Education Department Approved No Borrower Defense Claims Since June

Inside Higher Ed

New data posted by the Office of Federal Student Aid Thursday showed the Education Department received 35,000 new borrower-defense claims between July and the end of September. But the department didn’t approve or deny any claims over that period.

FSA said the lack of progress on those claims was a result of “ongoing litigation.” In October, the department lost a federal lawsuit over its delay of the Obama administration’s 2016 borrower-defense rule. The same month, it said it would miss a Nov. 1 deadline to issue a new borrower-defense rule. That means the Obama rule will be in place until at least 2020.

The data released Thursday also showed that more than 41,000 borrowers had submitted applications for public service loan forgiveness as of Sept. 30. Just 423 claims had been approved over the same period, for a total of $12.6 million in loan relief for 206 borrowers.