Hundreds of thousands of older Americans are at risk of having their Social Security checks cut as a result of decades-old student loan debts. 

The Trump administration made a significant decision last month regarding the recovery of defaulted student loan debts. It was revealed that involuntary collections would commence starting from May 5.

It marked an end to a period of leniency that began during the Covid-19 pandemic and was supported by the Biden Administration. 

The Education Department said it would garnish wages, tax refunds, Social Security retirement and disability benefits to pay back loans. 

Student loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate, in part due to rising tuitions that have forced more people to borrow greater sums, AP News reported. 

People 60 and older hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, a six-fold increase from 20 years ago.

That has led Social Security beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon by 3,000 percent – from approximately 6,200 beneficiaries to 192,300 – between 2001 and 2019, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

73-year-old Christine Farro previously had her vital Social Security benefits garnished, and she expects it to restart. 

Last month, the Trump administration announced that it would start clawing back student loan debts in default through involuntary collections beginning on May 5 

Despite living on a tight budget, Farro has not been able to pay off her student loans. 

‘I worked ridiculous hours. I worked weekends and nights. But I could never pay it off,’ the retired child welfare worker in Santa Ynez, California, told AP.

Like millions of debtors with federal student loans, Farro had her payments and interest paused by the government five years ago when the pandemic thrust many into financial hardship. That grace period ended in 2023.

Farro’s loans date back 40 years. 

She was a single mother when she got a bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology and when she discovered she couldn’t earn enough to pay off her loans, she went back to school and got a master’s degree. Her salary never caught up. Things only got worse. 

Around 2008, when she consolidated her loans, she was paying $1,000 a month, but years of missed payments and piled-on interest meant she was barely putting a dent in a bill that had ballooned to $250,000. 

When she sought help to resolve her debt, she says the loan company had just one suggestion.

‘They said, “Move to a cheaper state,”‘ says Farro, who rents a 400-square-foot casita from a friend. ‘I realized I was living in a different reality than they were.’

The Education Department said it would garnish wages, tax refunds, Social Security retirement and disability benefits to pay back loans (Pictured: Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon)

The Trump administration has banished any hope that students may have harbored that Biden-era forgiveness schemes and pauses would continue

This year, an estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older had student loans in default and are likely to experience the Department of Education’s renewed forced collections, according to a January report from CFPB.   

Linda Hilton, a 76-year-old retired office worker from Apache Junction, Arizona, went through garnishment before Covid and says she will survive it again. 

But flights to see her children, occasional meals at a restaurant and other pleasures of retired life may disappear.

‘It’s going to mean restrictions,’ says Hilton. ‘There won´t be any travel. There won’t be any frills.”

Debbie McIntyre, a 62-year-old adult education teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky, is likely to also see forced collections. 

Her husband has been out of work on disability for two decades and they’ve used credit cards to get by on his meager benefits and her paycheck. 

Their rent will be hiked $300 when their lease renews. McIntyre doesn’t know what to do if her paycheck is garnished.

‘I don’t know what more I can do,’ says McIntyre, who is too afraid to check what her loan balance is. ‘I’ll never get out of this hole.’

Linda Hilton, a 76-year-old retired office worker, stands in front of her home Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Apache Junction, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Social Security provides monthly benefit checks to around 70 million Americans

Braxton Brewington of the Debt Collective debtors union says it’s striking how many older people dial into the organization’s calls and attend its protests. 

Many of them, he says, should have had their debts cancelled but fell victim to a system ‘riddled with flaws and illegalities and flukes.’ 

Many whose educations have left them in late-life debt have, in fact, paid back the principal on their loans, sometimes several times over, but still owe more due to interest and fees.

For those who are subject to garnishment, Brewington says, the results can be devastating.

‘We hear from people who skip meals. We know people who dilute their medication or cut their pills in half. 

‘People take drastic measures like pulling all their savings out or dissolving their 401ks. We know folks that have been driven into homelessness.’

Collections on defaulted loans may have restarted no matter who was president, though the Biden administration had sought to limit the amount of income that could be garnished. 

Federal law protects just $750 of Social Security benefits from garnishment, an amount that would put a debtor far below the poverty line.

Some debtors have already received notice about collections, but many more are living in fear, AP reported. 

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Department of Education’s dismantling and, for those seeking answers about their loans, mass layoffs have complicated getting calls answered.