On Friday, March 13, President Donald Trump announced a waiver of federal student loans in response to economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
One week later, he took it a step further and announced that federal student loan borrowers will be able to suspend payments for 60 days, without penalty.
The company managing the loan repayments will waive any interest from accruing since March 13, the day Trump’s initial order went into effect. This waiver is currently in effect until further notice.
As detailed in a recent report by Money.com, all federal student loans – including Direct Stafford, Direct Parent, Graduate PLUS and Direct Consolidation – qualify for the waiver.
To check if your loan qualifies, go to studentaid.gov and check to see if the lender is listed as the Department of Education. If it is, the loan qualifies.
Loans that do not qualify include private loans, or loans issued by state lending authorities. For relief on private loans, it is recommended to contact your respective private lender for possible flexibility options.
The initial waiver was not a suspension of monthly loan payments. As recently reported by Politico, “a borrower’s monthly payment amount would not automatically change, though any payments the borrower did make would likely pay down a greater share of the principal balance.”
This means that loan borrowers can pay up their principal loan amount quicker, shortening the loan term.
However, this was not the amount of help that Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates had called for, which is more along the lines of halting student loan payments completely, like the National Consumer Law Center has recently requested.
Now, thanks to Trump’s most recent move, not only are payments suspended for a time, but standardized testing requirements for elementary and high school students have also been waived.
The Institute of Student Loan Advisors Corporation has a list of other options for anyone who is unable to make loan payments. These include:
- Income-driven repayment plans
- Extended or graduated repayment
- Unemployment deferment
- Forbearance
