The COVID-19 student loan forbearance ended this month, and some 40 million Americans once saw interest begin to accrue again on their federal student loans on September 1st. Next month, repayments on the loans themselves will resume.
As people struggle to make their first payments in more than three years, many are being targeted by robocalls that promote scams which offer help that is not real. Student loan borrowers in Minnesota who paid one of the 52 companies suspected of falsely promising them loan forgiveness could get help, after the state launched an investigation. This is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
ATTORNEY GENERAL KEITH ELLISON: We, at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, opened up an investigation into some companies that are purporting to help students do debt relief. … But if they tell you that they can forgive your loan or cancel your loan, you know, they probably cannot. Really only that’s something the federal government can do. Know that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Meanwhile, another tool, launched by the Debt Collective, helps people apply to the Department of Education and ask them to cancel the borrower’s debt. As the website notes, quote, “Filling out this form creates an individual demand letter, tailored to your own student debt story, calling on the Department of Education to use its powers to cancel not just your debt, but everyone’s.”
For more on all of this, we’re joined by Astra Taylor, organizer with the Debt Collective. She has also just published her new book, titled The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.
— source democracynow.org | Sep 12, 2023