By Claire Ballentine
The return of student loans payments is getting closer. The exact date hinges on the Supreme Court’s decision on President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal loans per borrower.
Required payments on federal student debt have been on pause for more than three years. The Biden administration announced late last year that payments would resume 60 days after one of two dates: The court’s decision or June 30, whichever comes first. That puts the start date no later than Aug. 29.
Still, there are a few clues that narrow down when the decision will come. The court typically recesses at the end of June, so any decision is most likely to come before then.
The court issued rulings today and is currently scheduled to take the bench every Thursday until June 22, so theoretically a decision could come any of those days. Plus, they might add additional days at some point, which could be any day of the week, and the last week of June is usually a free-for-all in terms of opinion releases.
An announcement could be made this month, but a backlog of court cases — the justices still have more than 40 disputes to decide — will likely delay it until June. Many cases argued late last year have yet to be decided, which could take precedence over the student loan case argued in late February.
The so-called restart date on student loans is just when interest begins to accrue. Borrowers won’t have to pay their bill until at least a couple weeks later, explained Travis Hornsby, founder of the personal-finance resource site Student Loan Planner.
“One benefit of the freeze generation is they do get an extra 30 days when the interest turns on, before the actual money has to come out,” he said, referring to the group of people who graduated in the pandemic and haven’t had to make a single payment.
–With assistance from Ella Ceron and Greg Stohr.
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