WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department will begin collection next month on student loans that are in default, including the garnishing of wages for potentially millions of borrowers, officials said Monday.

Currently, roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default on their federal student loans.

The Trump administration ’s announcement marks an end to a period of leniency that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. No federal student loans have been referred for collection since March 2020, including those in default. Under President Joe Biden, the Education Department tried multiple times to give broad forgiveness of student loans, only to be stopped by courts.

“American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Beginning May 5, the department will begin involuntary collection through the Treasury Department’s offset program, which withholds government payments — including tax refunds, federal salaries and other benefits — from people with past-due debts to the government. After a 30-day notice, the department also will begin garnishing wages for borrowers in default.

The decision to send debt to collections drew criticism from advocates, who said borrowers had experienced whiplash and confusion with the changing student loan policies between the Biden and Trump administrations.

“This is cruel, unnecessary and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

Already, many borrowers have been bracing for obligations coming due.

In 2020, President Donald Trump paused federal student loan payments and interest accrual as a temporary relief measure for student borrowers. The pause in payments was extended multiple times by the Biden administration through 2023, and a final grace period for loan repayments ended in October 2024. That meant tens of millions of Americans had to start making payments again.

Borrowers who don’t make payments for nine months go into default, which is reported on their credit scores and can go to collections.

Along with the borrowers already in default, around another 4 million are 91 to 180 days late on their loan payments. Less than 40% of all borrowers are current on their student loans, department officials said.

Layoffs at the Federal Student Aid office at the Education Department have made it harder for students to get their questions answered, even if they wanted to pay their loans, said Kristin McGuire, executive director for Young Invincibles, a group that focuses on economic security for younger adults.

And questions are swirling about certain income-driven repayment programs after a February court ruling blocked some of the payment plans. Borrowers in the more lenient, Biden-era SAVE Plan were placed in forbearance, in which borrowers receive relief from payments but still accrue interest. The Education Department in February took down applications for income-driven repayment programs — which tie a monthly payment to a person’s income level — only to bring them back online a month later.

“Things are really difficult to understand right now. Things are changing every day,” McGuire said. “We can’t assume that people are in default because they don’t want to pay their loans. People are in default because they can’t pay their loans and because they don’t know how to pay their loans.”

For borrowers in default, one step to avoid wage garnishment is to get into loan rehabilitation, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute for Student Loan Advisors.

Borrowers must ask their loan servicer to be placed into such a program. Typically, servicers ask for proof of income and expenses to calculate a payment amount. Once a borrower has paid on time for nine months in a row, they are taken out of default, Mayotte said. A loan rehabilitation can only be done once.

Biden oversaw the cancellation of student loans for more than 5 million borrowers. Despite the Supreme Court’s rejection of his signature proposal for broad relief, he waived more than $183.6 billion in student loans through expanded forgiveness programs.

In her statement Monday, McMahon said Biden had gone too far.

“Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly and according to the law, which means helping borrowers return to repayment — both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook,” she said.

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Associated Press writer Adriana Morga in New York contributed to this report.

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Starting with brushing his teeth before 4 a.m., influencer Ashton Hall says he also swims, meditates, journals, rubs his face with banana peel, lifts weights, submerges his face in ice water and accomplishes much more every day before breakfast around 9:30.

A video of his morning routine has racked up millions of views on social media, while sparking reactions that range from disbelief to awe. It also jumpstarted the conversation online about how best to start the day, even if a six-hour regimen is ambitious to say the least.

Don’t worry, said Kamalyn Kaur, a psychotherapist in Cheshire, England. You don’t need to start your day with dozens of activities to improve it. But she said it is a good idea to reevaluate how you get going because setting up a relaxed, structured morning will pay dividends for your energy and mood.

“It just sets the tone for the rest of your day,” said Kaur, an anxiety expert who advises new clients to start by reevaluating how they spend the morning. “If you set yourself up and you start your day properly, you start off feeling good, you feel organized.”

The case for establishing a morning routine

As a professor of workplace psychology at The University of Oklahoma, Shawn McClean has spent years studying how work life is influenced by the rest of your life.

He said accomplishing tasks in the same order every morning is helpful because people have limited mental bandwidth before they have to recharge. The brain subconsciously reserves resources for tasks that require higher-level thinking, so routines are a type of mental shortcut.

“We’re cognitive misers,” McClean said. “We don’t like to use our mental energy on things that aren’t important.”

