The Biden administration cuts $2M for student loan servicers after a bungled return to repayment

By COLLIN BINKLEY
AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a coronavirus pandemic payment freeze. The Education Department said Friday it’ll withhold payments from Nelnet and two other servicers for failing to meet their contractual obligations. The department says the servicers failed to send timely statements to 750,000 borrowers in the first month of repayment. Nelnet says less than 0.04% of its borrowers had missing or late statements. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says his agency will keep pursuing “aggressive oversight.” It’s the latest attempt to straighten out a process marred by errors after student loan payments restarted in October.