BEAUMONT, Texas — Those with student loans have until Sept. 1 to start paying them back. The Biden Administration extended the pandemic pause on loan payments until August 31.
This is the seventh extension of the pandemic relief program. The previous deadline was going to expire on May 1.
The pause on federal student loans first began at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, under the Trump Administration.
Southeast Texans, young and old, said this has lifted a weight off their shoulders.
“Yeah, 51 years old, and I still owe about I think $10,000 on my student loans,” James Smith, Southeast Texas native said.
There are about 46 million Americans who owe about $1.6 trillion collectively on federal student loans. One woman who recently graduated from Lamar University owes almost triple the amount Smith does.
“Luckily, it was about like 30 or 40,000, but I've brought it down to about 27,000, which is still a lot for me,” Valeri Flores, Lamar graduate said.
Neither Smith, Flores or the rest of the country has to worry about paying off those debts any time soon.
“I definitely appreciate president Biden for enacting this,” Smith said. “You know, everybody's job is different. Pay is different, but any kind of relief that you can get, and fortunately, he looked at the people and saw the need.”
Smith said he has been able to tackle other financial responsibilities for the past two years thanks to the extensions.
“In my situation, work slowed down, and I was able to use that money to pay other bills, wasn't making the income that was pre-COVID, so that was a definitely good relief,” Smith said.
Flores said the thought of still one day having to pay back those loans haunts her.
“It's a breather, but it's also kind of more anxiety knowing that it's going to happen at some point,” Flores said.
Smith and Flores both hope everyone's student loan debt will be cleared one day.
“I think everyone, mostly everyone wishes that student debt would be canceled,” Flores said.
Student loans are paused until August 31 due to unprecedented economic disruption according to President Biden.
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