-
Biden announced an additional $4.2 billion in student-debt cancellation for 152,000 borrowers.
-
The relief will benefit borrowers in PSLF, defrauded borrowers, and borrowers with disabilities.
-
It likely marks Biden’s last relief efforts before Trump takes office in one week.
Thousands more borrowers are receiving student-loan forgiveness just one week before President Joe Biden leaves the White House.
On Monday, Biden’s administration announced $4.2 billion more in debt cancellation for over 152,000 borrowers. The relief impacts borrowers in three different categories: government and nonprofit workers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, borrowers who the Education Department found were defrauded by their schools, and those with total and permanent disabilities.
This latest announcement brings the total amount of debt relief under Biden to $183.6 billion for over 5 million student-loan borrowers.
“5 million Americans now have the breathing room to afford homes, save for retirement, and start a family,” Neera Tanden, Biden’s domestic policy advisor, told reporters on a Monday press call.
The Education Department said that 6,100 borrowers in PSLF are receiving $465 million in debt relief, and 61,000 borrowers are receiving $2.5 billion in total and permanent disability discharges.
Additionally, the department approved 85,000 borrowers for $1.26 billion in borrower defense to repayment discharges, which is a program borrowers can apply to for relief if they believe they were defrauded by the schools they attended. That batch of relief includes:
-
$1.15 billion in relief for 73,600 borrowers who attended any school owned by the Center for Excellence in Higher Education between January 1, 2006 through August 1, 2021
-
$107 million in relief or 11,000 borrowers who attended any location of Drake College of Business from January 1, 2008, through its closure on July 31, 2015
-
$1.4 million in relief for 280 borrowers who attended the Criminal Justice Program at Lincoln Technical Institute’s campus in Lowell, Massachusetts, from 2010 to 2012 or the Somerville, Massachusetts, campus from 2010 to 2013
This announcement likely marks the last of Biden’s debt relief efforts, as President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has previously criticized broad student-loan forgiveness.
A senior Biden administration official did not specify whether this is the final debt relief action during a Monday press call.
Millions of borrowers have been on a rocky path to debt relief over the past four years. In August 2022, Biden announced a broad student-loan forgiveness plan using a legal strategy tied to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency that would have canceled up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers making under $125,000 a year, but the Supreme Court ultimately struck the plan down one year later following a lawsuit from GOP-led states.
Biden’s Plan B for broad debt relief, attempting to use the Higher Education Act as its legal authority, was announced the same day as the Supreme Court’s decision. That plan also faced legal challenges, and Biden’s Education Department withdrew the plan in December. The department said its main focus for the end of Biden’s term was helping borrowers manage repayment and maintained that its broader relief plans were legal.
Amid the legal challenges, Biden continued its incremental relief efforts for targeted groups of borrowers, including those in PSLF and borrower defense to repayment. Some higher education experts previously told Business Insider that borrowers should not expect more expansive relief under Trump — during his first term, his Education Department ran up a backlog of borrower defense and PSLF relief applications and Trump previously called for PSLF to be eliminated.
Additionally, 8 million borrowers enrolled in Biden’s SAVE income-driven repayment plan — intended to make payments cheaper with a shorter timeline to forgiveness — are on forbearance as they wait for a final court decision on whether the plan can continue. Regardless of the decision, Trump is unlikely to prioritize relief through the plan.
“Since Day One of my Administration, I promised to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity, and I’m proud to say we have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history,” Biden said in a statement.
Read the original article on Business Insider
