Some new legislation before the U.S. House focuses on helping college students cope with student debt.

 

The 2017 Student Security Act offers student loan forgiveness for allowing their full-retirement age for Social Security benefits to be raised.

 

It will permit $550 in loan forgiveness, which turns out to be the typical price for each credit hour at a public university, in return for increasing the participant’s age of retirement by 1 month. This is equivalent to $6,600 per year an individual delays picking up their benefits.

 

In the new proposed legislation, individuals get debt relief up to $40,150 and this might mean they cannot get Social Security benefits for as much as 6 years and 1 month following the regular retirement age.

 

There hasn’t been much urgency shown by Congress to deal with the millions of Americans who have a difficult time repaying student debt totaling $1.3 trillion according to Congressman Tom Garrett (R-Virginia).

 

Garrett said there is no doubt that countless Americans have to deal with debt-per-student totaling tens of thousands of dollars. These financial restraints suppress crucial life events, such as buying a house, starting a family, and worst still, utilizing creative ideas and starting up businesses. He also mentioned that if we do not take significant actions to alter the direction, we are going to waste a lot of the promise with this generation. This damage will be disastrous, as well as the decline in their energy, strategies, and imagination that generate jobs and opportunity.

 

The Social Security Administration predicts, according to Garrett, that over $700 billion could be saved by the Student Security Program throughout the program’s lifetime, which is over the 11% of the money required to keep Social Security in the black.

 

Garrett stated that it is time to take action now.  This debt presents a major threat to the nation and if there is no action taken soon, the impact could be devastating. Garrett mentioned that he will not let Millennials be saddled with debt and allow Social Security to go bankrupt.