Student loan delinquencies spiked in the first quarter of 2025 as the federal government resumed reporting overdue payments to credit bureaus for the first time in nearly five years, marking the end of a pandemic-era pause on repayment of student debt.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported on May 13 that the share of student debt that is 90 or more days past due surged to 8 percent, up from 0.8 percent in the previous quarter.
The sudden jump follows the formal expiration of a 43-month pandemic-era pause on student loan repayments that began in March 2020 and included an additional one-year “on-ramp” in 2023–2024 during which missed payments were not penalized. Once reporting resumed, a backlog of delinquent accounts was added to credit files, leading to the spike….