Private companies who are paid to collect student debt for the Department of Education may face new restrictions on how, and how much, they can collect from student borrowers.

 

The Obama administrations is proposing a new policy that would force collectors to offer borrowers to fill out a standard form where repayment options are based on income, as opposed to the size of the loan debt. Under the proposal, payments could be as low as $50 a month for someone making $20,000 a year.

Student loans recently surpassed credit card debt as the leading cause of consumer debt in the United States. The new proposal is only applicable to public loans.