30% of federal student loan borrowers have gone without food or medicine, CFPB finds

Nearly a third, 30%, of federal student loan borrowers say they’ve gone without food or medicine because of their monthly bills.

That grim finding comes from a new survey by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conducted between October 2023 and January 2024, and including more than 3,000 responses from people with an active or recently active student loan account.

The bureau sought to gauge more broadly how tens of millions with education debt fared when their bills resumed in September 2023 after the Covid-era pause on the payments expired.

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In addition to skipping necessities, 38% of borrowers said they carried credit card debt they wouldn’t have otherwise, the bureau found. Around 44% of borrowers said their education debt delayed when they could by a home, and 26% said the debt pushed back when they’d start a family.

“It’s clear that many borrowers are struggling with repayment,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement.

Outstanding education debt in the U.S. exceeds $1.6 trillion, according to a 2022 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Nearly 43 million people — or 1 in 6 adult Americans — carry student loans, the report said.

The CFPB report, released in the final months of President Joe Biden‘s tenure, is likely aimed at making the case that the Biden administration’s relief measures for student loan borrowers were and continue to be needed.

Biden has forgiven more federal student loan debt than any other president.

Since he took office, the Education Department has canceled the student loans of roughly 5 million people, totaling more than $175 billion in relief. It has done so mostly by improving existing student loan relief programs that had long been plagued by problems.

Surveyed borrowers who have had their debt forgiven say they were able to make numerous positive changes in their lives, the CFPB report found. Nearly half, 45%, of those borrowers saved more than they could have otherwise. Another 9% of borrowers changed jobs or started a business, and 19% said they sought medical treatment after their debt was excused.

President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal critic of student loan forgiveness policies, calling them “vile” and “not even legal.” Experts anticipate Trump will abandon most of the Biden administration’s efforts to deliver deeper student loan cancellation.

Republicans have framed Biden’s student loan relief efforts as a handout to those who are already financially comfortable.

“Forgiving student debt is a massive windfall to the rich,” Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio, a Yale Law School graduate, wrote on X in April 2022.

“Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power,” he wrote.

However, the median household income for people who received student loan forgiveness was between $50,000 and $65,000, the CFPB found. For comparison, the median household income in the U.S. is more than $80,000.