The moratorium has been extended to the end of the summer.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic back in March of 2020, student loan payment collections were paused. The economic impact of the early stages of the pandemic had severely hampered many peoples’ livlihoods, and making large payments back on loans simply wasn’t feasible, so collection was frozen to prevent those people from financially endangering themselves. This pause was originally scheduled to end this coming May, but today, it’s been pushed back a little further.

United States President Joe Biden announced today that the Student Loan moratorium has been extended until August 31, 2022. Payments, interest, and collections will all remain paused until this time.

“We are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused,” said President Biden. “If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans’ financial stability.”

Following this announcement, the US Department of Education released a statement on the matter. “The Department will continue to assess the financial impacts of the pandemic on student loan borrowers and to prepare to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment. This includes allowing all borrowers with paused loans to receive a ‘fresh start’ on repayment by eliminating the impact of delinquency and default and allowing them to reenter repayment in good standing.”