Student loan forgiveness: Biden announces new plan for up to $20,000 in debt relief

Student loan forgiveness: Biden announces new plan for up to $20,000 in debt relief

Federal officials have released more information on the next plan for student loan forgiveness.

On Monday, the Education Department issued updated regulatory text for the proposal. The latest efforts come after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s original plan to wipe out up to $20,000 in student loan debt.

“Student loans are supposed to be a bridge to a better life, not a life sentence of endless debt,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “This rulemaking process is about standing up for borrowers who’ve been failed by the country’s broken student loan system and creating new regulations that will reduce the burden of student debt in this country.”

The latest efforts are part of a plan to use the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel student loan debt. More negotiations on the proposal are set for Dec. 11 and 12 and, after that, the department will be able to start working on draft rules that will be released to the public in early 2024.

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Under the new plan, here’s who would be covered:

  • Borrowers whose balances are greater than what they owed upon entering repayment – This would cover borrowers whose interest charges grew faster than they could make payments. One of the proposals would provide up to $20,000 of relief for low-income borrowers and up to $10,000 for others.
  • Borrowers whose loan first entered repayment 20 years ago – This provision would provide one-time relief 20 years after entering repayment on undergraduate loans, the plan said. All other borrowers would receive forgiveness after 25 years of payments.
  • Borrowers who are eligible for existing loan forgiveness plans but have not applied – This would cover those who are eligible under income-driven repayment plans or Public Service Loan Forgiveness but have not applied for relief.
  • Borrowers who attended schools that “failed to deliver sufficient financial value.” – This would cover borrowers who were repaying loans from schools no longer allowed to participate in the federal student loan program or when an institution has closed. This would also cover borrowers who owe for programs or schools that failed to meet federal accountability or debt-to-earning ratios.

The proposal is just the latest chapter in the long and complicated process of revamping the student loan process. Previous efforts have erased some $127 billion in student debt for some 3.6 million borrowers, the White House said.