Delinquency: The Untold Story of Student Loan Borrowing
The Institute for Higher Education Policy released the report Delinquency: The Untold Story of Student Loan Borrowing, which examined data on 8.7 million student loan borrowers and 27.5 million student loans, focusing on the 1.8 million borrowers who entered repayment in 2005. The report highlights the scope of student loan borrowers who become delinquent on their loans, but who do not default, and was featured in a New York Times article which also cited data from the Project on Student Debt.
Key findings include:
- For every student loan borrower who defaults, at least two more borrowers become delinquent without default.
- Two out of five student loan borrowers are delinquent at some point in the first five years after entering repayment.
- Certain student loan borrowers—those considered more at risk than their peers—may require additional attention and information to prevent delinquency and default. For example, the rates of delinquency and default were generally much higher for borrowers who had not graduated than for those who had.
- More than a third of borrowers were able to repay their loans in a timely manner, while 23 percent were able to postpone repayment by using deferment or forbearance to avoid delinquency.
