Total balance of federal student loan debt in forbearance U.S. 2021-2023
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting on March 13, 2020, the U.S. federal government paused payments on federal student loans, moving billions of dollars of student debt into forbearance. Forbearance means that no payments need to be made, with the interest rate set to zero percent. As of Q2 2023, the majority of federal student loans, totaling 1082.2 billion U.S. dollars, remained in forbearance. However, loan repayments and interest rates restarted in October 2023.
