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ATLANTA, May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- With college debt levels soaring, a new report by Equifax (NYSE: EFX), a global information solutions company, shows that borrowers who have lower incomes, shorter job tenures and work part-time are more at risk of falling behind on their student loans.

The Equifax analysis of student loan borrowers and their repayment behaviors also details how a more proactive, income-based repayment system could benefit borrowers.

"Income-based repayment could help thousands of borrowers who are struggling to pay back student loans," said Dann Adams, president of Equifax Workforce Solutions. "Reducing the number of student loans in default not only benefits individual consumers, helping them maintain better credit profiles, but the  U.S. economy as a whole. Student loans are holding consumers back from making big ticket purchases – impacting both the automotive and housing markets."

The report reveals data demonstrating that borrowers earning less than $30,000 suffer from triple or even quadruple the delinquency rates of their higher-earning peers, and this is most pronounced in the younger population. The study further shows that borrowers who have under one year of job tenure as well as those employed in part-time jobs are more susceptible to student loan delinquency.

According to Equifax, the present system for income-based repayment is too reactive. "We need to find and help at-risk borrowers before they fall into delinquency, thus breaking a vicious cycle that could negatively impact the borrowers credit worthiness and financial health," said Naser Hamdi, director of market insight and strategy at Equifax. "Automated access of up-to-date borrower income and employment records could easily facilitate this type of proactive outreach to at-risk borrowers."

For the full report on income-based student loan repayments, visit the following link: http://www.equifax.com/assets/corp/student_loan_research.pdf

About Equifax
Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provides businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide.  The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enables it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 19 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index.  Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2014, Equifax was nominated as a Bloomberg BusinessWeek Top 50 company; its CIO was listed as one of the top 100 by CIO magazine; and the company was named to the Fintech 100 list, was recognized as a top 20 company to work for by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and was named a 2014 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

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SOURCE Equifax Inc.