President Joe Biden (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Getty Images
The U.S. Department of Education is cancelling another $2 billion of student loans.
Here’s what you need to know.
More good news for student loan borrowers seeking student loan forgiveness. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona tweeted:
U.S. Secretary of Education shares good news on cancelling student loans. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Twitter
“Good news!” Cardona tweeted. “Over the coming weeks, more borrowers — including veterans & service members — will get emails about #PSLF debt cancellation,” Cardona added, referring to Public Service Loan Forgiveness student loan debt cancellation.
30K+ borrowers will get an estimated $2B forgiven.
Roughly 10K have already had $715M discharged.
20K will receive emails in the coming weeks.
(Here’s how to get student loan forgiveness).
What this means for student loan forgiveness
Cardona is referring to new student loan forgiveness that will benefit at least 30,000 student loan borrowers. This new student loan forgiveness is a result of major changes to student loan forgiveness that President Joe Biden announced last month. (You can still get student loan forgiveness even if you don’t work in public service). Among many changes, student loan borrowers who are pursuing public service student loan forgiveness will be able to count previously ineligible student loan payments, get credit for student loan payments that were late, get credit for student loan payments under the wrong student loan payment plan, and get student loan forgiveness for both FFELP and Perkins Loans. Cardona confirmed that 10,000 student loan borrowers already have received $715 million of student loan forgiveness. The good news is that the Education Department will email 20,000 more student loan borrowers to inform them that they too will get student loan forgiveness. If you are pursuing public service loan forgiveness, make sure you update your latest contact information, including your email address, with Federal Student Aid. (Here’s who qualifies for student loan forgiveness right now).
Biden has now cancelled $11.5 billion of student loans since becoming president in January. The $2 billion of student loan cancellation is part of Biden’s ongoing plan to focus on targeted student loan cancellation. Unlike wide-scale student loan cancellation — which could cancel student loans for most or all student loan borrowers — targeted student loan cancellation focuses on student loan forgiveness for specific constituencies of student loan borrowers. Biden has focused student loan forgiveness primarily on three main groups: public servants, student loan borrowers with a total and permanent disability, and student loan borrowers who were misled by their college. Wide-scale student loan cancellation is still a possibility, as the Biden administration evaluates its options. That said, don’t expect any wide-scale student loan cancellation before student loan relief expires January 31, 2022. Instead, you should prepare for student loan payments for federal student loans to resume with your normal interest rate. Understand all your options to student loan payments.
Here are some popular options to pay off student loans:
Hiitsmichael on November 14th, 2021 at 08:14 UTC »
Those 5 people are so lucky.
lcqs on November 14th, 2021 at 07:44 UTC »
Its insane how hard you have to work just to be accepted to some of these schools and then you pay a fortune for the privilege
arkofjoy on November 14th, 2021 at 06:49 UTC »
What would be better is a re-design of the system.
Here in Australia, I think they have done a pretty good job of setting up a system that works. Two important things.
If you qualify for a student loan, it is from the federal government, and you pay for it through your taxes. And it does not kick in until you earn over, from memory, $50 thousand dollars a year. Then it is a sliding scale that goes up as your income goes up.
So if you have a debt, it is simply deducted from your pay, until you pay it off. There is no organisation that is profiting from the loan, there is no separate administration that needs to be paid. Tax department already exists.
But the second half of the system is equally important. The government negotiates with the universities for how much it pays per student. So the run away inflation of education costs in America isn't happening.