Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares  introduced a new policy aiming to provide immediate relief to student loan borrowers with overdue fees.

Miyares, who took office earlier this month, will reduce the attorney general’s collection fees on overdue student loans from 30% of the overdue balance to 15%. In Virginia, the attorney general’s office is required to perform debt collection legal services for Virginia state colleges or universities when a borrower defaults on their loans. (By comparison, the federal government’s collection fee for an overdue loan is nearly 18%.)

“I understand the strain student loans can put on working families,” Miyares wrote in a statement Wednesday. “By working to reduce the attorney collection fee from 30% to 15%, we are making immediate, internal procedural improvements that will help Virginians.”

According to the statement, Miyares is also encouraging all universities, not only those who are served by the attorney general’s office, to reduce their collection fees to match the 15% rate.

A new report on national student loan debt puts Virginia at fourth in the nation for the highest student loan balances, with an average of $39,551 per borrower. The attorney general’s new initiative follows another win for borrowers in Virginia. Earlier this month Virginia settled a lawsuit with Navient, a major student loan collection company, which agreed to pay more than $3.6 million in restitution payments to more than 13,500 Virginia borrowers over allegations of abusive lending practices.

The federal pandemic pause on student loan repayment, collection, and interest is set to end on May 1, 2022.