President Joe Biden speaks about student loan relief at Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 8.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Two federal measures designed to help student loan borrowers with their payments are expiring this week.

Since federal student loan payments resumed last October, borrowers have received help making the transition, primarily through two federal support measures — one that mitigates the impact of missed or late payments and another that helps borrowers with defaulted loans recover to come the right way.

The grace period for missed or late payments expires Monday. The deadline for the defaulted loan program, known as Fresh Start, is now Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon, James Kvaal, the undersecretary of education for education, announced that delinquent borrowers have until Wednesday at 3 a.m. ET to enroll in Fresh Start.

These two supports were only designed to last about a year. From October onwards, borrowers with late payments or defaulted loans will once again face consequences such as wage garnishments or a negative credit report.

The Biden administration’s major income-driven repayment plan, known as SAVE, remains on hold due to legal challenges from Republican-led states. The program is designed to exempt a larger portion of a borrower’s income from the monthly payment than previous plans and to ensure that interest does not accumulate beyond the level the borrower can pay each month.

Over the summer, a federal appeals court issued a preliminary injunction against the program. Borrowers can still apply for SAVE, but due to the interim order, borrowers have temporarily paused the processing of applications.

The deadline to apply for help with defaulted loans is Wednesday

Since student loan repayment resumed in October 2023, borrowers with defaulted federal student loans — meaning borrowers were unable to make their payment within 270 days, or about 9 months — have been able to receive help to prevent them from falling even further into default advised.

The program, known as “Fresh Start,” spares delinquent borrowers from collection efforts such as the seizure of their wages or tax refunds. Defaulted loans were also returned to repayment status and the default entry was removed from the credit report.

Some benefits, such as restoring access to federal student aid, were automatically provided to borrowers who were in default. However, to gain continued access to Fresh Start benefits, delinquent borrowers must enroll before Wednesday morning.

To enroll, delinquent borrowers must first contact their borrower. If their loans are held by the Department of Education, they can enroll by mail, telephone or online. The Department of Education says the process should take about 10 minutes.

The federal government will begin reporting delinquent payments to credit reporting agencies

Another key change starting Tuesday will be that student loan borrowers who miss a payment in the future will likely see an impact on their credit reports.

Over the past 12 months, the Biden administration has not reported any missed, late or partial payments to credit scoring companies to protect borrowers from the worst consequences of outstanding payments. This “on-ramp period” – as the Department of Education calls it – is scheduled to end at the end of Monday.

This means that, as was the case pre-COVID, the federal government will resume reporting a pending payment once it is 90 days or more past due.