American Millennials are about to get screwed yet again if Biden doesn't cancel student-loan debt
Provided by Business Insider If Biden doesn't cancel student debt, millennials are in store for another economic challenge. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/Getty Images
Federal student-loan debt payments are set to resume this fall, coupled with higher interest rates.
Biden has yet to fulfill his campaign promise to cancel $10,000 in student debt per person.
If he doesn't, it would be just another way millennials get economically screwed.
Millions of Americans have enjoyed a reprieve from the squeeze of student debt during the pandemic. But, come fall, the student-debt crisis could pick up where it left off - or snowball into an even bigger problem.
The pause on student-loan payments and zero interest accrual that have been in place since March 2020 will lift at the end of September. When it does, borrowers will be paying 1% more in interest than they did in 2019. Although rates are still relatively low compared to previous years, Forbes reported that the new interest rates will cost borrowers as much as an additional $590 per $10,000 borrowed on a 10-year repayment term.
The impending lift on the payment pause, coupled with rising interest rates, doesn't bode well for millions of borrowers, who have been able to stay financially afloat during the pandemic without the burden of paying off their student-loan debt. That's especially true for millennials, for which student-loan debt has been one of many balls in a long-time juggling act of financial challenges.
Many have been hoping they wouldn't have any student-loan debt at all come fall - or at least, a much lighter load.
Joe Biden campaigned on supporting $10,000 in student debt cancelation per person, but since becoming president, he's given no clear timeline for doing so. He hasn't included his campaign promise in his stimulus plan, infrastructure plan, or his budget, and has resisted calls from Democratic lawmakers to cancel up to $50,000 per person using his executive powers. While he released a regulatory agenda on Friday that plans to improve student-loan forgiveness programs by 2022, it's not the immediate relief Democrats are looking for, and its details are vague.
Millennials have had bad economic luck. They've ventured through one financial woe after another since the oldest of them graduated into the dismal job market of the 2008 financial crisis. A dozen years later, many are still grappling with the lingering effects of The Great Recession, struggling to build wealth while trying to afford soaring living costs for things like housing and healthcare. The pandemic threw yet another wrench into their plans by giving them their second recession and second housing crisis before the age of 40.
And the generation has dealt with all of this while shouldering the lion's share of student-loan debt. If Biden continues not to act on debt relief, the student-loan crisis has the potential to intensify, adding to the pile of millennial economic challenges.
Student debt has left a stain on millennials' adulthood
Forty-three million borrowers currently share the $1.7 trillion of national student-loan debt. As of 2019, the 15.1 million borrowers ages 25 to 34 - a large chunk of the millennial population - owed an average of $33,000.
The burden is so great that it's prevented many millennials from achieving life milestones like buying a house, having kids, or moving to their dream city.
"I still haven't been able to save enough to put a down payment on a house and commit to another 30-year loan," Daniela Capparelli, who graduated with $150,000 debt, told Insider in the beginning of 2020, when she was 35. "I often feel like I already have a mortgage without the house."
Student debt has been one of millennials' many economic woes.
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images
Read more: Millennials are finally catching up in earnings and homeownership, but student debt is keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever
Student loans are also keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever. If student loans didn't exist, millennials ages 28 to 38 would have a 76% net wealth-to-income ratio, higher than their current 56% wealth-to-income ratio, per a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
For the millennials who have found themselves at the bottom of the intragenerational millennial wealth gap that the pandemic has exacerbated, student debt is especially painful. This group was more likely to already have lower earnings pre-pandemic, and to burn through savings when hit by unemployment or pay cuts.
The pause in payments has been a temporary solution to the nation's debt burden. Borrowers have saved $2,000 on average in interest during this time, per a report by travel research group Upgraded Points which also noted, "while those couple thousand dollars could have been imperative in keeping borrowers in the black during pandemic-related hardships, these borrowers are still far from climbing out of the holes they dug in college."
When the pause lifts, it has the potential to leave struggling millennials feeling more slammed with student debt than before, after a year spent falling further financially behind on other areas.
Video: Will President Biden cancel student loan debt? (NBC News)
Biden has canceled billions of student loans that are only 0.2% of the total
Now, Biden has taken some steps toward student-loan debt assistance. He extended the payment pause, which was set to end in January, through September 30. And, through the Department of Education, he cleared up billions of dollars in debt in just a few months for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools and borrowers with disabilities.
