(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court's striking down of President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan puts nearly half a trillion dollars of debt back on household balance sheets, a burden that combined with the end of a pandemic-era pause in payments on education loans may hasten an anticipated year-end economic slowdown. The court's 6-3 ruling on Friday, which had been widely expected to go against Biden, comes just weeks after the White House and congressional Republicans struck a deal to lift the federal debt ceiling that included prohibiting any further extensions of the student debt payment hiatus put in place in early 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Education Department last week said loan payments would resume in October.