Nearly half of student loan borrowers have not made repayments since billing resumed last year, according to The New York Times.

Student loan repayments were put on a three-year pause during the pandemic, allowing borrowers to put their payments on hold until billing resumed in 2023, according to the Federal Student Aid website. There were nearly 19 million borrowers who were not making monthly payments at the end of March, six months after the end of the pause, according to the NYT.

Some borrowers say they cannot afford to make payments and others stated they are caught up in “bureaucratic snafus,” while others are benefiting from an “on-ramp” transition period that extends through September, the NYT reported. During this time, borrowers who make late payments will not be reported on as delinquent.

“For some time, we’re going to have this group of borrowers who will see, ‘I went delinquent and nothing happened,’ so they think, ‘Why am I making a payment?’” Scott Buchanan, Student Loan Servicing Alliance executive director, told the NYT. said. “That was always the risk of the on-ramp. You want to encourage people to make payments. If you self-cure for them, that doesn’t encourage payments.” (Read more from “Millions of Americans Haven’t Forked Over a Single Cent Toward Their Student Loan Debts” HERE)