The report from the Center for Responsible Lending says New Jersey residents carry a total outstanding student loan debt of about $41 billion dollars. Diane Standaert with the research organization says some students are victim of bad practices from loan servicers, and currently there’s not much they can do about it.
“New Jersey can enact legislation to hold services accountable to essentially prevent them from engaging in unfair practices such as misapplying payments, losing paperwork, telling people which payment plans they are eligible for, very common-sense solutions that would make a difference in the lives of students and the economy as a whole.”
State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has shown support for the right of states to oversee and enforce student loan laws.
New Jersey shows disproportionate impacts on women, minorities, and seniors. Standaert says 100,000 New Jersey seniors have student loan debt and 12 percent of those are delinquent.
“Because for federal student loans, the federal government has extraordinary power in collecting those loans. They could seize a senior’s social security payments and garnish those, leaving older New Jerseans even fewer dollars to live off of month to month.”