After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Biden Administration’s $400 billion college student loan forgiveness program was unconstitutional, President Joe Biden has found a workaround.
On Wednesday, Biden canceled $9 billion in student debt for 125,000 people who qualify under certain programs, particularly government workers, teachers, firefighters, and those Americans with who receive disability payments.
Student loans from the government had been put on “pause” for three years, starting during the Covid pandemic, when college and the job market was greatly disrupted. The Biden Administration attempted to cancel all the debt. But payment requirements started up again this month, after the Supreme Court’s decision.
According to the White House, some 1,330 borrowers in Alaska will be relieved of $89.5 million in student loans.
The Biden-Harris Administration approved:
- $5.2 billion in additional debt relief for 53,000 borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs.
- Nearly $2.8 billion in new debt relief for nearly 51,000 borrowers through fixes to income-driven repayment. These are borrowers who made 20 years or more of payments but never got the relief they were entitled to.
- $1.2 billion for nearly 22,000 borrowers who have a total or permanent disability who have been identified and approved for discharge through a data match with the Social Security Administration.
Visit this link to see the state-by-state breakdown.
“This kind of relief is life changing for individuals and their families,” Biden said.
The president’s earlier plan, which made the deft forgiveness under the HEROES Act, forgave more than $400 billion in student debt for about 43 million borrowers.
