Moratorium on student loan payments set to expire May 1

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- President Joe Biden's $5.8 trillion budget proposal includes additional funding for education, but he didn't specifically set aside any assistance for student loan relief.

The moratorium on student loan payments and interest is set to expire on May 1.

"Payments haven't been going for two years now, and I think a lot of people have gotten used to living their lives without making those payments," Student Loans Over 50 owner Erik Kroll said.

Kroll specializes in helping people over 50 years old with paying off their, or their child's, student loans. 

"There's about a million (people) across the country that are over 50 years old that have six figures, $100,000 plus (loans)," Kroll said. 

There's a chance the White House could extend the moratorium, but as the deadline quickly approaches, Kroll said people are just looking for clarity.

"The government has given a lot of mixed messages. It's going to start on X date, and then it gets moved back," Kroll said.

Experts said the holdup is political. Biden and other Democratic leaders tossed around the idea of forgiving student loans.

"What's a half-step to making college free? It's canceling the loans," University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor Emeritus Mordecai Lee said. 

Some Republicans are against their idea.

"This is such a freebie that when students signed up for the student loans, they were adults, they were 18 and up," Lee said. 

If Biden chooses to relieve student loans, Lee said there's two ways he can move forward. 

"When all it takes is a signature on a piece of paper, by the stroke of a pen, let's say the President is signing an executive order, it could happen tomorrow," Lee said. "If it comes to going through Congress, it couldn't happen by May 1."

Kroll said now is a good time for people with student loans to check how much their payments are going to be as they could have changed.