New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports
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(WASHINGTON) — In a major change that could affect millions of Americans’ credit scores, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports.
The rule would erase an estimated $49 billion in unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans, the CFPB said.
That could help boost those borrowers’ credit scores by an average of 20 points, helping them qualify for mortgages and other loans.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement touting the new rule.
She announced the proposal for the rule last June alongside CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
“This will be life-changing for millions of families, making it easier for them to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small-business loan,” Harris added.
Major credit reporting agencies have already announced voluntary steps to remove medical debt from their reports.
The final rule is set to take effect in March – but that timeline could be delayed by legal challenges.
Debt collection industry groups like the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals have opposed the change, saying it would result in “reduced consequences for not paying your bills, which in turn will reduce access to credit and health care for those that need it most.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating HelloFresh over allegations that the popular meal kit service employed migrant children at a cooking and packaging facility in Illinois as recently as this summer, ABC News has learned.
At least six teenagers, at least some of whom migrated from Guatemala, were found working night shifts at the facility, said Cristobal Cavazos, the executive director for Immigrant Solidarity, an immigrant rights advocacy group that helped report the matter to federal regulators.
“They’re minors working dangerous jobs,” Cavazos told ABC News.
The Labor Department is also investigating whether Midway Staffing, an agency that hires employees to work at the HelloFresh facility, also violated federal child labor rules, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
The German-based HelloFresh, which is the largest meal kit company in the U.S., is the latest food supply firm to come under scrutiny for allegedly employing underaged migrants.
The Department of Labor confirmed to ABC News it is investigating the HelloFresh facility and the staffing agency.
“We were deeply troubled to learn of the allegations made against a former temporary staffing agency,” a spokesperson for HelloFresh told ABC News in a statement. “As soon as we learned of these allegations, we immediately terminated the relationship.”
“We have strict protocols in place to ensure all vendors follow our robust global ethics and compliance policies,” the spokesperson said. “We have zero tolerance for any form of child labor, and we have taken action to ensure no minors perform work in or have access to our facilities.”
The spokesperson told ABC News that the facility, in Aurora, Illinois, is a Factor75 facility, which was acquired by HelloFresh in 2020. Factor75 is a prepared meal delivery services company.
Midway Staffing did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
In fiscal year 2024, the Labor Department found 4,030 children employed in violation of child labor laws across all industries. Of the 736 cases brought by the department, nearly half involved minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation laws.
According to immigrant rights advocacy groups and labor experts, migrant children in the U.S. are not only employed in agriculture and food supply jobs, but also in dangerous jobs including construction and roofing.
Last month, the Labor Department fined a sanitation contractor that employed children to perform dangerous work during overnight shifts at its Sioux City pork processing plant. Eleven children were found to have used “corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment” from at least September 2019 through September 2023, according to court documents.
In September, three immigrant teenagers filed a federal lawsuit against a seafood processing plant in Massachusetts alleging that the company forced the minors to work through “perilous, overnight shifts in its seafood processing plant.”
“In early 2023, American consumers were shocked to learn that children as young as 13 were working illegally in meatpacking plants throughout the U.S.,” Reid Maki, Director of Child Labor Advocacy for the National Consumers League, told ABC News, “It’s disturbing that this illegal hazardous child labor is continuing, with kids often exposed to caustic chemicals, working the night shift, and trying to attend school without sleep.”
“Some companies are ramping up monitoring, but the problem is pervasive and the U.S. Department of Labor badly needs congressional appropriations to increase the number of inspectors to make sure corporate efforts are succeeding,” Maki said.
(NEW YORK) — People haven’t only been filling their plates this Thanksgiving weekend — it also seems they’ve been filling their online shopping carts.
Black Friday online shopping this year is on pace to break a record with between $10.7 billion and $11 billion in sales, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks U.S. e-commerce data.
As of Friday evening, spending on online shopping was up more than 8% compared to last year, according to Adobe.
The record pace of Black Friday buying follows record-setting online shopping on Thanksgiving itself, the analytics firm said. Consumers spent a record $6.1 billion online on Turkey Day — up nearly 9% compared to a year ago, according to Adobe.
What are people buying this Black Friday?
Adobe said deep discounts are likely fueling the online spending spree, including discounts on toys of more than 27% off the listed price. Toys have seen a 178% boost in online Black Friday sales so far, compared to an average day in October.
Other popular items on Black Friday include makeup and skin care sets, LEGO sets, “Wicked” toys, Bluetooth speakers, TVs, patio heaters and air fryers, according to Adobe.
Increasingly, online shopping is happening on smaller screens. More than half of all online sales on Black Friday — 57.6% — were on mobile screens, according to Adobe. That’s up from 55.5% last year.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, delivering relief for borrowers at the central bank’s last meeting before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.
The central bank predicted fewer rate cuts next year than it had previously indicated, however, suggesting concern that inflation may prove more difficult to bring under control than policymakers thought just a few months ago.
The major stock indexes inched downward in trading after the announcement in response to the forecast of fewer rate cuts.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank may proceed at a slower pace with future rate cuts, in part because it has now lowered interest rates a substantial amount.
Powell also said a recent resurgence of inflation influenced the Fed’s expectations, noting that some policymakers considered uncertainty tied to potential policy changes under Trump.
“It’s common-sense thinking that when the path is uncertain, you get a little slower,” Powell said. “It’s not unlike driving on a foggy night or walking around in a dark room full of furniture.”
The move marked the third consecutive interest rate cut since the Fed opted to start dialing back its fight against inflation in the fall. The Fed has lowered interest rates by a percentage point in recent months.
However, the Fed’s forecast on Wednesday said it anticipates only a half a percentage point of rate cuts next year and another half-percent cut in 2026.
The benchmark interest rate helps determine loan payments for everything from credit cards to mortgages. Even after recent cuts, the Fed’s interest rate remains at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.
The size of the interest rate cut on Wednesday matched investors’ expectations.
The latest rate cut may prove the Fed’s last for many months, experts previously told ABC News.
A recent bout of stubborn inflation could prompt central bankers to freeze interest rates in place as they bring price increases under control. A humming economy, meanwhile, shows little need for the jolt of activity that lower borrowing costs may provide, the experts said.
Consumer prices climbed 2.7% in November compared to a year ago, marking two consecutive months of accelerating inflation, government data last week showed.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of more than 9% in June 2022. But the recent uptick has reversed some progress made at the start of this year that had landed price increases right near the Fed’s target of 2%.
In August, Trump said the president should have a role in setting interest rates. The proposal would mark a major shift from the longstanding norm of political independence at the Fed.
Powell struck a defiant tone last month when posed with the question of whether he would resign from his position if asked by Trump.
“No,” Powell told reporters assembled at a press conference in Washington, D.C., blocks away from the White House.
When asked whether Trump could fire or demote him, Powell retorted: “Not permitted under the law.”
