The law also introduces borrowing caps for graduate and professional degree students ($20,500 annually, $100,000 lifetime) and parents taking out loans to assist with a child’s education ($20,000 per year, $65,000 per child).
Student loan experts worry these caps will push more borrowers toward private lenders, which charge higher interest rates, offer less favorable terms and don’t qualify for any income-driven repayment or forgiveness programs.
“You’re pushing people into the private student loan market and away from safe federal student loans with good consumer protections,” said Pierce.
According to Jonathan Glater, H.R.1 does nothing to address why student debt became a crisis in the first place: skyrocketing college tuition costs. By capping federal borrowing without tackling affordability, the law may simply shift the burden from federal loans to private debt, he warned — or price students out of higher education entirely.
“My fear is that what we are seeing is a lifting of the ladder of higher ed opportunity higher, so it’ll be out of reach for more people,” said Glater.
If you’re planning for graduate school or helping a child pay for college, factor these new limits into your timeline and consider whether starting before July 2026 would give you access to more generous borrowing options.
And document everything — experts caution that, considering the sheer volume of changes, and the Education Department operating with reduced staff, keeping detailed records of your loans, payments, and applications is more important than ever.
I think my loan servicer made a mistake. What should I do?
Your federal student loans might be owned by the government, but they’re managed by private loan servicing companies.
“It is a black mark on the student loan system that people need to know what a student loan servicer is,” Pierce said. These are companies contracted to administer and collect your loans, handle your payments, process paperwork for income-driven repayment plans and answer your questions.
The problem? In their role as the middleman between you and the Department of Education, several loan servicers have made serious administrative errors and have been targets of class action lawsuits for mishandling borrower accounts.
“We hear the worst stories about lost paperwork, changing balances, the rules being rewritten for people right in the middle of paying their loans back when those loan companies change,” said Pierce.
If you’ve been repaying loans for a while, you’ve probably experienced at least one transfer of your debt from one servicer to another. According to Pierce, each transfer creates an opportunity for information to get lost, payment counts to be recorded incorrectly or for the servicer to lose contact with you entirely.
If you think your loan servicer made a mistake — whether it’s incorrect payment counts, wrong balance information, or problems with your repayment plan — don’t just accept it, urged Pierce.
Protect Borrowers has detailed resources on their website explaining what steps to take when your servicer gets it wrong, which include:
Start by documenting everything
Take screenshots of your account, save emails and letters, and keep records of every phone call, said Pierce — including the date, time, and name of the representative.
File a formal complaint with your servicer first
…but be ready to escalate to the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman if the issue isn’t resolved.
California borrowers have an additional resource: the state’s dedicated Student Loan Ombudsman, who can help navigate disputes and advocate on your behalf.
Be proactive and persistent
Loan servicers handle millions of accounts, and mistakes happen — but those mistakes can cost you thousands of dollars or years of progress toward forgiveness if they’re not caught and corrected, said Pierce.
Don’t assume your servicer has correct information for you
…especially after a transfer. Regularly check your account, verify your payment counts match your records, and if something looks off, speak up immediately. The more documentation you have, the easier it will be to prove an error and get it fixed, said Pierce.
His advice for borrowers “that are just stuck” is to go to your lawmaker and open up a case with your local member of Congress or your state senator.
“There’s only so much you can do with the current law, but for people that are stuck waiting on hold … or feel like they’ve been lied to by a student loan company, often going to your member of congress and opening up a case with them is the best way forward here,” he said, adding that Congressional casework can cut through red tape when the Education Department is overwhelmed or unresponsive.
I need help navigating my student loans, but I’m not hearing back. Why?
The Department of Education has been hit hard by cuts under the Trump administration; its workforce was slashed in half earlier this year, dropping from about 4,100 employees to roughly 2,200.
Many of the dismissed employees worked within the Federal Student Aid department and assisted with the technical administration of student loans, including handling disputes between borrowers and loan servicers and answering FAFSA questions.
The recent government shutdown has only made things worse, furloughing about 87% of the department’s remaining workforce.
The practical impact? Expect longer wait times for processing income-driven repayment applications, employment certification for PSLF and responses to borrower disputes.
The good news is you’re not on your own. While the federal government has scaled back support, there are still nonprofit organizations and state resources available to help you navigate your loans.
The National Consumer Law Center offers Student Loan Borrower Assistance, providing free information for people struggling with payments or dealing with default. Protect Borrowers focuses on existing pathways to debt cancellation through the Cancel My Student Debt campaign. And California borrowers have access to the state’s dedicated Student Loan Ombudsman, who can help resolve disputes with loan servicers.
“These big structural problems, the fact that [borrowers] can’t afford their loan payment or that nobody will return their phone calls, this isn’t because they did something wrong,” Pierce added. “It’s scary for people that are staring down a bill they can’t afford. But this is a function of public policy. It’s not an individual failing.”
link
About the Author
