Indiana Hoosiers will have to resume paying student loans starting in October after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down President Joe Biden’s proposal of student loan forgiveness this summer and the student loan pause from COVID-19 has ended.
Student loan borrowers brace for the return of monthly payments
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This means 14% of Hoosiers will have to resume paying their student loan debt. Indiana Rep. Gregory W. Porter, D-Indianapolis, filed a bill that would have made it so that the state would be unable to classify forgiven student loans as taxable income. The bill did not receive a hearing.
“More than 900,000 Hoosiers currently have some form of student loan debt, with the average Hoosier owing about $32,000. With repayments beginning soon, many Hoosiers will face financial stress,” Porter said in a press release.
Kate Honn, from Bargersville, will be one of many Hoosiers affected.
“With the student loan payment pause coming to an end, again I’m forced to think about those monthly payments coming out of my paycheck,” she said.
Honn graduated from the University of Indianapolis in 2019 with a secondary education degree and had been paying her loans until the student loan payment pause. She is a homeowner with a 2-year-old daughter. Around a third of her paycheck goes to paying her student loans.
“Having student loan debt has caused some stress when it comes to finances. Just having a large amount of debt and having a fairly low salary starting out puts some financial strain on me with the other payments I have to make like car and house payments” Honn said.
Student debt not only causes individual stress but stress that strains entire families. Loan debt holders say that having their loans forgiven would help them gain access to cars, homes and jobs.
Over 43 million U.S. citizens owe almost $2 trillion in student loans. Most will be paying them off for decades.
“I pay the minimum amount monthly because I cannot afford to make large payments,” Honn said. “So although I can afford it, it will take me much longer to pay it off, and it’s stressful on me and my family.”
Mia Frankenfield is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
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