3 million senior citizens in the US are still paying off their student loans

• More than 3 million Americans aged 60 and older owe more than $86 billion in unpaid student loans.
• Many older Americans are now turning to their Social Security benefits to pay student debt, CBS News reported.
• Student debt has been at the forefront of 2020 presidential campaigns, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposing canceling up to $50,000 in student-loan debt for 42 million Americans last month.

It's not just young people paying off college debt - senior citizens say they're still paying off student loans they took out for school decades ago.

More than 3 million Americans aged 60 and older currently owe more than $86 billion in unpaid student loans, according to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) data seen by CBS News. Recent data available online from 2017 showed the number was $66.7 billion two years ago.

A new INSIDER poll released Friday found that a big majority - 77% - of likely Democratic primary voters support Warren's plan, and 36% said they strongly support it. Overall, 57% of Americans polled said they at least somewhat support Warren's plan, while 21% at least somewhat oppose it. 

$171M Garnished From Older Americans' Social Security To Repay Student Debt In 2015

As a result, in 2015 the Department of Education collected $4.5 billion on defaulted student loans, of which $171 million — or about 10% — was collected through Social Security garnishments, also known as offsets.
To make matters worse, the report found that for each time a borrower’s Social Security was offset, they were charged an offset fee of $15. Over the course of a year, borrowers paid $180 in fees.
Additionally, about 71% of the funds collected through offsets were applied to the fees and interest of the loan debt, while just 28% went to the loan balance. As a result, many debtors actually saw their loan balance increase rather than decrease over time.
Because most borrowers remained in default for more than five years after first having their benefits offset and with most borrowers living on a fixed income dependent on their benefits, the report found that after the garnishments thousands of older student debt holders are now living under the poverty level.
In fact, because the Social Security offset threshold has not been adjusted for increases in cost of living, the number of older American who have their benefits offset leading them to live below the poverty level has grown significantly in the last decade.
In 2004, about 8,300 borrowers 50 years or older received benefits below the poverty level. That figure increased to 67,300 in 2015.