WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Tuesday its plan to begin garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default starting early next year.

The Department of Education will initiate this process by sending out notices to approximately 1,000 borrowers during the week of January 7. The number of notices is expected to increase significantly each month thereafter.

Currently, millions of borrowers are classified as being in default, which means they have not made payments for at least 270 days. Before any wage garnishment takes place, the department is required to provide borrowers with a 30-day notice.

The department emphasized that collection efforts will commence “only after student and parent borrowers have been sufficiently notified and given an opportunity to repay their loans.”

Earlier in May, the Trump administration ended the pause on student loan payments that had been put in place during the pandemic. This resumption included collecting on defaulted loans by withholding tax refunds and other federal payments.

This decision marks the end of a lenient period for student loan borrowers. Although payments resumed in October 2023, the Biden administration offered a one-year grace period. Since March 2020, no federal student loans, including those in default, had been sent for collection until the recent changes implemented by the Trump administration.

The Biden administration tried multiple times to give broad forgiveness to student loans, but those efforts were eventually stopped by courts.

Persis Yu, deputy executive director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, criticized the decision to begin garnishing wages, and said the department had failed to sufficiently help borrowers find affordable payment options.

“At a time when families across the country are struggling with stagnant wages and an affordability crisis, this administration’s decision to garnish wages from defaulted student loan borrowers is cruel, unnecessary, and irresponsible,” Yu said in a statement. “As millions of borrowers sit on the precipice of default, this Administration is using its self-inflicted limited resources to seize borrowers’ wages instead of defending borrowers’ right to affordable payments.”

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