Biden Administration Forgives $715 Million in Student Loan Under New Expanded Program

A total of $715 million in student loans has been forgiven for nearly 10,000 student borrowers under the new Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in October, whereas some 20,000 other borrowers are expected to receive an additional $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness, the Department of Education has confirmed for Forbes.

The Biden administration announced the new expansion of the PSLF program on October, through which the federal student loan debt for borrowers is expected to be canceled after ten or more years of qualifying public service employment for public or non-profit organizations, Erudera.com reports.

According to the Department, officials will review the accounts of Direct loan borrowers who have already certified their employment for the PSLF program regarding the rejected payments, adding that they would also be regulating a borrower’s total number of qualifying payments.

Dozens of students wrote on Reddit about having their student loans forgiven under the new Limited PSLW Waiver.

“$153k forgiven as of this morning! (FedLoan is servicer). No letter or email yet but account says paid in full/balance $0. PSLF payment tracker no longer works in my Myfedloan account. 2010-2012 payments made under previously ineligible repayment plan, then I consolidated and switched to a-PSLF plan. I had 111 eligible payments under regular pslf. I’m so happy! I’ve worked so long for this! Congratulations to everyone who is finally getting some relief!,” one of the users wrote.  

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2021 Employer Financial Wellbeing Survey, 17 percent of employers in the United States offer student loan debt assistance programs, 31 percent of employers are planning to offer programs, whereas 48 percent said that they were offering or planning to offer the assistance.

The latest pause on federal student loan payments was extended by Biden’s administration until January 31, 2022, following an increase in the number of Delta variant cases in the United States.

“As our nation’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this final extension will give students and borrowers the time they need to plan for restart and ensure a smooth pathway back to repayment,” US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said.

The first pause on student loan payments was extended from January 2021 until September 30, 2021. Back in July, the US Education Department canceled a total of $56 million student loan debt for some 1,800 borrowers.