The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Act made several changes to the FAFSA, including changing the formula for determining student financial assistance need and simplifying the application. The rollout of the redesigned 2024-2025 FAFSA application encountered issues that affected students' ability to apply for aid.…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA's) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This profile includes an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2) The…

Service-contingent student loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs enable borrowers to have all or part of their student loan debt forgiven or repaid in exchange for work or service in specific fields or professions. In both loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs, borrowers typically qualify for benefits by working or serving in certain…

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) consistently dedicates significant resources to the oversight of Federal student assistance programs programs due to the risks associated with their complexity, high levels of funding, large numbers of program participants, and reliance on contractors. Through the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the U.S.…

Over the last three decades, the Direct Loan program has grown in size and complexity, with almost $1.4 trillion in outstanding federal student loans. The Direct Loan program provides financial assistance to students and their parents to help pay for postsecondary education. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review changes…

Although student loan debt has been rigorously studied over the past several decades, scant research has investigated how institutions of higher education communicate debt to current and former student borrowers. As COVID-19 forced the United States Department of Education to cancel the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement as part of a student's…

About half of the more than $1 trillion in outstanding federal student Direct Loans are being repaid by borrowers using IDR plans. Some borrowers in IDR plans are now potentially eligible for forgiveness of their remaining loan balances after 20 or 25 years of payments. GAO was asked to review IDR forgiveness. This report examines: (1) how many…

The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) program is the single largest source of federal financial assistance to support students' postsecondary educational pursuits. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that in FY2025, $93.1 billion in new loans will be made through the program. As of the end of the third quarter of FY2024,…

In early 2020, in response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump Administration declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Service Act, a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and a nationwide emergency under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Congress and the U.S.…

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329, as amended), authorizes a broad array of federal student aid programs that assist students and their families with financing the cost of a postsecondary education, as well as programs that provide federal support to postsecondary institutions of higher education (IHEs). Programs authorized by the…

Given the skyrocketing costs of higher education, some borrowers -- particularly those with low incomes and those who were scammed by for-profit colleges -- genuinely need assistance. But portraying student loan forgiveness as a working-class issue is highly misleading. In fact, data on student borrowing shows that debt relief benefits few…

This study considers socially stratified take-up of income-driven repayment plans among federal student loan borrowers with high-debt payment obligations. Qualitative analyses of borrower complaints from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are used to document borrowers' experiences of administrative burden in the federal loan repayment…