The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that it will notify 804,000 borrowers that their student loans will be automatically forgiven. (Facebook)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Tribune News Service) — The U.S. Department of Education on Friday announced a total of $39 billion in federal student loans will be forgiven for more than 800,000 borrowers.
The Department will begin notifying the 804,000 borrowers in the coming weeks that their federal student loans have been automatically forgiven, according to a news release.
The forthcoming loan forgiveness is the result of the Biden administration’s “fix” to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans that were previously unaccounted for, ensuring all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments required to qualify for forgiveness under IDR plans. Borrowers are eligible for loan forgiveness if they have accumulated either 20 or 25 years’ worth of qualifying months, according to the release.
The Department’s announcement is part of the Biden administration’s initiative to address past inaccuracies in the count of student loan payments that qualify for forgiveness under IDR plans.
Borrowers who can expect to receive notifications in the coming days about their forgiven debt includes those with Federal Family Education Loans or Direct Loans held by the Department, including Parent Plus loans of either type, according to the release.
Those who have reached the necessary threshold to qualify for forgiveness of these loans include borrower accounts with any months in repayment status; months spent in economic hardship or military deferment after 2013; months spent in any deferment (except for in-school deferment) prior to 2013; 12 or more months of consecutive forbearance or 36 or more months of cumulative forbearance; or accounts that were at any time in repayment prior to consolidating previous loans into a consolidation loan, according to the Department.
“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said. “Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking another historic step to right these wrongs and announcing $39 billion in debt relief for another 804,000 borrowers. By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans. This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education.”
To date, the Biden administration has approved more than $116 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers, according to the release.
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