Debt & Savings

Chaotic US Student-Loan Restart Drives Surging Delinquency Rate

Americans with federal debt are facing financial consequences for missed payments after a long pandemic pause.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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It was always going to be hard to push more than 40 million US borrowers to pay off roughly $1.6 trillion in student loans after a years-long freeze and talk of widespread forgiveness.

But just months after pandemic-era forbearance measures to limit the impact of late payments formally subsided, cracks are starting to form, with potentially long-lasting financial consequences for delinquent borrowers.