(Excerpts from The New York Times)

• The Education Department announced Friday that it would continue a moratorium on federal student loan payments through Jan. 31, extending emergency relief for millions of borrowers that had been set to expire next month.
• The department said that this would be the “final extension” of the pause, which the Trump administration instituted in March 2020at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, and that the additional time would allow the agency to transition borrowers back into repayment and reduce the risk of default and delinquency.
• “The payment pause has been a lifeline that allowed millions of Americans to focus on their families, health and finances instead of student loans during the national emergency,” Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona said in a statement. “As our nation’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this final extension will give students and borrowers the time they need” to plan to resume payments.
• Persis Yu, the director of National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, said there were “too many moving parts to successfully start federal student loan repayment,” citing the loan servicer shake-up.
• “Borrowers are collectively taking a huge sigh of relief at the news that the federal student loan payment pause has been extended once again,” Ms. Yu said in a statement. “The student loan system is not ready to resume repayment on Oct. 1, and President Biden has made the right decision to postpone repayment.”