美国国家公共电台 NPR--Millions of student loan borrowers' debt unnecessarily spent years in forbearance

Millions of student loan borrowers' debt unnecessarily spent years in forbearance

Transcript¹

While the Supreme² Court is yet to decide on President Biden's student loan relief plan, the Department of Education is reviewing millions of borrower accounts and could cancel debts for some.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The fate of President Biden's sweeping³ plan to erase⁴ federal student loan debt is now in the hands of the Supreme Court. But what if we told you, completely unrelated to that plan, the Biden administration recently began what it's calling an account adjustment that could still help millions of borrowers with their student debts, a move that was triggered in part by an NPR investigation⁵? Reporter Cory Turner led that investigation. Cory, so what can you tell us about this account adjustment that's now getting started?

CORY TURNER, BYLINE⁶: So the U.S. Department of Education is going to review the loan histories of most federal student loan borrowers. It is a huge undertaking⁷, A, that will carry them essentially⁸ through the summer. And the reason, in the department's own words, is to, quote, "remedy years of administrative⁹ failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers." This review is expected to trigger loan forgiveness for tens of thousands of people and bring millions more closer to having their loans erased¹⁰.

MART?NEZ: So it does sound like a very big job. How are they going to do this?

TURNER: Well, they're using this thing called income-driven repayment¹¹, or IDR. It's a kind of safety net program that ties a borrower's monthly payments to how much money they make. So the less you earn, the less you have to pay each month. It also comes with a really important promise from the government that as long as a borrower pays what the Ed department thinks is reasonable, even if it's just 10 bucks¹² a month, then Ed will erase whatever's left after 20 years for undergrad debts and generally 25 years for grad debts.

Here's the problem, A. For years, income-driven repayment was badly mismanaged by Ed and its loan servicers, making it really hard for borrowers to access. And so hardly anyone has qualified¹³ for that forgiveness. So now the department is trying a kind of do-over, reviewing all government-held loans and offering that promise of eventual¹⁴ loan forgiveness under IDR to anybody who might benefit retroactively. In a statement, the department told me it is committed to ensuring these programs, quote, "are administered fairly and effectively and that borrowers are not left with lifelong burdens of debt."

MART?NEZ: What kind of mismanagement was hurting borrowers?

TURNER: Yeah, so borrower Phoema Dubra has a pretty common story of how things went wrong. She took out loans to go to college and then to get her master's from Ole Miss to become a speech language pathologist.

PHOEMA DUBRA: It's the first time you hear a child say something that they've never said before, or the first time a child says, Mama. And I've cried with parents, I've held hands with parents. You know, it's special.

TURNER: It's a special job, she told me, that didn't pay well at the start. But back then, Dubra, like lots of borrowers, didn't know about income-driven repayment. She says she would call her loan servicer and say, I can't afford my monthly payment. Is there any way to lower it? And she clearly remembers their answer.

DUBRA: No. Your payment amount is $700. And it's like, OK, well, I don't have it. Oh, well, you can pay whatever you would like, but it's going to report to your credit. So if you're not going to make that full payment every month, then you might as well just put them into forbearance.

TURNER: And here's the problem, A. Forbearance pauses your monthly payments, but interest keeps growing, says Dominique Baker¹⁵. She's an associate professor of policy at Southern Methodist University.

DOMINIQUE BAKER: When you come out of forbearance, the interest that was accruing¹⁶ the entire time that your payments were stopped gets turned into principal. And so very quickly, people's loan amounts can balloon.

TURNER: And so what seemed like a life preserver was, in reality, pulling Phoema into deeper and deeper water. And this is part of the mismanagement that we were talking about earlier - borrowers spending years in forbearance when they could have and probably should have been in an income-driven repayment plan. In fact, when Phoema did finally get on IDR and began repaying her loans, she had even more to pay off - now about $80,000.

DUBRA: It makes me very angry that people say, well, you just got to pay them back. You went to school, you owe this money. I've been paying them back for a long time. And it's hard, you know, and I'm thankful I'm in a position where I can make payments. But I've been in a position where I couldn't and wanted to but couldn't.

