What you need to know about the extended student loan payment pause, child tax credit By PBS NewsHour

there were some important news today for college graduates and their families with the binding ministration extending a pause on student loan payments payments will not be required before May 1st and the extension will help around 41 million borrowers meanwhile millions of families who relied on an increase in the child tax credit are about to lose getting that extra money Stephanie saw has more about what’s at stake

good evening Judy divided administration’s extended child tax credit amounted to direct payments to Americans raising children they were more generous and they included more poor families estimation nearly 10 million children are at risk of slipping deeper into poverty as the credit expires it won’t disappear entirely but instead of getting monthly payments of up to $300 per child Americans will have to file a tax return to claim the funds the government will also reduce the amount from $3,600 to $2,000 per child annually joining me now is Michelle Singletary personal finance columnist for the Washington Post Michelle welcome to the program it’s great to see you I want to First go into the student loan repayment pause that President Biden announced today was supposed to end on January 31st why this reversal today and how does it change things

well there was lots of pressure on the president to extend it because people are still suffering so there was a lot of outcry from consumer Advocates obviously ball worse about hours and people in Congress who sang listen people still need this break even though the administration said the last part was the absolute last one but as everyone knows the pandemic and things are just constantly changing and so that’s why they decided hey let’s give people at least three more months with no payments

okay do you see at this point Michelle blanket forgiveness of federal college loans in the offing because the president has also been under pressure by Progressive Democrats to do that

you know I don’t I think that that is a long shot there is so much on this list at the president needs to get through that giving people giving their loans right now is probably not on the top three so I know there are lots of people who are just holding on to it I talked to them who says you know I’m not going to pay any more than I have to because I’m going to get this loan forgiveness listen you need to pay those loans if you can and why there’s a pause if you haven’t had a disruption in your income I would say pay on that day because it’s not the end there’s no interest so you’re going to put that money directly on the principal so if you can afford it just go ahead and make those payments and even now

so do not hold out for student loan forgiveness are listening to the child tax credit the last direct payments were sent on December 15th Michelle what is that mean in coming months for families caring for children

so they got half of that the advance payments from July until December they going to stop now obviously to stop and then they can they can file tax returns next year to get the rest of that money what what happened what we found was that people really use that money for what they needed for rent food for their kids they manage the money on a monthly basis when you give people some money at Alum sign you doing the times that they don’t have these payments to accumulate that they don’t pay the red behind on things and so was so cute to keep this going and unfortunately millions of people are going to suffer cuz you know I’m a people working they were trying and and you don’t listen they did extend it to people with no income aloe and, these are people who are trying to just you know suck the government try they really are trying and it’s so important to keep this going but unfortunately at this point it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen but those families can still collect those payments when they file their there were two

if you know anybody who didn’t get those payments they still can get them by filing a return and 2022

but Michelle is you know there are millions of American families that don’t make enough money to file those tax returns what are they facing without these monthly checks I mean are we going to go back to the beginning of the pandemic when we were seeing long lines with Children and Families at food banks well they’re still eligible for these payments so you get if they say they didn’t get them for July they didn’t know they was going to buy was a lot of community groups are trying to let people know that if you had no income of no income you are still eligible to get those payments you just going to have to file a return now if there’s not those monthly payments kicking and you’re absolutely right more people are unfortunately you know I’m

they’re going to be kids who going to go to bed with no food their families who are going to worry about the roof over their heads that’s real and the pandemic show that we have a country of Haves and Have Nots and the Have Nots were already on the edge and the pandemic just push them over and now they’re still trying to climb up while we are still going through a surgeon covid and unfortunately they are going to suffer

I feel your your passion for this especially as we head into the holiday season here and in those families always faced so many more expenses during the holidays as a build back better plan as you know Michelle is stalled largely because Democratic senator Joe manchin opposes keeping the child tax credit the extended credits in their current form how do you think that plays a how do you think some form of this guaranteed income for families will remain intact in the end

I don’t I wish I could I mean it’s the holiday and you want to be happy and upbeat it you want things to happen the senator of one of the key reasons why he doesn’t want it is because he wants to work requirement with the expanded money it extended to people with no income for low-income where before you had to have a threshold of income but love if you can’t work at a restaurant cuz it’s closed down for your Factory closed down or was someone in your household is sick from covid-19 Nevada got the vaccination you know what do you do and so why we are wagging their fingers and why aren’t you doing better this was a way to make sure that people at least have the bare minimum and and oftentimes those people who are taking care of those children are grandparents I should know I was raised by my grandmother and so did you know they’re on a fixed income taking care of these kids and it’s very important that we continue what happened with these Advance payments families used

what it means to be used for

Michelle Singletary personal finance columnist at the Washington Post thank you for sharing your perspective on the NewsHour

thank you