An additional 74,000 Americans, including teachers, nurses, and firefighters, are set to benefit from student loan relief, as President Biden declared a supplementary $5 billion in debt forgiveness on Friday.
This announcement represents the latest installment of debt cancellations, responding to adjustments made by the administration to income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) after the Supreme Court blocked the President’s student loan forgiveness program last summer.
This brings the total amount forgiven to $136.6 billion for over 3.7 million Americans. The Department of Education highlights that the enhancements aim to ensure more accurate accounting of payments.
Eligibility for Recent Biden’s Student Loan Relief
Approximately 44,000 beneficiaries of the approved debt relief are teachers, nurses, firefighters, social workers, as well as public servants, all with a minimum of 10 years of service.
The remaining nearly 30,000 borrowers, who have been consistently making loan payments for a minimum of 20 years, did not receive relief through income-driven repayment plans.
The breakdown of the relief announced on Friday encompasses the following categories:
- $1.7 billion allocated for 29,700 borrowers through administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment (IDR) payment counts. These adjustments aim to bring borrowers closer to forgiveness and address concerns related to the prolonged misuse of forbearance by loan services. This recent initiative brings the total IDR relief to $45.7 billion for 930,500 borrowers, according to the Department of Education (DOE).
- $3.2 billion designated for 43,000 borrowers under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The cumulative relief through PSLF has now reached $56.7 billion for 793,400 borrowers since late 2021.
Borrowers have the option to access supplementary resources on studentaid.gov and enroll in the SAVE plan through the website studentaid.gov/save.