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The pandemic-era forbearance on federal student loans saved U.S. borrowers $37.8 billion in interest payments through 2021, according to data released yesterday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bloomberg News reported. Payments were frozen in March 2020 as part of an unprecedented package of COVID-19 measures, providing relief to about 43 million of Americans who owed an estimated $1.6 trillion in student debt as of the end of last year. The BEA estimate focuses on interest payments. Borrowers have had the option to continue making payments — in which case they were applied to the principal. Others have spent, invested or used the funds to pay down other debts like credit cards. Student-debt payments are due to resume May 1, after several extensions of the freeze. Read more.

In related news, a group of Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona this week pressing for further information about how the administration plans to resume federal student loan payments and ensure borrowers receive adequate support, The Hill reported. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Reps. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) and Colin Allred (D-Tex.) led their colleagues in a letter to Cardona on Wednesday, seeking “additional detail on the scheduled resumption of federal student loan payments following the expiration of the payment pause on May 1, 2022.” In their letter to Cardona this week, the lawmakers wrote that, while they “appreciate the Biden administration’s actions to extend the payment pause,” they are concerned that “with less than 70 days until the scheduled expiration, borrowers may lack clarity about the timeline associated with the resumption of payments.” Read more.

More than 80% of the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance aimed at keeping families in their homes during the pandemic went to low-income tenants, the Treasury Department said yesterday, the Associated Press reported. It also concluded that the largest percentage of tenants receiving pandemic aid were Black followed by households. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Treasury found that more than 40% of tenants getting help were Black and two-thirds of recipients were female-headed households. The data was consistent with what Treasury saw throughout the year. According to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, those most likely to face eviction are low-income women, especially women of color. Domestic violence victims and families with children are also at high risk for eviction. Lawmakers approved $46.5 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance last year. After early challenges getting the funds out, the pace of distribution has picked up significantly in recent months. Throughout 2021, over $25 billion has been spent and obligated. That represents 3.8 million payments to households, Treasury said Thursday.

Citigroup will eliminate overdraft fees this year, becoming the biggest lender in the nation to get rid of the charges, which regulators have criticized, the New York Times reported. The bank will do away with fees for overdrafts and returned items by the summer, it said in a statement on Thursday. It follows smaller lenders, including Capital One and Ally Financial, that said last year that they would halt the fees. Among the nation’s banking giants, Bank of America said it would cut — but not eliminate — overdraft charges to $10 from $35 this year, while JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have tweaked their services for strapped customers. Citigroup’s move aims “to make the financial system easier and more equitable for communities who have little or no financial buffer,” said Gonzalo Luchetti, the chief executive of U.S. personal banking at Citi. Banking regulators have focused on overdraft practices in recent months. The acting comptroller of the currency, Michael J. Hsu, has said the charges disproportionately affect the most financially vulnerable customers. Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has said many lenders have become “hooked on overdraft fees” to feed their profits.

Home prices soared almost 19 percent higher in 2021 as a severe lack of supply and low borrowing costs poured fuel on housing costs, according to data released yesterday, The Hill reported. The S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller housing price index, a closely watched gauge of home prices, rose 18.8 percent annually in December 2021, tracking the highest calendar-year increase in 34 years. The index rose 1.3 percent in December after seasonal adjustments, with prices rising in all 20 metro areas covered by S&P. Home prices have risen rapidly since spring 2020, when pandemic-driven stimulus, lockdowns and interest rate cuts spurred a sharp increase in home sales. The intense demand drove prices higher as buyers competed for a limited supply of houses and builders were unable to keep up amid pandemic restrictions. While home sales fell off in 2021, housing prices steamed ahead with buyers competing for dwindling inventory. Supply chain disruptions, shipping delays and other pandemic-related snarls have also hindered builders from filling the shortfall.

Family caregivers are the backbone of the nation’s long-term care system and provide an estimated $470 billion worth of free care — often at great personal cost, the Wall Street Journal reported. On average, caregivers spend 26% of their personal income on caregiving expenses, according to a 2021 AARP study, with most personal spending going to housing, including home modifications. A third of caregivers dip into their personal savings, like bank accounts, to cover costs, and 12% take out a loan or borrow from family or friends. Amy Goyer is AARP’s family and caregiving expert. She has written two books on the subject and has her own consulting business. “I am a caregiving expert. How did I end up in bankruptcy?” she says. Ms. Goyer depleted her savings and ended up relying on credit cards after being financially drained by costs related to caring for her parents. After more than a decade of caring for her mom, who had a stroke, and her dad, who had Alzheimer’s, Ms. Goyer filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019. She says it shows how the unexpected costs of daily caregiving can accumulate over time and overwhelm even the most experienced of the nation’s 53 million family caregivers. Caregiving is becoming more expensive because people are living longer with more complicated medical needs and hiring help costs more. The median annual cost of in-home care rose to $54,912 in 2020, an 18.5% increase from 2016, according to Genworth, a long-term-care insurance company.

A lawmaker in Rhode Island wants people who file for bankruptcy to be able to keep $500 of their personal savings, the Associated Press reported. Democratic Rep. Arthur Corvese, of North Providence, sponsored a bill to provide protection to people and families in financial distress. The Rhode Island House of Representatives approved it Thursday, sending it to the Senate for consideration. Corvese said that while $500 is not much to a creditor, "it is enough to make sure a family has groceries between paychecks or can handle a car repair so they can continue to get to work.” The legislation would add $500 in savings or other deposits held in a bank or financial institution to the list of assets, such as a family’s clothing and some household furnishings, that are exempt from attachment.

Almost 4 million American children fell into poverty last month after the expanded child tax credit (CTC) expired, according to a study released Thursday by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, The Hill reported. The lapse of monthly CTC payments in January pushed 3.7 million children below the poverty line, according to federal data analyzed by the Columbia researchers. The child poverty rate rose from 12.1 percent in December to 17 percent in January — an increase of 41 percent. "While in place, the monthly child tax credit payments buffered family finances amidst the continuing pandemic, increased families’ abilities to meet their basic needs, reduced child poverty and food insufficiency, and had no discernable negative effects on parental employment," the authors of the study wrote. The $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed by President Biden in March 2021 increased the amount of money parents receive through the CTC to $250 per child between ages 6 and 17 and $300 for each child younger than 6. The bill also removed work requirements for the CTC and allowed parents to collect half of their total annual credit through a series of monthly payments, instead of a one-off tax reduction, from July to December 2021.