Higher Education Industry and Advocacy Groups Send Letter to Congress Asking for Inclusion of all Federal Perkins and FFELP Borrowers in CARES Act Student Loan Measures

This week, a group of 25 FFELP lender/service associations, student borrower advocacy groups, and consumer groups sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to extend provisions relating to student loans in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to borrowers of Federal Perkins loans and participants in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), who for the most part are not covered in the legislation. Most of the extra benefits and temporary protections granted to student loan borrowers in the CARES Act only apply to borrowers of federally held student loans. While some Perkins loans are federally held, as the law is currently written, borrowers whose loans are held by their institution are not covered along with FFEL borrowers whose loans are held by  private institutions.

The letter says “We respectfully request that you take action to enact, as part of your next emergency legislation, provisions to extend the CARES Act interest waivers, payment and collection activities suspensions, and other benefits to all FFELP and Perkins borrowers.”

The CARES Act suspends, interest free, payments on all federally held FFELP and Direct loans, but omits  as many as 9 million borrowers of commercially held FFELP and Perkins loans, the letter says.

The groups asked that Congress take action by including legislative language in the next stimulus package to include all borrowers with FFELP and Perkins loans.

The letter can be accessed here.