Education Department says it will not garnish Social Security of student loan borrowers in default

Key Points

• The Education Department has paused any future Social Security offsets and will not garnish benefits of federal student loan borrowers in default.
• Although collections for millions of defaulters resumed last month, no Social Security benefits have been seized since then, affecting an estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older.
• Advocates warn that simply pausing garnishments is insufficient, calling for broader relief for the roughly 5.3 million borrowers in default.
• Student loan debt among older Americans has surged to an estimated $125 billion, with Social Security offsets growing from about 6,200 to 192,300 beneficiaries between 2001 and 2019.

Borrowers who have defaulted on their federal student loans will no longer be at risk of having their Social Security benefits garnished, an Education Department spokesperson said Tuesday.

The government last month restarted collections for the millions of people in default on their loans. An estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older had student loans in default, according to a January report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The department has not garnished any Social Security benefits since the post-pandemic resumption of collections and has paused “any future Social Security offsets,” department spokesperson Ellen Keast said.

“The Trump Administration is committed to protecting Social Security recipients who oftentimes rely on a fixed income,” Keast said.

Advocates encouraged the Trump administration to go further to provide relief for the roughly 5.3 million borrowers in default.

“Simply pausing this collection tactic is woefully insufficient,” said Persis Yu, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. "Any continued effort to restart the government’s debt collection machine is cruel, unnecessary and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country.”

Student loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate, in part due to rising tuition that has forced more people to borrow heavily. People 60 and older hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, a sixfold increase from 20 years ago.

That led Social Security beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon from approximately 6,200 beneficiaries to 192,300 between 2001 and 2019, according to the CFPB.

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Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.

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