Politics

The Department of Education said Friday it will temporarily delay forced collections on federal student loans. The pause applies to collection efforts such as Administrative Wage Garnishment and the Treasury Offset Program.

“The Department determined that involuntary collection efforts such as Administrative Wage Garnishment and the Treasury Offset Program will function more efficiently and fairly after the Trump Administration implements significant improvements to our broken student loan system," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent.

Friday’s announcement appears to mark a reversal in policy. The department began sending wage garnishment notices earlier this month, the first step in a process that could have automatically deducted up to 15% of a borrower’s paycheck. About 1,000 notices had been sent to borrowers in default, representing a small fraction of the more than 5 million borrowers who have defaulted on their federal student loans.