Student Loan Delinquency Rate (90+ days)

The payment pause on federal student loans lasted 42 months. When it ended, the delinquency data disappeared too — the Department of Education stopped reporting defaulted balances to credit bureaus during the on-ramp period, and the NY Fed's series flatlined near zero from Q4 2022 through Q4 2024.

Then the reporting resumed. In Q1 2025, the series jumped from 0.53% to 7.74%. By Q1 2026 it had climbed to 10.3% — nearly 1 in 10 student loan borrowers is now 90 or more days behind. Before the pandemic, the rate averaged 10 to 11%. What we're watching is post-pause distress becoming visible again in the NY Fed series.

The borrowers falling behind are disproportionately those who already owed more than they could repay. Graduates in for-profit programs. Borrowers with partial degrees and no credential. Parents who took out PLUS loans against retirement they will now need. The income-driven repayment options that were supposed to absorb the shock are caught up in litigation over the SAVE plan, which left borrowers with monthly payments they didn't expect and couldn't budget for.

Credit Card Delinquency and Auto Loan Serious Delinquency both climbed in the same quarters that student loan reporting resumed. The overlap identifies simultaneous payment stress across household balance sheets. Timing alone cannot establish that resumed student loan payments caused either increase.