It’s been 3½ years since most people with federal student loans have had to make a payment. The government paused payments — and interest — because of the pandemic.

But starting this fall, people will have to start paying their loans again. When they do, according to a new study from the credit agency TransUnion, about half will be paying at least $200 a month and about 20% will pay $500 or more. 

More than 40 million people have federal student loans in the United States.

For many, not having to make payments for the last few years has freed up money for other things, “whether it be paying for food, paying for child care, increases in rent,” said Jared Bass at the Center for American Progress.

In addition to that, Liz Pagel at TransUnion said their study found a lot of people have taken on more debt of other kinds — credit cards, car loans, mortgages.

“This is significant because that new payment’s gonna go on top of what they owe today,” Pagel said. “So the consumers will be getting a pretty significant payment shock once they have to go into repayment on these loans.”

Which, she said, could have a real impact on households and on the economy.

The Joe Biden administration has tried to lessen the shock, said Ted Rossman at Bankrate.

“Even though the blanket forgiveness program has been shot down, there are still some things that people can take advantage of in terms of public service loan forgiveness or income-based repayment,” Rossman said.

For a year, people who miss payments won’t be penalized — though interest will continue to grow.