Millions of student loan borrowers won’t owe a July payment: Here’s why
Millions of student loan borrowers will be able to skip their July payments and pay lower amounts in the following months due to the implementation of the Biden administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.
Forbes reported that borrowers have been notified they will not have to make payments in July to allow for recalculation using the income-driven SAVE plan. Emails for those borrowers covered by the temporary forbearance for July 1-31 went out last week.
“We look forward to providing millions of borrowers with lower monthly payments as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to provide the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever,” an Education Department spokesperson said in an email to Forbes.
Starting July 1, borrowers under the SAVE plan will see their monthly payments drop by as much as half. Previously, payments for undergraduate degrees were capped at 10% of a borrower’s discretionary income but that will drop to 5% under SAVE. Borrowers with a mixture of both undergraduate and graduate loans will pay a weighted average of between 5% and 10% of their income based on their original principal balances.
For example, the Department of Education said a current borrower paying $130 a month would see their undergraduate loan cut to $65 a month. Someone with graduate and undergraduate loans would pay $108; graduate loan borrowers would pay $130.
More than 8 million people have enrolled in the SAVE plan to date, according to the Department of Education. You can see more on the program here.