Debt ceiling deal puts student loans back on repayment. How are borrowers reacting?

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The debt ceiling deal between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is changing the social programs and federal pauses on student loan payments.

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the debt ceiling deal’s legislation on Wednesday, with the U.S. Senate to take it up on June 5.

Channel 2′s Elizabeth Rawlins went to Emory University to get community reactions, now that payments are set to start again at the end of August.

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If the debt ceiling deal passes, ending the repayment pause, many Americans will have to start making payments again, impacting 43 million Americans.

About one in seven Americans has student loan debt, with some wondering how they’re going to fit the payments into their budget.

While the resumption of student loan payments won’t hit borrowers who are still in school, those who are graduating, or have already moved on to their careers and are working in their fields will have to start making payments again.

Channel 2 Action News spoke to former students who say they’re not ready for the payments to resume.

“I have over $200,000 in debt,” Letitia Robinson, a former student, said.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, federal student loan payments were suspended. The new debt ceiling deal in Congress could end that by the end of August.

“I do think it’s going to hurt,” Amber Ackerman, a former student said. “I think if we want a well-educated population, we need to make it more affordable and more possible.”

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“No, I don’t think people are ready, because of the way the economy is now,” Tyler Farmer, another former student told Channel 2 Action News.

Some say the pause on loan payments has hardly been a break for their finances due to three years of inflation caused in part by the pandemic.

“Prices on everything else have gone up since they implemented that break,” Farmer continued. “Now you’ve got these higher prices and student loans on top of that.”

Ackerman, who went to medical school, said the cost was high.

“You pay to go to medical school, which is very expensive,” she said. “You also don’t earn very much money when you are a resident.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not really ready yet,” Robinson said.

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