Warren, Merkley, Senators Investigate Federal Student Loan Servicer MOHELA for False Delinquency Notices Allegedly Sent to Borrowers

According to reports, MOHELA falsely told borrowers they were thousands of dollars behind on their student loans and nearing default

"It is currently unclear how many borrowers received these false notices, whether any borrowers paid the incorrect amounts, and to what extent the issue has been fixed"

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) led a group of senators in investigating federal student loan servicer MOHELA on the company's plans to address the false delinquency notices that it reportedly sent to numerous student loan borrowers. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) joined the letter as well.

This month, Forbes reported that MOHELA sent a large number of delinquency notices to student loan borrowers not actually delinquent on their loans. The emails mistakenly warned borrowers that their loans were "severely past due" and told borrowers that they were at risk of wage garnishment and other consequences of default.

According to reports, borrowers who received these notices and logged into their MOHELA account were incorrectly shown that their loans were past due for many months of payments and shown documents incorrectly indicating that they owed a "past due amount" and "total amount due," which, in some cases, was over $10,000. MOHELA's customer service representatives also allegedly failed to speedily resolve this issue for borrowers.

"This error is a failure that has not only been highly distressing for borrowers but could have led to direct financial harm," wrote the senators. "If a borrower does not realize that their false delinquency notice was issued in error and believes that they are on the verge of default, they might make the payment MOHELA has claimed they are responsible for, unnecessarily spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars."

MOHELA has a long history of making significant errors at the expense of borrowers, including allegedly reporting millions of loan transfers to credit bureaus incorrectly, sending inaccurate billing statements to hundreds of thousands of borrowers and late billing statements to millions, and failing to process hundreds of thousands of borrowers' applications for affordable repayment plans in a timely manner.

The senators noted the Trump administration has stripped away key safeguards to prevent federal student loan servicers' errors. The dismantling of the Education Department (ED) has included the elimination of ED's entire servicer oversight team, which had been responsible for identifying and addressing servicer errors.

"The Trump administration's policy is to look the other way when servicers fail at their job, and borrowers are suffering the consequences," wrote the senators.

The senators pushed MOHELA to provide answers to their questions regarding these false delinquency notices no later than September 10, 2026. The senators also called on ED to rehire the servicer oversight team and follow the Government Accountability Office's recommendation to resume assessing servicer accuracy.

Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump's attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

• On July 30, 2026, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee's bipartisan 21-1 vote to advance Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy's (R-La.) College Transparency Act out of committee, Senator Warren released the following statement.
• On July 21, 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced the Accreditation Reform and Enhanced Accountability Act of 2026 (AREAA). The legislation would take steps to reduce student debt and protect students and taxpayers by reforming higher education accreditation and centering student outcomes and consumer protection. On July 16, 2026, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Francis Brooke, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, to answer basic questions about the largest student loan default crisis in recorded history, which the Treasury Department has now inherited as part of President Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. Mr. Brooke was unable to answer questions about the size of the default crisis and potential effects on Social Security benefits for seniors with defaulted loans.
• On July 6, 2026, in response to a May 2026 request from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent government watchdog, confirmed it would investigate whether the Trump administration's dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) is harming ED's ability to root out waste, fraud, and abuse of Title IV financial aid funds.
• On June 8, 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Merkley (D-Ore.), along with Representatives Pressley (D-Mass.) and Carson (D-Ind.), led 62 members of Congress in pressing the Department of Education to immediately address the largest student loan default and delinquency crisis on record, which has been made worse by the Trump administration's policies.
• On May 28, 2026, in response to a request from Senator Warren (D-Mass.), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent government watchdog, confirmed the expansion of its investigation into the Department of Education's (ED) transfer of critical programs to other agencies through interagency agreements (IAAs), including the transfer of student loan default collections to the Department of the Treasury. GAO previously confirmed it had initiated an investigation into ED's transfer of grant programs for career and technical education and adult education to the Department of Labor.
• On May 21, 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to open a new investigation into whether the Trump administration's dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) is harming ED's ability to root out waste, fraud, and abuse of Title IV financial aid funds.
• On May 4, 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released new responses from the Department of Education and the Treasury Department demonstrating that the agencies cannot articulate a clear purpose or plan for implementing their illegal interagency agreement (IAA) transferring the administration of federal student loans to the Treasury.
• On April 28, 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pressed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new Student Loan Ombudsman, Geoffrey Gradler, on his plan to protect student loan borrowers, especially given his past censorship of a key student loan report at the CFPB and his background as a lobbyist for lenders. The senators also asked him to recuse himself from past clients' matters that might come before his office at the CFPB.
• On April 2, 2026, Senators Warren, Sanders, Wyden, Murray, and Baldwin-all top Democrats on influential education committees-pressed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to rescind their plans to move the administration of federal student loans to the Treasury Department, the latest move in the Trump administration's attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
• On February 23, 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with Representative Ayanna Pressley, released a response from the Department of Education to their November letter regarding a potential sale of the federal student debt portfolio. In the response, ED confirms for the first time publicly that they are weighing a sale of the federal student loan portfolio.
• On February 19, 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) pushed Education Secretary Linda McMahon on concerns that the U.S. Department of Education is apparently obstructing Congressional efforts to hold federal student loan servicers accountable for underperformance.
• On February 2, 2026, Senator Warren released a new report revealing the findings of their investigation into how private student loan lenders will reap the benefits from cuts to federal student loan access enacted in Republicans' Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBBA). The report is the first Congressional analysis of the impacts of the OBBBA's student loan restrictions on the private lending market.
• On January 22, 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) led their Senate colleagues in demanding answers from Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon about the Trump Administration's proposal to eliminate affordable student loan repayment options for millions of Americans.
• On December 8, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in writing to the federal student loan servicers to ensure they are providing borrowers with the customer service they deserve in the wake of the Trump administration's student loan policy whiplash. The senators sent letters to MOHELA, Nelnet, EdFinancial, Maximus, and CRI.
• On December 1, 2025, Senator Warren published an op-ed in USA Today calling for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to resign following the recent news that President Trump and Secretary McMahon plan to further dismantle the Department of Education (ED).
• On November 17, 2025, Senator Warren led over 40 of her colleagues in a letter urging Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to immediately end any plans to sell or transfer the federal student loan portfolio to the private market.
• On November 10, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in a letter urging the Trump administration to use the IRS's existing legal authorities to stop the looming "tax bomb" facing borrowers who obtain income-driven repayment (IDR) discharges of their student loan debt.
• On October 15, 2025, Senator Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) led 70 members of Congress in a letter calling on the Trump administration to address the ongoing and unprecedented wave of student loan delinquencies and defaults, which threatens the financial stability of millions of people and could have disastrous effects on the American economy.
• On September 19, 2025, following a push by Senator Warren and nine other senators, the Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education agreed to open an investigation into DOGE's infiltration of internal systems, including the scope of its access to sensitive student loan borrower information and its impact on borrowers' rights and privacy.
• On August 26, 2025, Senator Warren led colleagues in sending a follow-up letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon condemning the Department of Education for deliberately hiding the "Submit a Complaint" button on the Office of Federal Student Aid's website, firing employees responsible for providing customer service to borrowers and families and misleading Congress about the scope of these firings.
• On August 4, 2025, Senator Warren led eight Senators in pressing major private student loan lenders on their plans to serve the incoming surge of borrowers who will be pushed to the industry because of Republicans' recently passed "Big, Beautiful Bill."
• On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, "Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump's War on Students," highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration's dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) and slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.
• On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.

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