The Department of Education yesterday announced that it had approved nearly 13,000 applications for student loan debt forgiveness. The approvals come a week after the department was chastised in a report from its own inspector general for not approving the requests in a timely manner, and after a handful of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the department for holding up the applications.
The Education Department also announced it had denied 8,600 requests for student loan debt forgiveness.
No reasons were given for the denials and no total dollar loan amount was provided for the loans that were approved to be forgiven.
Most of the approvals were from individuals who attended Corinthian Colleges, which was accused of illegally duping individuals into borrowing money.
The Department also announced changes to the forgiveness application process. From here on, individuals earning less than 50% of their peers will be eligible for full forgiveness of their outstanding student loans, while individuals earning more than 50% of their peers will only be eligible for partial relief. Individuals who apply will also be eligible to receive a credit for the interest that accrues on their student loans while the application is being processed.
Previously, all applicants were eligible for full forgiveness of their student loan burdens if the application was approved.
