The Department of Education’s office for handling student loan complaints has a backlog of 27,000 after the Trump administration gutted the department of most of its staff.
The Federal Student Aid ombudsman office handles hundreds of thousands of complaints each year from student loan borrowers experiencing issues with their loan information, loan servicer, school, and more. In 2024, the office received more than 200,000 complaints.
But since the president signaled for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to essentially close the department, more than half of the workforce has been fired or offered buyouts.
That has left the ombudsman office without enough staff to deal with cases, creating a backlog of 27,006 complaints.
The office revealed its backlog in a letter sent from the department’s Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs to Senator Elizabeth Warren at the end of July. The letter was obtained by NBC News.
“The Trump administration is abandoning Americans who have been scammed by their student loan servicers or have problems with their loans,” Warren said in a statement to NBC News.
“I’m pushing Secretary McMahon because families across this country deserve answers about her efforts to dismantle the Department of Education,” Warren added.
The Independent has asked the Department of Education for comment.
Those having problems with their student loan lenders or federal loans with their schools have complained about difficulty in reaching the ombudsman office for several months – even before the Trump administration assumed power.
In a Reddit thread, one person said that in December, a representative for the ombudsman’s office worked directly for the loan lender and refused to escalate their complaint. The user said they eventually directly mailed a complaint to the complaint office, but never received a response.
Another Reddit user echoed similar sentiments, saying a Federal Student Aid representative informed them that the ombudsman’s office no longer had an operation number in December.
Other Reddit threads complain of similar issues getting help through emails, calls, and physical mail.
In February, one person said a representative in the ombudsman’s office informed them that the office was no longer processing complaints and was told to direct complaints to their state ombudsman instead.
But complaints about the office’s pace have been around long before the Trump administration. Some Reddit threads raising concerns about the office’s responses go back two years.
Every year, the ombudsman’s office is supposed to provide a review of its performance in the Federal Student Aid annual report. In 2022, the office said it received approximately 101,516 cases, and by the end of the fiscal year, 1,747 cases remained unassigned.
But the number of complaints has dramatically increased each year since then, likely making it more difficult for people to respond.
In the federal court case between McMahon and New York, in which the administration successfully requested the Supreme Court to allow the department to fire employees, a former employee who worked in the office of the ombudsman was already compiling a backlog in March.
“As of March 14, 2025, I had an open caseload of 322 complaints and the Ombudsman Office had a backlog of 16,000 complaints from borrowers awaiting research and resolution,” Rachel Gittleman said in her court filing.
That means within four months, the office has received more than 11,006 complaints, which have gone ignored.
