releases: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/social-security-checks-are-being-reduced-for-unpaid-student-debt
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/social-security-checks-are-being-reduced-for-unpaid-student-debt | Social Security Checks Are Being Reduced for Unpaid Student Debt | 2016-12-20 | 2016 | 2016-12 | Independent | House | VT | Bernard Sanders | S000033 | www.sanders.senate.gov | legacy | Social Security Checks Are Being Reduced for Unpaid Student Debt By: Josh Mitchell Tuesday, December 20, 2016 The federal government is increasingly taking money out of recipients’ Social Security checks to recover millions in unpaid student debt, leaving thousands of retired and disabled Americans with below-poverty incomes, according to a report set to be released Tuesday. The government has collected about $1.1 billion since 2001 from Social Security recipients of all ages over unpaid student loans, the Government Accountability Office reported. That includes $171 million in Social Security benefits in fiscal 2015 alone. In the year through September 2015, about 114,000 Americans age 50 and older had their Social Security benefits reduced to offset defaulted student loans. That figure—which includes 38,000 people age 65 or older—has risen 440% since 2002. The report highlights the growing number of baby boomers who are entering retirement with student debt, many of them in default on loans from decades ago. About 4 in 10 borrowers whose Social Security checks were garnished have held the debt for at least 20 years, the report said. Most of the borrowers took out the loans to pay for their own educations, though a big share borrowed to help pay for their children’s schooling. Continue reading here. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |