Approximately $138 billion in student loan debt in the United States has now been canceled, CNN reports. “This represents about one-third of the $430 billion that would have been canceled under the president's one-time pardon plan, which was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.”
According to the article, this represents 9% of all outstanding federal student loan debt and “by taking advantage of a number of existing programs aimed at providing debt relief to specific groups of distressed borrowers. , which will wipe out the debt of approximately 3.9 million borrowers.
What President Biden has done, before and after the Supreme Court's decision, is to use existing student loan forgiveness programs to benefit certain people, such as public sector employees (through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program) and defrauded borrowers. The objective is to provide relief to groups of borrowers. by universities (through Borrower Defense to Repayment programs); The administration also provided relief to completely and permanently disabled borrowers. These programs do not expire and can help eligible borrowers now and in the future. In some cases, the Biden administration is expanding coverage of these programs, making more borrowers eligible.
Additionally, in other cases, we have sought to correct past administrative errors made to a borrower's student loan account by recalculating the borrower's past payments one time. This initiative will help people who have paid for at least 20 years on an income-driven plan receive the loan forgiveness they are already eligible for. The plan calculates monthly payments based on the borrower's income and family size, rather than the amount borrowed. . The recount is expected to be completed by July…
Last year, the administration created a new income-based repayment plan. The new plan, known as SAVE, offers the most generous terms for low-income borrowers. Those who initially borrowed less than her $12,000 will have their remaining debt canceled after at least 10 years of repayment. [The administration] is working to implement a different path toward a broader student loan forgiveness program, this time relying on a different legal authority in hopes the effort will hold up in court. This proposal is currently undergoing a lengthy rulemaking process and has not yet been finalized.
