{"id":776294,"date":"2026-07-21T18:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/776294\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:12:17","slug":"record-student-loan-defaults-9-5m-borrowers-in-default-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/776294\/","title":{"rendered":"Record student loan defaults: 9.5M borrowers in default, data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A ‘Mornings with Maria’ panel reacts to a new report warning that Gen Z faces critically low credit scores and growing concerns about employability.<\/p>\n

Student loan defaults are up to a record high, with 9.5 million borrowers in default, meaning they are more than 270 days behind on loan payments, according to data from the Office of Federal Student Aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The near-10 million borrowers in default represent a record-high and nearly double the number in default at the nadir of a pandemic-prompted moratorium on student loan payments enacted by former President Joe Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March 2025, months after a default-halting payment pause that Biden signed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic ended, the U.S. had 5.3 million borrowers in default.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Biden-era moratorium technically ended in January 2024, but the former president tacked on a nine-month extension that lasted until September 2024. With borrowers having 270 days to pay before entering default, June 2025 started a skyrocketing of defaults that saw the U.S. add over 4 million defaulted borrowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AGREES TO SPEED UP STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS UNDER NEW COURT DEAL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Joe <\/p>\n

President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 14, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The 9.5 million defaulted borrowers represent more than 20% of all federal student loan borrowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the $1.7 trillion of federally-backed student loans in the U.S., $233.3 billion is in default, according to the Office of Federal Student Aid data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Borrowers in default are vulnerable to a number of collection methods that include loans being sent to collections agencies or having their wages garnished directly from their paychecks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has thus far been unwilling to take such strong measures, with the Department of Education choosing to delay<\/a> a plan to resume garnishment in January.<\/p>\n

TRUMP ADMIN STARTS SENDING NOTICES TO STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS IN DEFAULT AHEAD OF WAGE GARNISHMENT<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Department <\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Education headquarters building on June 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (J. David Ake\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But following a Republican attorneys general-led effort, a federal appeals court terminated<\/a> the SAVE Plan, a Biden-built program that lowered repayment rates for student loan borrowers and which 7.5 million Americans had signed up for.<\/p>\n

Though the challenge was led by red state attorneys general, the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) backed the efforts by encouraging federal courts to vacate the plan and reaching settlements<\/a> with states that were suing, such as Missouri.<\/p>\n

\"AG <\/p>\n

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey arrives to testify during the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Jan. 10, 2024. (Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Southern states have the highest concentrations of borrowers in default, with Mississippi leading the way at over 28% of its borrowers in default, according to an analysis from the Associated Press (AP).\u00a0<\/p>\n

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

While Mississippi leads all U.S. states, the territory of Puerto Rico has an even higher concentration of borrowers in default at over 30%.<\/p>\n

FOX Business contacted the White House and the Department of Education for additional comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ‘Mornings with Maria’ panel reacts to a new report warning that Gen Z faces critically low credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-776294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}