U.S. Department of Education delays plans to garnish wages

(CNN)– The U.S. Education Department is hitting pause on its plans to garnish wages of student loan borrowers in default.

Also being delayed the seizure of tax refunds and other federal benefits from those who have student loan debt.

The collections were set to begin this month.

In a statement, education officials say the temporary delay will give them time to implement reforms to the student loan system.

However, it’s unclear how long the garnishments would be paused.

The department has previously said that more than five million borrowers were in default, and nearly four million were delinquent.