Overview

• The U.S. Department of Education resumed collections on May 5 and began garnishing Social Security benefits for defaulted federal student loans.
• Thousands of Social Security recipients, including more than 450,000 seniors in default, face up to 15% of their monthly checks being withheld.
• In May, 195,000 defaulted borrowers received 30-day warning notices ahead of the benefit offsets.
• Later this summer, 5.3 million defaulted borrowers will receive notices of administrative wage garnishment on their earnings.
• Borrowers can stop the offsets by completing loan rehabilitation, consolidating loans, proving financial hardship or securing a loan discharge.