The Federal Student Loan Pause: Assessing its Impact on Healthcare and Retirement Spending

The student loan pause was implemented to assist borrowers during the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Using quarterly data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey from 2019-2021, I analyze the impact of the pause on household spending on healthcare and retirement savings. Prior studies have shown negative impacts of student debt on health and retirement outcomes. The results indicate no statistically significant difference in spending in these categories for households that were eligible for the student loan pause. These findings raise concerns of whether the student loan pause was enough to help households affected by student debt and how these households will fare once the pause ends.