After a five-year reprieve, the Trump administration will restart forced collections on federal student loans in default, which could include garnishing a portion of borrowers’ paychecks.

With collections in place, the last piece of the student loan machinery has been turned back on, officially ending pandemic-era relief, which began when President Trump paused federal student loan payments in March 2020.

The Biden administration extended the freeze several times, and payments resumed only in October 2023. But the rules were relaxed for the first year of repayment, and borrowers weren’t penalized for slipping behind until last fall.

Now that those penalties have begun to appear, borrowers who fell behind are beginning to see their credit scores plunge, including more than five million borrowers in default and many millions more projected to be on the precipice.

At the same time, the Biden-era repayment program known as SAVE — which ties a borrower’s loan payments to income and household size — has been frozen since August, with its eight million enrollees’ payments on hold. That plan is stuck in legal limbo, an evolving situation that threatens to upend the income-driven repayment plans that came before it.

Here’s where things stand for borrowers.

Where can I learn more about my loan status?

If you log in to your account on the federal website, StudentAid.gov, you’ll find your dashboard with details on how much you owe and the status of your loans — whether they are in repayment, for example, or default. If it’s the latter, you may also see a warning at the top.