But, as Insider's Ayelet Sheffey reported, this still left trillions of outstanding debt. Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, told her that compared with the scale of the student-debt crisis, canceling debt for defrauded borrowers and borrowers with disabilities is "massively unimpressive."
"We're in a pandemic, and we've lost tens of millions of jobs," he said. "The people who are hurt the worst tend to be the people who have student-loan debt."
Read more: Millennials are finally catching up in earnings and homeownership, but student debt is keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever
Student loans are also keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever. If student loans didn't exist, millennials ages 28 to 38 would have a 76% net wealth-to-income ratio, higher than their current 56% wealth-to-income ratio, per a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
For the millennials who have found themselves at the bottom of the intragenerational millennial wealth gap that the pandemic has exacerbated, student debt is especially painful. This group was more likely to already have lower earnings pre-pandemic, and to burn through savings when hit by unemployment or pay cuts.
The pause in payments has been a temporary solution to the nation's debt burden. Borrowers have saved $2,000 on average in interest during this time, per a report by travel research group Upgraded Points which also noted, "while those couple thousand dollars could have been imperative in keeping borrowers in the black during pandemic-related hardships, these borrowers are still far from climbing out of the holes they dug in college."
When the pause lifts, it has the potential to leave struggling millennials feeling more slammed with student debt than before, after a year spent falling further financially behind on other areas.
Video: Will President Biden cancel student loan debt? (NBC News)
Biden has canceled billions of student loans that are only 0.2% of the total
Now, Biden has taken some steps toward student-loan debt assistance. He extended the payment pause, which was set to end in January, through September 30. And, through the Department of Education, he cleared up billions of dollars in debt in just a few months for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools and borrowers with disabilities.
But, as Insider's Ayelet Sheffey reported, this still left trillions of outstanding debt. Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, told her that compared with the scale of the student-debt crisis, canceling debt for defrauded borrowers and borrowers with disabilities is "massively unimpressive."
"We're in a pandemic, and we've lost tens of millions of jobs," he said. "The people who are hurt the worst tend to be the people who have student-loan debt."
© Provided by Business Insider Millions of borrowers are waiting for Biden to fulfill his campaign promise of cancelling $10,000 in student debt per borrower.
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Read more: The case for cancelling student debt isn't political - it's practical. Here are the benefits of erasing $1.6 trillion, no strings attached.
So far, $2.3 billion in student debt has been cancelled - only 0.2% of student loans swimming through the system.
In February, he effectively rejected a plan put forward by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer to wipe out $50,000 in student-loan debt per borrower.
"I will not make that happen," he had said to a CNN town-hall audience, adding that he believed loan forgiveness depends on whether borrowers attended a private or public college. "I'm prepared to write off $10,000 in debt, but not 50. I don't think I have the authority to do it."
Both Democrats and cities have urged Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt per borrower, arguing that it would provide immediate relief to borrowers if Biden used his executive authority to do so. But there's a discrepancy among Biden and lawmakers on whether he can actually use his executive powers to cancel debt.
He told The Washington Post that it is "arguable" the president can use executive powers to cancel student debt, and he would be unlikely to do so. That means the status of the cancelation of a minimum of $10,000 of debt remains in Congress' hands.
Student-loan forgiveness would be a 'lifeline' for millennials
Student-loan relief would benefit millions.
A Department of Education (DOE) analysis obtained by Yahoo Finance found that $50,000 in student-loan forgiveness per person would erase the entire debt for 84% of borrowers in the US with federal loans, while $10,000 in forgiveness would erase the entire debt for 35% of these borrowers.
That includes everyone from Gen Z to those over the age of 50. But millennials, facing one economic conundrum after another, have adopted new social norms to suit the times, hitting milestones like marriage and homeownership later than their parents, if they happen at all. The pandemic has created a whole new slew of crises for them that have exacerbated existing ones, student debt chief among them.
Read more: The case for cancelling student debt isn't political - it's practical. Here are the benefits of erasing $1.6 trillion, no strings attached.
So far, $2.3 billion in student debt has been cancelled - only 0.2% of student loans swimming through the system.
In February, he effectively rejected a plan put forward by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer to wipe out $50,000 in student-loan debt per borrower.
