The number of Americans severely behind on payments on federal student loans reached roughly 4.6 million in the third quarter, doubling from four years ago, despite a historically long stretch of U.S. job creation and steady economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the third quarter alone, the count of such defaulted borrowers—defined by the government as those who haven’t made a payment in at least a year—grew by nearly 274,000, according to Education Department data released on Tuesday. The total number of defaulted borrowers represents about 22 percent of the Americans who were required to be paying down their federal student loans as of Sept. 30. That figure has increased from 17 percent four years earlier. The money they owe is becoming a bigger share of total outstanding student debt in repayment. Defaulted student loans totaled $84 billion at the end of the quarter, or 13 percent of the roughly $631 billion that borrowers were required to be paying down. Read more.(Subscription required.)
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