The federal government last week announced it had forgiven an additional $6 billion of student loan debt for 77,000 individuals under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, while also notifying 380,000 other public service workers that they are on track to have their loans forgiven within the next two years.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has forgiven $144 billion of student loans for nearly 4 million Americans. Sixty-two billion of that $144 billion is through the PSLF. Under the PSLF, individuals who spend 10 years working in certain types of jobs — such as for nonprofit organizations or the government — and make on-time student loan payments would have their remaining debt forgiven. But problems with the program led to 98% of applicants being rejected — largely because students had loans that were not allowed to be forgiven. The Biden administration has made significant changes to the program, leading to loan forgiveness for 871,000 borrowers. Prior to the Biden administration taking office, only 7,000 loans had been forgiven under the PSLF.
Beyond the PSLF, other loan forgiveness approvals have come in the form of:
- $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment plans.
- $22.5 billion for more than 1.3 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
- $11.7 billion for almost 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
- $1.7 billion for 29,700 borrowers through administrative adjustments to IDR payment counts
The administration is also preparing for 380,000 more individuals to have their loans forgiven within the next two years as long as those borrowers continue to meet the terms of the program.
