Can I use the stimulus check to pay off defaulted student loans?
As of mid-April the Internal Revenue Service started sending the stimulus payment of $1,200 to Americans in need during this coronavirus pandemic in the US.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has already sent out 128.3 million stimulus checks and have already paid $218.4 billion to millions of Americans across the United States as the coronavirus pandemic continues. More than 30 million Americans have been left without a job because of the virus.
When President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act back in 22 March it was intended to help millions of Americans who lost their job in the Covid-19 pandemic and this stimulus check was categorized as an “economic rebate.”
Some Americans are using this money to pay their debts, such as student loans. While there's a new bill introduced in Congress to write-off-student loan debt for many medical professionals working on the front line amid the coronavirus pandemic, those who are not in that profession wouldn’t qualify for that bill if passed.
Stimulus checks will not be taken to pay for student debt
So that means that the individuals with federal student loans that have not paid for a certain period of time, depending on the type of loan they have taken out, can rest easy because their stimulus payments won’t be taken away to pay back the debt. Also as an extra aid during these difficult times, the Department of Education also stated federal student loans will not go into default at this time.
During the outbreak the government mandated that all payments on federal loans are suspended with zero percent interest from now until 30 September. So people have the option to either pay their monthly fee or not if they need the money during the pandemic. The law was introduced to help Americans and people will owe exactly what they did from the start of the outbreak.