More American Students Have Student Loans Debt Forgiven By Biden Administration

22nd February 2024

US President Joe Biden announced that more than 150,000 student loan borrowers will have their debt forgiven under a program aimed at providing relief for Americans who had been making their payments for at least a decade and borrowed less than $12,000.

The move, worth a total of $1.2 billion, will benefit those enrolled in the government's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. Other income-driven repayment plans also forgive balances, but only after 20 or 25 years of repayment.

The latest round pushes the total relief approved by the Biden administration to nearly $138 billion, benefiting 3.9 million borrowers. That number could grow as more people become eligible for forgiveness under the SAVE program, which has 6.9 million people enrolled.

Yet the efforts fall short of Biden's proposal for more sweeping student loan cancellation—as much as $20,000 in relief per borrower—that was struck down last year in a 6-3 decision by the US Supreme Court's Republican-appointed supermajority. That plan was estimated to cost $400 billion. Biden on Wednesday vowed he would "pursue alternative paths for student debt relief for as many borrowers as possible."

Read More By Jennifer Jacobs and Justin Sink At Bloomberg