The U.S. Department of Education released a new form for joint consolidation loan borrowers who seek to separate their loans.
Sen. Mark R. Warner’s Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act, originally introduced in 2017, was inspired by Sara, a constituent from McLean, who contacted Warner to communicate her struggles with a joint consolidation loan. Sara was raising two children on a public school teacher’s salary in Northern Virginia and trying to keep up with payments on her student loans.
Unfortunately, her ex-spouse, whom she had divorced and moved thousands of miles away from to start fresh, refused to pay his share of their joint loan. Because joint consolidation loans create joint and several liability for borrowers, Sara faced the threat of having her wages as a public school teacher garnished if she did not pay both her and her ex-husband’s portions of their debt. Warner did not think this was fair and sought to create a solution, so that constituents like Sara could control their own financial futures.
The new application follows longtime efforts by Warner to provide relief for individuals who previously consolidated their federal student loan debt. Borrowers who consolidated their student debt with a spouse, did so under a program that was created by Congress and subsequently eliminated without providing a way for spouses to sever existing loans, even in the event of domestic violence, economic abuse or an unresponsive partner.
In 2022, Warner secured the passage of the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act of 2021 in order to help borrowers who remain liable for their abusive or uncommunicative spouse’s portion of their consolidated debts. In July of 2024, Warner hailed new education implementation guidance that culminates in the launch of the new application.
“Two years after getting the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act into law, I’m proud to say that borrowers can now apply to separate their joint consolidation loans. While this took longer than I had hoped for, I have no doubt that it brings a sigh of relief to so many borrowers who remain trapped in financial agreements with unresponsive or abusive ex-spouses, and unable to access important loan forgiveness programs. I’m proud to have written the law that’s bringing this process to life and I’m glad to see the Department of Education take such a significant step towards freeing borrowers from these burdensome loans,” Warner said.
Through the new Department of Education form, borrowers are able to submit a:
1. Joint Application: Both co-borrowers submit individual App/Notes to the Department, which will separate the JCL and create a new, individual Direct Consolidation Loan for each individual; or,
2. Separate Application: An individual JCL applicant submits an App/Note to the Department without regard to whether or when the co-borrower applies, if the applicant has experienced an act of domestic violence or economic abuse from the other co-borrower, or if they are unable to reasonably reach or access the loan information of the other co-borrower.
Once the loans are separated, the applicants’ loan obligation will be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan if both borrowers completed the joint application process. For submission of a separate application, the loan obligation will follow the same process as the joint application process, but if the remaining co-borrower does not complete an application, their loan obligation will remain a JCL with one borrower.
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Rebecca Barnabi
