits.
The government last month saw millions of people reopening their default collection of loans. An estimated 452,000 people over the age of 62 fulfilled their student loans by default, according to a January report from the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
The department has not graced social security benefits since the collection reopened after the pandemic and has suspended “future social security offsets,” said department spokesman Ellen Keist.
“The Trump administration is committed to protecting Social Security beneficiaries who often rely on bonds,” Keyst said.
Advocates have encouraged the Trump administration to go further to provide relief to around 5.3 million borrowers by default.
“Simply suspending tactics for this collection is terrible insufficient,” says Persis Yu, executive director of Student Borrower Protection Center. “The ongoing efforts to resume government debt collectors are cruel and unnecessary, and will incite further flames of economic disruption for working families in this country.”
Elderly student loan debt has grown at an incredible rate, partly due to the increased tuition fees that forced more people to borrow in large quantities. People over the age of 60 hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, which has been a six-fold increase over 20 years ago.
It led Social Security beneficiaries who inflated payments from around 6,200 beneficiaries to 192,300 between 2001 and 2019, according to the CFPB.
Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
Associated Press Education Compensation receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP standards for working with Ap.org supporters and charities, a funded coverage area.
Original issue: June 3, 2025, 3:25pm EDT
