A petition is being organized — and so far 35,000 individuals have signed it — asking the Department of Education to cancel their student loan debts. Issues with repayment and other concerns have led 40,000 individuals to go on a “student debt strike,” according to a published report.
The Background: Earlier this month, the Department of Education revealed that 9 million of the 22 million individuals with federal student loan debt had yet to make a payment after the payment moratorium was lifted on October 1. While consumers are not yet facing any consequences for not making payments — and won’t face any until next October — that so many had yet to make a payment was not a great sign.
What’s Going On: While the likely reason that so many have not yet made a payment is because they don’t have the funds to do so, perhaps there are other factors at work. Some may still be hoping that the federal government is able to cancel some or all of the outstanding student loan debt and don’t want to make any payments in case that happens. Others are using that 9 million figure to illustrate their argument why student loan debt cancellation or forgiveness needs to be put back on the table.
The founder of an organization called the Debt Collective, which bills (get it?) itself as a union for debtors, said that those who have not yet made a payment are instead making a statement, and calls this a “massive student debt strike.”
- It’s important for individuals with student loans to know that even if they are not making payments and even if the non-payments are not being reported to credit bureaus or assigned to collection agencies, interest on the debts has started accruing again, experts said.
