without making a payment

Borrowers are considered in default once they have gone 360 days without making a payment after having left school, whether because they graduated or dropped out.

These borrowers have gone at least a year without making a payment—ignoring hundreds of phone calls, emails, text messages and letters from federally hired debt collectors.

About 1 in 6 borrowers, or 3.6 million, were in default on $56 billion in student debt, meaning they had gone at least a year without making a payment.

In most cases, a student loan is in default if the borrower has gone more than 360 days without making a payment.

As of Sept. 30, just over 7 million borrowers had gone at least a year without making a payment on their federal student loans, Education Department figures show.