In late 2021, the scandal-plagued student loan giant Navient exited the federal student loan system in disgrace. Overnight, a company called Maximus—a long-time Education Department contractor—became the largest student loan company in the world. Maximus, doing business under the name Aidvantage, now manages nearly a half a trillion dollars in loans owed by more than a quarter of all Americans with student debt.

In March 2022, Student Borrower Protection Center and Communications Workers of America launched AidvantageWatch—a project to hold Maximus/Aidvantage accountable to borrowers. As part of this project, SBPC and CWA are fighting to expose mismanagement and abuse across the company’s operations, especially where borrowers recently assigned to Aidvantage have been knocked off track or given bad information about their loans.