Student Loans

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint in federal court against a student loan debt relief company, alleging it bilked $23 million from consumers by demanding illegal upfront payments and not remitting all of the funds consumers gave to the company to be paid toward their outstanding balances. A …

A non-profit organization focused on student loans and higher education is calling on Massachusetts and all states to enact legislation aimed at protecting student loan borrowers “from profit-seeking predatory actors.” The Hildreth Institute released a report this month calling on Massachusetts to follow 10 other states that have enacted their …

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has overturned a lower court’s decision that the federal Higher Education Act exempts companies servicing student loans from claims that those companies violated state law. A copy of the ruling in the case of Nelson v. Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., …

Not to be outdone by a proposal that would eliminate $50,000 of student loan debt for per individual, Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] announced a plan yesterday to cancel all $1.6 trillion of outstanding student loans for any undergraduate or graduate programs across the country. Senate Bill 1947 would amend the …

Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.] and Rep. James Clyburn [D-S.C.], are planning to introduce legislation in both the House of Representatives and Senate to eliminate $50,000 of student loan debt for all Americans, which would cancel the student loan debt for 75% of borrowers, according to a release from both lawmakers. …

The attorneys general from 47 states, a number of American territories, and Washington, D.C., have submitted a request to the Department of Education seeking to discharge the student loan debts of veterans who are totally and permanently disabled or otherwise unemployable. “As a nation, we have a moral obligation to …

Are student loan collectors targeting individuals in neighborhoods and cities that are largely comprised of minorities? That is one claim being made by the National Consumer Law Center, which recently released a report, which attempted to correlate lawsuits filed against individuals with defaulted student loans and where those individuals live. …

The Department of Education — and some of the private collection agencies it uses to collect on unpaid student loans — are understaffed and that is causing a customer service problem for individuals who are seeking information about why their tax refunds are being withheld to cover unpaid debts, according …

The Federal Student Aid (FSA) office, a unit of the Department of Education that offers student loans, has not established policies and procedures to make sure that entities servicing loans on behalf of the government are making the changes they are supposed to make when the entities fail to comply …

The New York Department of Financial Services and the Attorney General of New York announced on Friday that Conduent Education Services has agreed to pay $9 million in fines and penalties for “engaging in practices” that harmed student loan borrowers, including misinforming them that they had to pay the delinquent …