A recent measure eliminating the interest on federal student and apprentice loans could cost more than the $2.7 billion price tag over the next five years that the Employment Department initially gave to a parliamentary committee, new figures show.
The department wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry recently tabled in the House of Commons that the government charged nearly $750 million in total federal student loan interest in 2019—the year before the pandemic hit—and collected about $415 million, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.