Over 19,000 Hoosiers will have their student loans forgiven under the new $39 billion student loan debt relief plan of the White House. This new student loan debt relief plan is a fix to the U.S. Department of Education’s income-driven repayment plans.
U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, said that borrowers have “fell through the cracks” as the broken system failed to accurately track their progress towards loan forgiveness for a significant period of time. | Education Week
In Indiana, the overall debt that is eligible to be forgiven under Biden’s new student loan debt relief plan is over $932 million, as reported by federal officials.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona praised the current student loan debt relief plan and stated that the new student loan debt relief plan will correct the flaws of the existing system which failed to properly monitor the borrowers’ progress in federal loan forgiveness.
Under the Income-Driven Repayment plan, after 20 years of payments the borrowers should have had their debts forgiven, but the National Consumer Law Center reported in 2021 that among the over 4 million who had been making payments for at least 20 years, only 32 of them actually had their debts forgiven under this plan while some that have been paying their loans for over two decades did not receive the student loan debt relief plan they were meant to receive.
The new student loan debt relief plan comes after the Supreme Court strike down the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief plan program on June’s ruling, which aimed to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt of eligible borrowers.
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Borrowers will be eligible for the new student loan debt relief plan if they have accumulated either 20 or 25 years of qualifying months, depending on their loan type and IDR plan.
The new student loan debt relief plan includes borrowers with Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans held by the education department, who has met the forgiveness threshold determined by the department.
Additionally, federal education officials will continue to identify and notify borrowers who reach the forgiveness thresholds but are not yet eligible for the new student loan debt relief plan every two months until next year.
The Journal Gazette reported that in Indiana, an exact total of 19,470 borrowers will have a total of $932.8 million in federal student loan debts forgiven, in the upcoming weeks.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he will continue to find ways to make attending college possible for all Americans. Biden also added in a statement that college should be a ticket to the middle class and not a burden that families will have to carry for decades.
READ MORE: More than 19,000 Hoosiers will get total student loan debt forgiveness under new Biden relief plan
