CFPB finds record-high scholar mortgage complaints, however omits particulars

Federal scholar mortgage debtors submitted a report variety of complaints to the Client Monetary Safety Bureau from mid-2024 to mid-2025, a latest report from the bureau reveals.

However the authorities’s 21-page report, printed in early January, omits particulars on the character of debtors’ complaints — together with the problems they face, the mortgage servicers concerned and the doable cures accessible — that appeared in a 36-page draft of the report obtained by CNBC.

“I used to be dissatisfied that the report was not printed in its entirety,” mentioned Julia Barnard, a former scholar mortgage ombudsman who resigned from the CFPB in October. Barnard, who authored the draft of the report, informed CNBC that CFPB management’s resolution to omit her findings is the rationale she parted with the bureau.

“As a result of reviews like this one are being censored, personal events and the Division of Schooling have fewer alternatives to right their failures,” Barnard mentioned. Making much less data accessible to the general public limits the company’s accountability, she mentioned.

The CFPB didn’t reply to requests for remark from CNBC. In feedback to Politico in January, an company spokesperson described Barnard as a “disgruntled” former worker and mentioned the draft “didn’t deal with any of the statutory necessities for the report.”

Barnard disputed that account.

“I did precisely what the statute requires, which is to current a compilation and examination of grievance tendencies, coverage suggestions and a mirrored image on the actions and effectiveness of the workplace within the prior yr,” she mentioned.

Greater than 42 million People maintain scholar loans, and the excellent debt exceeds $1.6 trillion, in line with the Congressional Analysis Service. Pupil mortgage debtors are dealing with a barrage of modifications to the federal lending system and problem accessing aid applications below the Trump administration.

Congress established the CFPB in 2010 and tasked the watchdog company with defending customers from abuses within the monetary market. The Trump administration has rolled again CFPB enforcement exercise and sought to scale back the company’s workers and funding, though lots of these actions have been challenged in court docket.

“The choice to quash the items of this report most important of the Trump Schooling Division and the scholar mortgage trade tells a grim story, as hundreds of thousands of debtors default on their loans and the Trump administration shreds the scholar mortgage security web,” mentioned Mike Pierce, a former senior advisor to the scholar mortgage ombudsman on the CFPB and the chief director of Shield Debtors, an advocacy group. Pierce has seen each the printed report and the draft.

Nadine Chabrier, a senior coverage and litigation counsel on the nonprofit Heart for Accountable Lending, a nonprofit that advocates for honest lending practices, mentioned it was noticeable how a lot much less strong the bureau’s newest printed report was than prior editions. For instance, a report issued throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, in October 2020, was a 66-page file and included intensive particulars on the character of debtors’ complaints.

“It is vital to get specifics on complaints to establish patterns, perceive the implications and develop options,” Chabrier mentioned.

The curtailed report on the state of scholar loans comes as extra debtors are falling behind. Round 9 million persons are at present in default on their schooling debt, in line with an estimate by Shield Debtors.

Below the Trump administration, tons of of 1000’s of scholar mortgage debtors have been ready — in some instances, for greater than a yr — in a backlog of purposes to entry an reasonably priced reimbursement plan or the mortgage forgiveness mandated of their borrowing phrases.

The CFPB’s printed report signifies it obtained round 18,400 federal scholar mortgage complaints for the yr ending June 30, 2025, a 36% uptick from the earlier yr. “That is the very best variety of federal scholar mortgage complaints obtained in a one-year interval,” in line with the printed doc.

Nonetheless, the printed authorities report doesn’t embrace a breakdown of the particular complaints lodged by federal scholar mortgage debtors, which Barnard mentioned she had compiled and which seems within the draft report. She primarily based her evaluation on a pattern of 5,017 complaints from federal scholar mortgage debtors.

Reimbursement points have been the highest grievance amongst federal debtors, accounting for twenty-four% of the reviewed submissions, Barnard discovered. She discovered that 15% of the issues cited concerned credit score reporting points, and seven% centered on the Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness program.

In accordance with a latest court docket submitting, greater than 800,000 debtors are awaiting a choice on their purposes to entry an reasonably priced reimbursement plan. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been below stress to change out of the Biden administration’s Saving on A Invaluable Schooling, or SAVE, plan after this system was blocked by Republican-led authorized challenges.

The court docket submitting reveals that purposes from a further 83,370 debtors for the Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness Buyback program, which lets debtors pursuing PSLF retroactively pay for months missed because of forbearance or deferment, additionally haven’t been resolved.

“Debtors are actually having bother making funds,” Barnard mentioned, talking concerning the complaints coming into the CFPB.

“These issues are enormously consequential,” she mentioned.

The CFPB’s printed report additionally doesn’t embrace a breakdown of the scholar mortgage servicing firms cited in federal debtors’ complaints, a element the draft contained.

The printed report “glosses over servicing points,” mentioned increased schooling skilled Mark Kantrowitz.

It additionally leaves out suggestions for scholar mortgage cancellation and data that consultants say might have helped debtors in default get present.