NEW YORK–A generation is being crushed by student debt, but it’s not the one you may think—it’s Americans over age 60 who currently hold total student debt of
$86 billion—and that amount is growing.
“Many of these seniors took out loans to help pay for their children’s college tuition and are still paying them off,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Others took out student loans for themselves in the wake of the last recession, as they went back to school to boost their own employment prospects.”
According to the Journal, which reviewed data from TransUnion, the average, student loan borrowers in their 60s owed $33,800 in 2017, up 44% from 2010. Total student loan debt rose 161% for people aged 60 and older from 2010 to 2017—the biggest increase for any age group, according to the latest data available from TransUnion, the Journal said.
As a result, more than 40,000 people aged 65 or older had funds garnished from their Social Security checks, tax refunds or other federal payments in fiscal year 2015 because they defaulted on student or parent loan debt, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s up 362% from a decade prior, according to the latest data from the Government Accountability Office, the Journal said.
“Student debt is one of the biggest contributors to the overall increasing debt burden held by seniors,” the Journal reported. “U.S. consumers who are 60 or older owed around $615 billion in credit cards, auto loans, personal loans and student loans as of 2017. That is up 84% since 2010—the biggest increase of any age group, according to the TransUnion data.”
Working Longer
The result has been seniors are finding they have to work longer, holding onto positions younger adults might otherwise receive, while also relying on credit cards and personal loans to pay for basic expenses. People 65 and older account for a growing share of U.S. bankruptcy filers, according to the Consumer Bankruptcy Project; unlike most consumer loans, student debt is rarely dischargeable in bankruptcy, the Journal added.
For the full report, including numerous stories of seniors struggling with the student debts, go here.