Borrowers will be given more time to select a payment plan, pay off their loans, or rehabilitate their loans.
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The Education Department said the delay is part of “the Trump Administration’s commitment to provide better support for current and future borrowers in repayment.”
The agency blamed the Biden administration for “misleading” borrowers into taking out loans, believing they would not have to be repaid.
“After the Biden Administration misled borrowers into believing their student loans would not need to be repaid, the Trump Administration is committed to helping student and parent borrowers resume regular, on-time repayment, with more clear and affordable options, which will support a stronger financial future for borrowers and enhance the long-term health of the federal student loan portfolio,” Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
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The department said earlier this month that it would start garnishing wages the week of Jan. 7.
The Biden administration had delayed student loan payments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic before the Trump administration restarted them last year.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon hinted there would be a pause on wage garnishing earlier this week.
“During the previous administration I think the whole repayment of loan issue became just so confusing. People just stopped paying. They didn’t know if their loan was going to be forgiven or how much of it was going to be forgiven,” McMahon said.
“We just started collecting again to say, ‘You know you’re in default, you don’t want this on your credit score,’” she added.
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Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, told Axios that the move to garnish wages would’ve been “reckless.”
“Amidst the growing affordability crisis, the Administration’s plans would have been economically reckless,” she said. “Earlier this month, a coalition of partners sent an urgent letter to ED urging them to do just this. We are pleased to see they have heeded our calls.”
