The Education Department has announced that it is restarting student loan collections on borrowers in default for the first time since March 2020, plunging millions of Americans into further financial uncertainty even as the Trump administration is supposedly seeking to dismantle the agency entirely.

In a press release on Monday, the department said that it will start involuntary collection again on May 5 on defaulted loans, meaning that it will withhold government payments like tax refunds and other benefits from borrowers in default.

Officials will begin garnishing wages on those in default later this summer, the department said — in other words, forcibly taking wages away from the borrowers who are struggling the most.

There are over 5 million borrowers in default, the administration says, while there are also 4 million borrowers who are in “late-stage delinquency” on the cusp of default. The agency said that these borrowers will also be pushed into a default status — which is when borrowers haven’t made payments in nine months — if they don’t begin repayment.

“As a result, there could be almost 10 million borrowers in default in a few months,” the agency said. “When this happens, almost 25 percent of the federal student loan portfolio will be in default.”

Advocates for student loan holders have condemned the administration, saying that it will only worsen economic distress just as the Trump administration is

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