Will you still need to pay your student loans if the government shuts down?

If the government shuts down, will you have to make your student loan payments?

In just a few days, nearly 44 million Americans are scheduled to start repaying their student loan debt after they were paused during the pandemic.

Get ready for payment shock. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says one in five people with student loans may struggle once payments resume on Oct. 1.

“The numbers are so unreal and astronomical that I can’t even fathom making a payment,” borrower Angela Bolt told CNN.

If government spending measures aren’t passed by Saturday’s deadline, a government shutdown would start the same day student loans emerge from the pandemic pause. If that happens, most loan servicers will still be able to process payments as usual.

Your loan payments will still be due, but there’s a catch: If you need help from the education department, you might run into delays because some of the employees could be furloughed.

It’s a headache some former students wish they never signed up for.

“If I had that ability to talk to my younger self, I would have never ever gone for that law degree,” Tereina Stidd told CNN. “These student loans have been a noose around my neck for 20 years.”

To tackle the issue, experts suggest getting your finances in order:

• See where you can cut back to handle the new monthly expense.
• Make sure you’re on top of your payments to avoid getting behind.
• Research income-based repayment plans that that keep your payments manageable based on what you earn:

“So an income-based plan that will make sure that your payment doesn’t exceed a certain percent of what you’re making,” personal finance expert Jully-Alma Taveras explained. She’s with investinglatina.com.

The good news is there’s some time to figure it all out. Borrowers can skip payments until September 2024 without financial penalties, which is something the Biden administration is calling the “on-ramp” period.

A missed payment won’t mess up your credit score by getting reported to credit agencies. But keep in mind, interest is still going to pile up, so it’s not a free ride.

A government shutdown could cause delays for students applying for federal aid. They’re talking about possible disruptions in processing things like FAFSA applications, giving out Pell grants, and working on Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

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