Ever since Joe Biden joined office in 2021, providing relief to students has been one of their top administrative priorities. He launched a widespread loan forgiveness plan in 2022, but the Supreme Court brought the entire plan down last August. However, again, the Biden administration has come up with plans that will provide relief to certain students.
Key Points Of The Announcements:
- The new proposal seeks to reduce interest upto $20,000 for more than 25 million people regardless of how much they earn.
- Individuals (who earn $120,000 or less) and married couples (who earn $240,000 or less) or are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan and other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans will also be eligible to have get their entire amount to be forgiven of the balance amount that has grown since entering repayment.
- The proposal further provides relief to eligible borrowers who failed to apply for relief due to “paperwork requirements, bad advice, or other obstacles,” according to a White House press release. This will also include the people who, under the SAVE plan, took out $12,000 or less and have been in repayment for a decade.
- The government is also planning to discharge the loans of more than 2.54 million borrowers who entered repayment more than 20 years ago, including those who enrolled in low-financial-value programs or experienced hardship making loan payments.
Joe Biden plans to benefit more than 30 million borrowers, who would experience relief under this proposal. This will include:
- Forgiving accrued interest for 23 million
- Discharging the full amount of debt for 4 million
- Providing at least $5,000 in relief for more than 10 million
According to the release, the administration has issued $146 billion in forgiveness thus far.
Biden, in his speech in Madison, Wisconsin, mentioned, “While a college degree still is a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive.” He further added, “The ability for working and middle-class folks to repay their student loans has become so burdensome that a lot can’t repay for even decades after being in school.”
