Lively Commentary At NPR Over Recent Graduates Struggling with Student Loans

SLA currently estimates that 1/3 of borrowers are currently struggling with federal student loan repayment (see this post for details).  Here is a recent SLA post which showed that 56% of US counties had double digit delinquency rates (90 days +).  NPR picked up on this trend in a story yesterday titled "College Graduates Struggle to Repay Loans."

Here is how they characterized the situation:

"November brings a nerve-racking deadline for May's college graduates: It's time to make the first payment on their student loans.  With this year's tough job market, many graduates don't know how they'll come up with the money. Many are asking for deferments, and some may have to default."

The article also highlights the usefulness of the new income-based repayment (IBR) option which can be a lifeline for struggling borrowers as well as the use of forbearance or economic hardship deferments:

"If graduates can prove that they are hardship cases, they can defer loan payments for up to three years. And since Congress passed the Income-Based Repayment Plan this summer, borrowers now can sign up for a program that will limit their payment to 15 percent of their incomes."

As of this evening there were over 100 comments to this story.  In case you wonder which one was most recommended by readers...

"Personally I wish we can bailout some of these young adults rather than the criminals who are running the country's financial system. At least we knew where they spent the loans the[y] received other than giving themselves bonuses."

Here is for hoping that the implementation of IBR is improving after a shaky start so more defaults can be prevented.