SALT LAKE CITY — President Joe Biden order the U.S. Department of Education to continue deferring student loan payments through the end of Sept. 2021. This will give people more than a year of the student loan payment freeze which was first approved in March 2020.
“I think the uncertainty about if this executive order would be extended was probably causing a lot of people anxiety,” Jason Taylor, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah, said.
Right now, a lot of people are paying for basic needs and this decision allows people to focus on those bills and avoid people defaulting on their loans, Taylor said.
“If we didn’t have this relief right now, we would see exasperated inequities in default rates among people with student loan debt,” he said.
This is a time people shouldn’t waste, Talin Larson, Fair Credit certified financial counselor, said. Fair Credit is a non-profit in Utah aimed to help people with their finances.
“Start preparing now, it’s not often that we get extensions on due dates,” he said.
This is a good time for people to make a game plan, Larson suggested.
“Just helping to encourage people to save more rather than spend the money that comes with stimulus checks or whatever it may be to get something nice and new,” he said.
For more information on the student loan payment freeze, click here.
