These comments, submitted on behalf of organizations across the country that provide free legal assistance to low-income people, address the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed student debt relief rules that authorize the Secretary of Education to waive all or part of a borrower’s federal student loan balance under a number of specified circumstances. The comments are informed by our experience assisting low-income borrowers who seek help managing their student loan burdens and getting relief from servicing errors.
In these comments, legal aid organizations commend the Department for proposing common sense rules that would provide relief to low-income borrowers harmed by many of the most egregious past failures of the student loan system that have trapped people in debt that should have been canceled had the system worked properly and that have caused balances to go up rather than down during repayment.
Additionally, the comments include recommendations to further strengthen several provisions to expand relief to more low-income people struggling with unaffordable student loan debt.