MART?NEZ: So, Cory, then - OK, why were servicers using forbearance instead of helping¹⁷ borrowers in these income-driven plans?

TURNER: Oh, that is such a big question. The short answer is because enrolling¹⁸ borrowers in these plans was not as easy as putting them into forbearance. I spoke¹⁹ with Travis Hornsby, who runs a student loan consulting website called Student Loan Planner. He says student loan servicers generally get paid a fixed²⁰ amount per borrower.

TRAVIS HORNSBY: I think you just have to look at incentives²¹. So a call putting somebody into forbearance might be a couple of minutes. Explaining income-driven repayment to a borrower, however, it could take five, 10 minutes, which if you scale that up to millions of people, costs millions of dollars to the bottom line.

MART?NEZ: And do we know how many borrowers there are out there like Phoema?

TURNER: A lot. According to federal data obtained by NPR, in the decade before the pandemic payment pause, nearly 12 million borrowers, A, were in forbearance for at least 12 straight months, a whole year. And nearly 5 1/2 million borrowers, including Phoema Dubra, spent at least three years in forbearance. And that is even though this entire time some form of income-driven repayment was widely available.

MART?NEZ: You know, I remember your reporting earlier this year, Cory, that even borrowers who did get into that income-driven plan still often ran into a lot of problems.

TURNER: Yeah, our investigation in April showed some servicers weren't keeping track of how close borrowers were to loan forgiveness. Also, some borrowers weren't getting credit for all their payments, or they were even losing months of credit when they were transferred from one servicer to another. After our reporting came out, members of Congress called for an investigation. And later that month in April, the department announced this big retroactive overhaul²² that's now getting started.

MART?NEZ: All right. So what else do borrowers need to know about this overhaul?

TURNER: Yeah, a few things. People with federal loans that are still held by commercial lenders will not qualify unless they consolidate²³ their loans. This is important. They need to do that before May 1st. Parent Plus loans should also qualify for forgiveness after 25 years. And borrowers like Phoema, who spent long chunks²⁴ of time in forbearance or sometimes deferment²⁵, much of that time is now going to count toward cancellation²⁶.

Departments also are going to give credit for some of the failures that we highlighted in our investigation. So, again, using that promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, the department expects to forgive the loans of 40,000 borrowers at least, and that more than 3 1/2 million people are going to get at least three years closer to forgiveness, A.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR's Cory Turner. Cory, thanks a lot.

TURNER: You're welcome.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

4 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

10 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 repayment   

n.偿还，偿还款；报酬

参考例句：

• I am entitled to a repayment for the damaged goods.我有权利索取货物损坏赔偿金。
• The tax authorities have been harrying her for repayment.税务局一直在催她补交税款。

12 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

14 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

15 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

16 accruing   

v.增加( accrue的现在分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累

参考例句：

• economic benefits accruing to the country from tourism 旅游业为该国带来的经济效益
• The accruing on a security since the previous coupon date. 指证券自上次付息日以来所累积的利息。 来自互联网

17 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

18 enrolling   

v.招收( enrol的现在分词 )；吸收；入学；加入；[亦作enrol]( enroll的现在分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They lashed out at the university enrolling system. 他们猛烈抨击大学的招生制度。 来自辞典例句
• You're enrolling in a country club, Billy. 你是注册加入乡村俱乐部了，比利。 来自辞典例句

19 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

20 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

21 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

22 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

23 consolidate   

v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并

参考例句：

• The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
• The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。

24 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

25 deferment   

n.迁延，延期，暂缓

参考例句：

• The bank do not allow further deferment of his payment. 银行不容许他再次推迟付款。 来自互联网
• Students are to refer to the regulations governing course deferment, refund and withdrawal the Student's Handbook. 学生需要参考学生手册上有关推迟入学、退费和退学的相关规定。 来自互联网

26 cancellation   

n.删除，取消

参考例句：

• Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大，可能须要取消渡轮服务。
• Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。