"I will not make that happen," he had said to a CNN town-hall audience, adding that he believed loan forgiveness depends on whether borrowers attended a private or public college. "I'm prepared to write off $10,000 in debt, but not 50. I don't think I have the authority to do it."
Both Democrats and cities have urged Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt per borrower, arguing that it would provide immediate relief to borrowers if Biden used his executive authority to do so. But there's a discrepancy among Biden and lawmakers on whether he can actually use his executive powers to cancel debt.
He told The Washington Post that it is "arguable" the president can use executive powers to cancel student debt, and he would be unlikely to do so. That means the status of the cancelation of a minimum of $10,000 of debt remains in Congress' hands.
Student-loan forgiveness would be a 'lifeline' for millennials
Student-loan relief would benefit millions.
A Department of Education (DOE) analysis obtained by Yahoo Finance found that $50,000 in student-loan forgiveness per person would erase the entire debt for 84% of borrowers in the US with federal loans, while $10,000 in forgiveness would erase the entire debt for 35% of these borrowers.
That includes everyone from Gen Z to those over the age of 50. But millennials, facing one economic conundrum after another, have adopted new social norms to suit the times, hitting milestones like marriage and homeownership later than their parents, if they happen at all. The pandemic has created a whole new slew of crises for them that have exacerbated existing ones, student debt chief among them.
Student-debt forgiveness would help narrow the generational wealth gap.
Andrew Burton/Reuters
Read more: College is more expensive than it's ever been, and the 5 reasons why suggest it's only going to get worse
Student-loan forgiveness was a top priority for voters in the election. If Biden doesn't fulfill his campaign promise to relieve $10,000 in student debt, he'd be leaving the generation, many of whom were banking on him to absolve at least a portion of their biggest burdens, screwed yet again.
"We need some help, and that forgiveness, for a lot of us, would just be a lifeline," Alexander Cockerham, 38, who took out $42,000 in federal in private loans to attend school, previously told Insider.
But the resumption of student loan payments is drawing near, with little to no action in sight. In early April, Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, told Politico that the White House was "looking into" its legal authority to cancel $50,000 per person. Shortly afterward, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that option wasn't being ruled out.
An Education Dept. spokesperson told Insider that the agency remains "committed to delivering" targeted relief to borrowers and helping all of them manage repayment, and continues to closely review data related to return to repayment. It is also working with the Department of Justice and White House "as quickly as possible" to review all student debt cancellation options. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment).
While cancellation doesn't exactly need to happen before the pause lifts, it would be even more beneficial to borrowers if it did, helping them lower the amount they would pay interest on or even preventing them from ever having to pay again altogether. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in May he has not ruled out further extending the pause, but, again, no action has been taken yet to do so.
If Biden fails to cancel student debt, he's sacrificing opportunities to help narrow the racial wealth gap, assist low-income borrowers, and boost the economy. For millennials, specifically, it would just be the latest way they can't catch a break.
Read more: College is more expensive than it's ever been, and the 5 reasons why suggest it's only going to get worse
Student-loan forgiveness was a top priority for voters in the election. If Biden doesn't fulfill his campaign promise to relieve $10,000 in student debt, he'd be leaving the generation, many of whom were banking on him to absolve at least a portion of their biggest burdens, screwed yet again.
"We need some help, and that forgiveness, for a lot of us, would just be a lifeline," Alexander Cockerham, 38, who took out $42,000 in federal in private loans to attend school, previously told Insider.
But the resumption of student loan payments is drawing near, with little to no action in sight. In early April, Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, told Politico that the White House was "looking into" its legal authority to cancel $50,000 per person. Shortly afterward, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that option wasn't being ruled out.
An Education Dept. spokesperson told Insider that the agency remains "committed to delivering" targeted relief to borrowers and helping all of them manage repayment, and continues to closely review data related to return to repayment. It is also working with the Department of Justice and White House "as quickly as possible" to review all student debt cancellation options. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment).
While cancellation doesn't exactly need to happen before the pause lifts, it would be even more beneficial to borrowers if it did, helping them lower the amount they would pay interest on or even preventing them from ever having to pay again altogether. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in May he has not ruled out further extending the pause, but, again, no action has been taken yet to do so.
If Biden fails to cancel student debt, he's sacrificing opportunities to help narrow the racial wealth gap, assist low-income borrowers, and boost the economy. For millennials, specifically, it would just be the latest way they can't catch a break.
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