April 11, 2022 WASHINGTON – In response to the Vice President Harris’ announcement today that the White House will be taking measures to increase consumer protections and lessen the burden of medical debt, advocates at the National Consumer Law Center issued the following statements:  “We appreciate the White House’s efforts to improve protections for consumers [...]

April 7, 2022 The System is Still Broken: 115+ Organizations Renew Push for the Biden Administration to Aid Millions of Student Loan Borrowers with Overdue Reforms to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR)  IDR program has failed borrowers worse than previously known to the public, organizations contend, calling on the Education Secretary to fulfill broken promises WASHINGTON — [...]

April 6, 2022 WASHINGTON – Today, in response to the Department of Education's announcement that it will extend the student loan payment pause through August 31 and that it will remove federal student borrowers from default and give them a fresh start in repayment when the pause ends, Abby Shafroth, interim director of the National [...]

April 5, 2022 WASHINGTON – Today, in response to reports that Biden Administration officials are considering extending the student loan payment pause until the end of August 2022, Abby Shafroth, interim director of the National Consumer Law Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, issued the following statement:  “The Biden Administration should absolutely extend the payment [...]

March 30, 2022 The student loan servicer lied to borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) about their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness WASHINGTON – Today, in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) sanctioning of student loan servicer EdFinancial for deceiving student loan borrowers and misrepresenting their forgiveness and repayment options, Kyra [...]

March 28, 2022 WASHINGTON – More than 75 consumer, housing, civil rights, legal services, faith, community, small business, student borrower, and public interest organizations submitted a joint comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) concerning Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) credit products. The groups are alarmed by the lack of regulation of this [...]

March 18, 2022 Credit Bureaus Should Remove Remaining Debts Owed by the Sickest and Most Vulnerable Consumers WASHINGTON – Today, advocates at the National Consumer Law Center applauded a move by the Big Three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to change how they report medical debt, which will result in the removal of nearly [...]

March 17, 2022 H.R. 963 would restore access to the courts, eliminate forced arbitration WASHINGTON – Advocates at the National Consumer Law Center applaud the passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of H.R. 963, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act to eliminate forced arbitration clauses in contracts. The bill now moves to the [...]

March 14, 2022 Medical debt remains a looming crisis that disproportionately affects Black households and communities WASHINGTON – A new report from the National Consumer Law Center, The Racial Health and Wealth Gap: Impact of Medical Debt on Black Families, examines the intersection between the racial health gap and the racial wealth gap and the [...]

February 17, 2022 WASHINGTON – Today, advocates at over 100 organizations, including the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients), The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), and The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging the Treasury Department to [...]