Do you want to see a preview of the shitshow we all are going to face on Feb 1 if @JoeBiden@JamesKvaal and @FSACOO turn on student loan payments?
This crisis is avoidable. Let's avoid it.
🧵 as preview
On Aug 18, 2021 @Navient sent an email demanding a payment of $128.42 on a federal direct loan due Nov 1, 2021 even though the payment pause is still in effect.
This is the kind of totally false info Navient is sending millions of people.
This is all part of a game that @Navient plays. Half of the info they send you is false, the other half is accurate.
The fun is guessing which is which but be careful, your financial (and often physical) life depends on guessing correctly.
Today at 9:26 p.m. ET @Navient sent this message saying that on Nov 29, 2021 I reported a change in address.
The only trouble is, I didn't! Is that a problem? Seems like it. @Navient says to call IMMEDIATELY!
But they sent this email at 9:26 p.m. ET after Navient is closed.
Meanwhile there are dozens of emails like this being sent out every other day.
It's not just that every single message in and of themselves is confusing, it is also the sheer volume of messages. It is a lot of info to wade through, and remember half of it is false!
This is happening to 45 million people
Everyone at the Department of Education knows what is going to happen on Feb. 1. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
This is a crisis they are deciding to create themselves. It is avoidable. We don't have to do this.
Today, 40M student debtors fall back into the throes of the student debt crisis. Student debt payments resumed in October 2023—but borrowers had a 1yr grace period: no hits to credit, wage garnishment or default. Half of debtors didn't pay.
Those protections ended yesterday.
The pause has ended + broad scale relief never happened.
In many ways, we are back to the crisis we had in 2019—the crisis every Dem presidential candidate raced to promise to solve.
Except today is worse than 2019: There is no repayment plan option because of court litigation.
Today is worse than 2019: Student loan servicers are not only unresponsive, they're actively colluding with Republican politicians to stop relief—and profit along the way.
Today is worse than 2019: COVID + inflation happened and debtors didn't get relief from that economic hit.
We're the nation's first union of debtors, organizing to cancel unjust household debts like student, medical, housing and criminal legal.
We believe debt cancellation is crucial for resetting the moral and economic order—plus, that means workers taking home a bigger paycheck.
Canceling debt is important—and we've been able to get debt canceled both through pressuring local and federal governments and by erasing debt for pennies on the dollar ourselves.
But the true goal is free, reparative public goods so nobody goes into debt in the first place.
You can join the Debt Collective by becoming a dues-paying member of $0/month—or whatever you can give.
Join our organizing efforts, get access to advice, and be connected to the first digital "factory floor" for debtors—which wouldn't otherwise exist! debtcollective.org
This morning the Dept of Education is in court for failing to cancel student debt and issue refunds in compliance with a settlement & court order 🧵
The first question the judge asked was "which one of you is Cordray"
Lawyers for student loan servicers are also there
The Department of Education has not kept records. Doesn't know how many people are still owed money. And wants unlimited time to maybe someday cancel their debts.