ERIC Number: ED634113
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Nov-16
Pages: 27
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Student Loans: Education Should Proactively Manage Fraud Risks in Any Future Debt Relief Efforts. Report to Congressional Committees. GAO-24-107142
Emrey-Arras, Melissa; Bagdoyan, Seto J.
US Government Accountability Office
In August 2022, the Department of Education announced that, to address the heightened risk of delinquency and default caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it would provide up to $20,000 of student loan debt relief to borrowers who met certain income thresholds. Borrowers eligible for this relief were to receive up to the full $20,000 in relief if they received a Pell Grant while in college, and up to $10,000 if they did not. In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Education would have relieved around $430 billion of student loan debt for more than 31 million federal student loan borrowers. To be eligible, borrowers with qualifying federal loans must have had an annual adjusted gross income in 2020 or 2021 below certain thresholds. In November 2022, as a result of court orders, Education ceased work on the student loan debt relief program. In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the debt relief program was not authorized under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act). As a result, Education was not able to implement the program. The Biden administration subsequently announced plans to use the department's authority under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, (HEA) to pursue an alternative path to debt relief for borrowers. The goal of this report is to provide feedback on Education's originally proposed debt relief program to inform any future efforts. Specifically, it assesses the extent to which Education's policies and procedures would have mitigated certain types of fraud risk in the originally proposed student loan debt relief program and reviewed key aspects of Education's fraud risk management in the program
Descriptors: Student Loan Programs, Deception, Risk, Loan Repayment, Educational Legislation, Higher Education, Federal Legislation
US Government Accountability Office. 441 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20548. Tel: 202-512-6000; Web site: http://www.gao.gov
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Higher Education Act 1965
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A