December 7, 2023
80,000 federal student loan borrowers just had almost $5 billion of their loans forgiven. That’s what the White House announced yesterday – and that announcement confused a lot of people.
So let me clear up what’s happening.
First – this is not a new program. These borrowers had their loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This program has been available for years. But what is new under the Biden Administration – that I have covered extensively on this channel is the fact that the Biden administration expanded this program by streamlining it, expanding who qualifies, what loan types qualify and how those loan payments are calculated. In the past the plan was clunky, payments weren’t counted properly towards forgiveness and it was generally hard to get the loan discharged.
So – these 80,300 borrowers– according to the White House had their loans forgiven because of these new Biden administration expansions to the program.
Now – you may be wondering – who qualifies for this Public Service Loan Forgiveness program? You have to meet two requirements. One – you have to be paying on your loan for 10 years or 120 qualifying monthly payments and two you have to be a full-time public servant – that means you work for the federal, state or local government or specific non-profit organizations. That includes employers like the military, public elementary or secondary schools, public colleges or universities, public child and family service agencies, law enforcement and special government districts like public transportation, water authorities or housing authorities. A government contractor is not considered qualified.
Now – not all teachers or non-profit entities qualify – there is a public service loan forgiveness search engine where you can look up your employer and see if that employer is qualified as part of this program.
Look at the PSLF Employer Search Engine here.
More on the PSLF program here.
More from the White House here on the latest forgiveness.
