The Biden administration announced Friday it would forgive $4.9 billion in student debt for 73,600 borrowers.
The relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to its income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
“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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
Around $1.7 billion of the aid will go to 29,700 borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. Those plans are supposed to lead to debt forgiveness after a set period, but historically, this hasn’t always happened because loan servicers failed to keep track of borrowers’ payments, experts say.
In addition, 43,900 borrowers who have worked in public service for a decade or more will receive $3.2 billion in loan cancellation, the U.S. Department of Education said. Borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have also struggled to get the debt erasure they’ve been promised due to errors in their payment counts and other issues. [snip]
The Biden administration has now canceled more than $136 billion in student debt for over 3.7 million Americans, according to the White House.
A larger chunk of student debt affecting many more people would have been erased last year were it not for the Republican Supreme Court deciding it needed to prevent any relief from redounding to the benefit of the Dems, also satisfying their Republican- wired urge to punch down.
(Photo: demonstrating outside of the Republican Supreme Court last year/ Tom Brenner, Washington Post)
