Canadians Have To Pay Back Their Student Loans Again Now That The Freeze Is Over
Well, it was a nice six months. The Canada Student Loans payment freeze is officially over now and you'll have to start paying the money back again.
With the start of October comes the end of the student loan suspension.
Payments were put on hold by the federal government for six months because of the COVID-19 pandemic but that's all over now.
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October 1
when student loan payments unfroze
Payments were put on hold for student loans and for Canada Apprentice Loans from March 30 to September 30 as the country dealt with what seemed to be the worst of the pandemic.
Pre-authorized debits were also stopped and no interest was racked up during that time.
However, that's all over now so as of October 1, money needs to start being paid back.
It's estimated that those measures helped give relief to almost one million people.
One province has gone a step further and actually forgiven student debt for some graduates.
Canada has made some changes to its Student Loans Program like doubling the money for grants to $6,000 and raising the maximum weekly amount that can be given to students for 2020-21 from $210 to $350.