RALEIGH, N.C. — As we gear up to enter the new year, tens of millions of Americans are expecting some relief.
President Joe Biden announced last week that he’s extending the pause on student loan payments through May 1.
What You Need To Know
President Joe Biden announced last week that he’s extending the pause on student loan payments through May 1
Glory Iluyomade is thankful for the student loan relief but wants the administration to forgive student loan debt
The freeze is seen as pandemic relief for nearly 41 million Americans who are federal student loan borrowers
The loan forbearance, which started in March 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was set to expire on Jan. 31. But because of the omicron variant and intense public pressure, the White House paused student loan payments for an additional three months.
Glory Iluyomade, a 27-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland, works full-time as a project manager at a health care company. She also has a photography business that she runs.
Iluyomade is one of about 41 million Americans paying down student loans. While she’s thankful Biden extended a freeze on student loan payments, she still has some concerns.
“At some point we’re going to have to pay them. The pursuit right now is getting to a position where I can pay them before, you know, it eats me up, right? So I do think there is a little bit of anxiety,” Iluyomade said.
By the time Iluyomade finishes graduate school in about a year and a half, she will have racked up around $36,000 in student debt, a combination of undergraduate and graduate-level loans.
“I’ve tried to pay out of pocket to mitigate the possibility of increasing my loan amount,” Iluyomade said. “To the point where that’s what stopped me from even wanting to pursue grad school cause I didn’t want to have loans, but you know you need to further the education sometimes when you want to get to a certain place.”
One of her biggest fears is not having a high-salary job after graduate school to pay off the loans.
“To further your education, to become a professional, to want to give more back into society, we’re not going to grant that to you, you gotta borrow it, you know what I mean?” Iluyomade said. “But there is no guarantee, though, that we’re going to give you the salary to be able to pay that hefty loan back.”
Her income right now goes toward expenses like rent, food and cable. Being in graduate school means she’s able to defer her student loan payment, which is more than $600 a month. But even if she had the option to pay, she wouldn’t.
“I am not going to repay the loans until I’m in a position to pay them because I’m not going to go in debt, and therefore now it’s another issue,” Iluyomade said. “If I go in debt paying student loans, I then now have to find other means of income.”
Iluyomade said she sometimes feels scared thinking about her student loans.
Her long-term goal is to use her master’s in health care administration to give back to her community. She wants to help health care workers take care of their mental health as they navigate challenging pandemic times. And, she’s willing to do that no matter how much it costs.
“While I’m trying to do good in society, to me I think it creates a mental distance. While I am stressed about loans, am I motivated to help? That energy, that’s a willpower that I have to have,” she said.
When it comes to further student loan relief, Iluyomade wants Biden to keep his campaign promise of forgiving $10,000 of federal student loans for each loan holder. Meanwhile, Biden is facing mounting pressure from progressive Democrats who want him to be more aggressive and forgive $50,000 in student debt.