The Trump administration is collecting delinquent student debts again after five years.
Five million borrowers are in default, and millions more will be before summer.
If they don't pay, debtors risk wage and government benefit garnishment. On Monday, President Donald Trump's government resumed collecting defaulted student loans.
This ended a yearslong delay began by Trump in 2020 and extended by Biden. Student loan defaulters were not penalized during the gap.
Two weeks ago, the Department of Education declared that the delay would end and that non-paying borrowers risked lose Social Security, income garnishment, and credit ratings.
After "restarting collections is something that was going to have to happen eventually," American Enterprise Institute senior scholar Preston Cooper told Business Insider. "It was a matter of when, not a matter of if."
Five million student loan debtors are in default, and millions more will come summer. The government will notify delinquent debtors by email that collections are restarting. Cooper said borrowers may not instantly lose federal perks and salary, but the effects might start.
There are two buckets of student loan borrowers who could face the consequences of Trump's collections restart: those who are in default, meaning they have been behind on payments for more than 270 days