His research has found that employees perform better and are more calm throughout the day when they complete their morning regimen uninterrupted. Conversely, employees with disruptive mornings report higher levels of mental depletion late in the day.

“When it comes to routine disruptions, it throws off your whole day,” he said on a day when he was playing catch-up after having forgotten about his daughter’s show-and-tell. “You get to work and you realize you didn’t brush your teeth.”

What is a “good” morning routine?

Most people already have some kind of routine in place, but few consciously decided on it before it became automatic, McLean said.

It’s hard to define what a good routine is, and there is no formula that is best for everyone.

“It’s going to be idiosyncratic to each person,” McLean said. “It’s what helps them function. Now, can we have destructive routines? Yes.”

Rushing around in the morning to shower, eat and get out the door just on time is an example of a destructive morning routine, Kaur said. The stress of a rushed morning produces extra cortisol, which is a necessary hormone that helps regulate the circadian rhythm, she said. It’s what naturally wakes you up and makes you alert in the morning.

Too much cortisol in the bloodstream, however, creates a feeling of restlessness and anxiety that can be similar to drinking coffee on an empty stomach, Kaur said.

Where should you start?

People who often have hectic mornings should consider setting their alarm 30 minutes earlier — and resist the urge to hit the snooze button, Kaur said. For many people, snoozed sleep is disrupted sleep that might leave you more groggy.

Kaur recommends adding at least two or three quick activities to your morning that have been shown to improve mood — starting with making your bed. Research shows that clutter foments anxiety, and completing a task first thing in the morning promotes the secretion of the feel-good hormone dopamine, she said.

Next, have a glass of water. If you’ve gotten a full night’s sleep, you’ll likely be slightly dehydrated after not consuming liquids for eight hours. And try delaying caffeine until after eating to avoid being jittery.

At some point within the first hour of waking up, expose yourself to natural light, preferably by taking a quick walk, Kaur said. Even if it’s cloudy, daylight is another trigger for the circadian rhythm that promotes alertness first thing in the morning.

“These habits are important,” she said. “It gives you the optimum chance and the optimum conditions to function better throughout the rest of your day.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Stumm writes about wellness, food and travel. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

Tavče gravče, which translates as “beans in a pan,” is a Macedonian classic. Traditionally, large dried white beans called tetovac, named for a city in northwestern Macedonia, are the star of the rustic dish, while onions, garlic, peppers and paprika provide deep, rich flavor and color.

In this recipe from our cookbook “ Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year,” we opted for the convenience of canned butter beans, which are plump, creamy and the best widely available alternative to tetovac beans. If butter beans are difficult to find, cannellini beans work, too.

Combined with sautéed aromatics and baked for an hour with smoked sausages, the beans turn silky-soft and deeply flavorful. Both kielbasa and bratwurst work well. Optional dried mint adds sweet, woody notes that balance the richer flavors.

Don’t forget to reserve 1½ cups of the bean liquid before draining the cans. The liquid is added to the pot and keeps the beans plump and moist during baking. If the amount of liquid from the cans comes up short, make up the difference with water. To ensure enough liquid evaporates during cooking, use a Dutch oven with a wide diameter, ideally between 11 and 12 inches. Finish with chopped flat leaf parsley and serve with crusty bread on the side.

Baked White Beans and Sausages with Paprika, Onions and Sweet Peppers

Start to finish: 1 hour 50 minutes (20 minutes active)

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil, divided

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

2 medium red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

6 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced

4 teaspoons sweet paprika

1½ teaspoons dried mint (optional)

Three 15½-ounce cans butter beans (1½ cups liquid reserved), rinsed and drained

2 dried árbol chilies OR ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 to 1¼ pounds smoked sausage, such as kielbasa or bratwurst

¼ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the lower-middle position. In a large Dutch oven over medium-high, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil until shimmering. Add the onions, bell peppers and 1 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the garlic, paprika, mint (if using) and ½ teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the beans and reserved liquid, árbol chilies and 1½ cups water. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, then nestle the sausages into the pot and drizzle the surface with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Transfer to the oven and bake, without stirring, until the sausages are browned and the beans on the surface are slightly crisped, 1 to 1¼ hours.

Remove the pot from the oven and let stand, uncovered, for about 15 minutes; the bean mixture will thicken as it cools. Transfer the sausages to a cutting board. Cut them into pieces, return them to the pot and stir into the beans. Remove and discard the árbol chilies (if used). Taste and season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with the parsley. Serve from the pot.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For more recipes, go to Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street at 177milkstreet.com/ap