Millions of federal student-loan borrowers just got an additional 4 months of relief through Biden’s fourth payment pause extension

Millions of federal student-loan borrowers just got an additional 4 months of relief through Biden’s fourth payment pause extension

President Joe Biden just extended the pandemic pause on student-loan payments a fourth time, through August 31. On Wednesday, Biden announced that federal student-loan borrowers will be getting an additional four months without being required to make monthly debt payments, just weeks before the previous student-loan payment pause was set to expire on May 1. Over the past weeks, lawmakers and advocates have been urging Biden to extend needed relief for borrowers, and it looks like his administration heeded those calls. Biden said in a statement that "as I recognized in recently extending the COVID-19 national emergency, we are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented disruption it caused. If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the suggest that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten American's financial stability." The Education Department wrote in a statement that during the extension, it will "continue to assess the financial impacts of the pandemic on student loan borrowers and to prepare to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment." This includes allowing borrowers with paused loans to receive a "fresh start" by returning them to good