The federal government on Friday announced it had approved the forgiveness of $4.9 billion of unpaid student loans for 73,000 individuals as a result of adjustments to the income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs. The Biden Administration has now forgiven $136.6 billion of student loans for 3.7 million individuals.
What Happened: The Department of Education made administrative adjustments to the IDR payments for 29,700 individuals, totaling $1.7 billion. The adjustments “address longstanding concerns” with respect to the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers, according to the department.
- Under the PSLF program, an additional 43,900 individuals had $3.2 billion credited toward their objective of having their student loans forgiven. Total relief through the PSLF program now stands at $57 billion for nearly 800,000 individuals. Prior to the current administration’s changes to the program, only 7,000 individuals had received forgiveness under the program.
More Forgiveness: The Education Department also announced that it is fast-tracking additional loan forgiveness through the early implementation of the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan. Individuals who borrowed $12,000 or less for college and are enrolled in SAVE will see forgiveness after as few as 10 years of payments. Individuals who are eligible for early forgiveness could start seeing their debts automatically canceled as soon as next month, the department announced.
The Last Word: “The Biden-Harris Administration has worked relentlessly to fix our country’s broken student loan system and address the needless hurdles and administrative inaccuracies that, in the past, kept borrowers from getting the student debt forgiveness they deserved,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The nearly $5 billion in additional debt relief announced today will go to teachers, social workers, and other public servants whose service to our communities have earned them Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as well as borrowers qualifying for income-driven repayment forgiveness because their payments are for the first time being accurately accounted for.”
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