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Sue, 70, went back to school later in life to further her education and give herself a shot at advancing her career.
She earned a bachelor's degree in counseling in 1999, and 10 years later, she got a master's degree in teaching. However, Sue — who requested to go by her first name only to protect her privacy — was unable to find full-time work as a counselor, and since she wasn't making a consistent income over the past decade, she was sometimes unable to fulfill the full amount of her monthly student-loan payments.
Sue's student-loan balance now stands at just over $84,000, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider. After retiring during the pandemic, she primarily relies on her Social Security checks and any money she can get from babysitting or dog walking to afford her student-loan payments, along with other bills like rent and utilities.
"I've been living in the same apartment for about 12 years," Sue told BI. "It's a very small, cramped apartment, and I can't afford to move out. I can just make it with what I have."
President Joe Biden's SAVE student-loan repayment plan brought Sue some relief. Implemented last summer, the SAVE plan is a new income-driven repayment plan intended to give millions of borrowers lower monthly payments and a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness. Prior to SAVE, Sue said she was paying around $300 a month, but after switching to the new plan, her payments were lowered to under $50.
But the future of those low payments is uncertain. Two groups of GOP state attorneys general filed lawsuits to block the SAVE plan, and on August 9, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the plan in its entirety pending a final decision. That meant that 8 million borrowers enrolled in SAVE — including Sue — were placed on forbearance until courts decide whether Biden's administration can move forward with the cheaper payments borrowers were hoping for.
"I'm a struggling, working poor person. Why are they doing this? It just seems to me so unfair," Sue said. "They think that giving us a break is not fair to the people who had to pay. But that's kind of a ridiculous thing to say because the people who managed to pay, great. But there are some people who are in this spiral forever."
Student loans can be burdensome for any generation, but the risks increase for older borrowers who are retired or nearing retirement and have limited sources of income. According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, Gen Xers and boomers have the highest median student-loan balance, and with the risk of losing full Social Security benefits in just over a decade, the need for relief grows more prevalent.
"It seems like a war on the old and the poor," Sue said. "I'm already figuring out what my life would be minus the full Social Security."
The Education Department is continuing to fight for the SAVE plan in court, and it's also working toward implementation of its broader student-loan forgiveness plan that's expected to benefit over 30 million borrowers. However, continued opposition to the administration's relief efforts means that any forthcoming relief will likely end up in court, leaving borrowers in limbo.
"You should expect more on student debt relief," White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told Axios. "You should expect more on junk fees and anything we can do to make Americans' lives more affordable."
BI has previously spoken to some other borrowers concerned about the fate of their student-loan payments. For example, Alan Pedrick, 41, received $0 payments through SAVE, and he's not confident he can afford anything higher than that should the plan be blocked.
"I'm going to have to rebudget all over again," Pedrick said. "And this is probably the most difficult time of my life as far as finances go with the cost of housing, the cost of vehicles, gas, food has shot up and now they want to go back and make us start repaying. It's kind of depressing, really."
While Sue, like millions of other borrowers, is still waiting to find out whether she can continue to benefit from lower monthly payments, she hasn't lost all hope, given that many others are banking on the same relief.
"There are so many people in this position that I'm hoping that they win some recognition," Sue said. "If they have to come up with a different program than the SAVE program, I hope it's something that I can manage because I am really scared of this thing."
Are you worried about retirement? Do you have a story to share about student loans? Reach out to this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.
