ED: Borrowers With Privately-Held FFEL Loans Will Receive Retroactive Relief
Owen Daugherty and Hugh T. Ferguson
March 30,2021
Borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) who haven’t received relief amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will now experience a reprieve, as the Department of Education (ED) on Tuesday announced a pause on interest accumulation and collections on all defaulted loans for those in the FFEL program.
Since those loans are guaranteed by the federal government but held by the private sector, borrowers with FFEL have been excluded from ED’s relief measures up to this point.
“At a time when many student loan borrowers have faced economic uncertainty, we’re ensuring that relief already provided to borrowers of loans held by the department is available to more borrowers who need the same help so they can focus on meeting their basic needs,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement announcing the action. “Our goal is to enable these borrowers who are struggling in default to get the same protections previously made available to tens of millions of other borrowers to help weather the uncertainty of the pandemic.”
