As millions of borrowers resume their student loan payments after the COVID-related pause on those payments ended in October 2023, many are seeing firsthand how the pandemic has affected loan servicers’ ability to efficiently manage and process these payments. Borrowers are experiencing hard-to-access customer support, unprecedented processing delays, and errors in billing.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recent report, “Issue Spotlight: Federal Student Loan Return to Repayment,” examined these issues in an effort to keep loan servicers accountable when they do not meet their obligations to borrowers. The details of this report, issued last month, show both the immediate challenges borrowers face and the systemic shortcomings of the student loan servicing industry.

CFPB Finds Student Loan Servicers Are Falling Short in Three Ways