The Biden administration announced that it is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments for an additional six months. The Department of Education said that borrowers will have to resume their payments two months after June 30, 2023.
The pause could be lifted sooner, depending on how long the legal battle over the administration's student loan forgiveness plan plays out.
The plan, which would forgive between $10,000 and $20,000 in student loan debt for many borrowers, is currently on hold after an appeals court issued a nationwide injunction, blocking the program while the case makes its way through the court system.
The payment freeze was first put in place in March 2020 to help people who were unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was scheduled to end on December 31, 2022, and the White House previously said it would not extend it any further.
However, officials made the decision to extend it because the student loan forgiveness program remains blocked by the courts.
"It isn't fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief to resume their student debt payments while the court considers a lawsuit," President Joe Biden said in a video posted on Twitter. "I'm never going to apologize for helping working-class, and middle-class families recover from the economic crisis created by the pandemic."