The Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education is understaffed, as its staffing levels haven’t kept pace with the growing student loan portfolio, according to findings by the Government Accountability Office.
From fiscal year 2010 to 2019, FSA’s Direct Loan volume increased 450 percent and the number of borrowers increased 150 percent, but the number of staff increased only 6 percent during that time frame. The understaffing is shown in the office’s inability to complete all its work — a workforce assessment conducted by FSA showed that in fiscal year 2020, staff failed to complete almost 20 percent of its workload, even after employees worked overtime and supervisors picked up extra work.
