As several younger borrowers loathe President Donald Trump’s Department of Education (DOE) garnishing their money for student loans, the baby boomer generation and beyond fall into the category, with their Social Security checks at risk, the Associated Press reports.
Thousands of older Americans with student loans going back decades now have to concern themselves with their Social Security checks being garnished by the administration. Borrowers like Christine Farro, 73, had their payments and interest paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, like others who experienced financial hardship.
Now, Farro has to anticipate her checks being garnished, something she experienced before, as DOE announced “involuntary collections” of paychecks, tax refunds, and Social Security retirement and disability benefits. “I worked ridiculous hours. I worked weekends and nights. But I could never pay it off,” the retired child welfare worker from Santa Ynez, California, said.
Student loan debt among the older generation has increased at eye-opening rates. In 2025 alone, close to 452,000 people aged 62 and older identify as having student loans in default and are likely to fall victim to DOE’s new policies. Growing tuition rates are partly to blame as more people seeking higher education are forced to borrow larger sums.
Data from the National Consumer Law Center revealed that Americans aged 60 and older hold approximately $125 billion in student loans, a major increase from 20 years ago. As a result, between 6,200 and 192,300 beneficiaries of Social Security have had their payments garnished by 3,000% between 2001 and 2019.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Policy Rich Williams points out how the “federal government has very powerful collection tools,” as the attack on borrowers at any age can be considered a burden. However, according to Bankrate, the effects on quality of life are more damaging for older people.
Data from the consumer financial services company’s most recent Money and Mental Health Survey found that 40% of boomers, aged 60 to 78, feel money has negative effects on their mental health. “For me, the impact had become more psychological and emotional than a true financial burden,” borrower Lori Stone, 65, said.
“I came to assume I’d be paying them until I died.”
Braxton Brewington of the Debt Collective debtors says older borrower debt should be canceled, as he witnessed a number of them at protests for student debt cancellation. He feels a number of them fell victim to a system “riddled with flaws and illegalities and flukes.”
While DOE Secretary Linda McMahon claims collections are a necessary step for debtors, “both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook,” the collection process may have started regardless of who was elected president in 2024.
Federal law only protects $750 of Social Security benefits from being garnished, which would put a borrower well below the poverty line.
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