October 4, 2023
President Biden just forgave $9 billion in federal student loan debt for 125,000 borrowers today.
Well – that came out of nowhere.
Yeah.
So who is getting this forgiveness?
There are three main groups.
So — group one includes 53,000 borrowers who fall into the public service loan forgiveness program…meaning they fall into the category of public servant – they work in public safety, law enforcement, public health, public service or are an employee of the federal state, local or tribal government.
Group two – includes 51,000 borrowers who were on some form of income driven repayment program and have been paying for the last 20 years. This group includes borrowers who may have had their previous loan payments miscalculated and now that the department of education has fixed the internal problems, their 20 years of payments now qualify for forgiveness.
And the last group includes 22,000 borrowers who have total or permanent disability and were identified by a data match with Social Security.
So when will you know if your loan is one that will be forgiven? Well – if you were in group two – the group who’s been paying for 20 years on an income driven repayment program? You should have already received a notice or you may see one in the coming days. For group one and three – borrowers who are being forgiven under public service loan forgiveness program or borrowers with a total or permanent disability, you’ll receive a notice in the next 30 days.
As for the new student loan forgiveness program that the President promised for everyone else with a federal student loan – the Education Department is still moving forward with the very slow process of coming up with a new rule to forgive loans. What that plan looks like, who would qualify for it…it’s going to be months before we know. The administration is trying to make sure they dot every i and cross every t so the new plan won’t be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Read more about the state-by-state forgiveness here.
Read more from the White House about this forgiveness here.
