On Wednesday, the Biden administration said it is forgiving remaining federal student loan debt for 153,000 Americans, totaling about $1.2 billion.
In his time as president, Biden has canceled nearly $138 billion of student loan debt for almost 3.9 million borrowers.
Overall, there’s $1.77 trillion in student debt in the U.S. and Biden has long pushed for extensive student loan forgiveness. He’s been unable to offer it after the Supreme Court blocked his plan last year that would have offered relief to 40 million Americans.
After the court’s decision and the ending of a pause on payments due to the pandemic, Biden has turned to the Saving on Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan that he launched in August to help with student loan forgiveness.
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Who is eligible for the new debt forgiveness?
As a part of the announcement, the Education Department said 153,000 people who are enrolled in the SAVE plan, have been making payments for at least 10 years, and borrowed $12,000 or less for college are eligible for forgiveness.
According to the department, for every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments.
The maximum period of repayment stops at 20 years for people with only undergraduate loans and 25 years for anyone with graduate school loans.
How will borrowers know their student loan debt is forgiven?
On Wednesday, Biden said impacted borrowers will get emails with a message notifying them that “all or a portion” of their federal student loans have been forgiven. Those emails have already begun to roll out.
When will the student loan debt actually be forgiven?
According to a post by Biden on X, the first round of eligible borrowers will have their debt forgiven Wednesday.
“Starting today, the first round of folks who are enrolled in our SAVE student loan repayment plan who have paid their loans for 10 years and borrowed $12,000 or less will have their debt cancelled,” the post said. “That’s 150,000 Americans and counting. And we’re pushing to relieve more.”
