Dept. of Education to tackle longstanding issues with student debt programs

Details: In the next few weeks the department will provide more defrauded borrowers with debt relief, similar to the steps it took in February.

• And though the department would not provide specific details, it plans to introduce a rule to change the way income-driven repayment plans have been administered, which will impact borrowers retroactively as well as those who borrow in the future.

Context: These actions are meant to address underlying issues that have piled up in the last decade, making the path to debt relief a long and tedious process.

• A March report from the think tank Brookings Institute found that the Education Department's income-driven repayment program suffers a myriad of "bureaucratic, technical, or legal difficulties" that become barriers for people who hope to participate in repayment plans tailored to their income and family size.

• Errors and abuses by servicers hired by the Education Department often prevent borrowers from properly utilizing the program, the report noted.
• This kind of mismanagement is especially harmful to low-income borrowers, NPR reports.

The big picture: The average federal student loan debt is $37,013, according to data compiled by the Department of Education. The crisis disproportionately impacts Black borrowers.