Those steps include pausing student loan interest, repayment, and collections activity for tens of millions of borrowers with loans held by the Department through Sept. This action builds upon steps already taken by the Biden-Harris Administration to help federal student loan borrowers. The guaranty agencies that hold those loans will assign them to the Department and request that the credit bureaus remove the record of default. In addition, any of these loans that went into default since March 13, 2020, will be returned to good standing. The Department will also work with the guaranty agencies, who hold these defaulted FFEL Program loans, to implement the 0% interest rate for these borrowers. Borrowers who made voluntary payments on any of these loans during the past year will have the option to request a refund of those amounts. The Department will work to automatically return any tax refunds seized or wages garnished over the past year. This relief will be made retroactive to March 13, 2020, the start of the COVID-19 national emergency. This action will protect more than 800,000 borrowers who were at risk of having their federal tax refunds seized to repay a defaulted loan. Today, the Department is announcing that it will expand the 0% interest rate and pause of collections activity to 1.14 million borrowers who defaulted on a privately-held FFEL Program loan. While some FFEL Program loans are now held by the Department because they were purchased by the federal government during the financial crisis over a decade ago, many others remain with private entities. After these loans enter default, they are transferred from the lender to the guaranty agency. Under the FFEL Program, private lenders made federal student loans to students and guaranty agencies insured these funds, which were, in turn, reinsured by the federal government. “Our goal is to enable these borrowers who are struggling in default to get the same protections previously made available to tens of millions of other borrowers to help weather the uncertainty of the pandemic.” “At a time when many student loan borrowers have faced economic uncertainty, we’re ensuring that relief already provided to borrowers of loans held by the Department is available to more borrowers who need the same help so they can focus on meeting their basic needs,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. This action will help more than one million additional borrowers burdened by debt during the COVID-19 emergency. Department of Education (Department) announced an expansion of the pause on federal student loan interest and collections to all defaulted loans in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program.