Jolie Wyatt

The Biden administration has recently proposed a new debt relief plan to benefit those who don’t qualify for loan forgiveness under the current temporary system.

This new debt relief proposal will target four categories of borrowers:

• Those who are eligible for forgiveness under other repayment plans.
• Those with loans who entered repayment 25 years ago or more.
• Those with federal student loan balances that exceed the original borrowed amount.
• Those with loans invested in career training programs that provide insufficient earnings or unreasonable debt.

Some borrowers may qualify for a Total and Permanent (TPD) Discharge if they suffer from physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working. The U.S. Department of Education has been able to identify disabled borrowers through the Social Security Administration.

According to CBS New York, the administration has already approved over 4.6 million borrowers, which accumulated $127 billion in loan forgiveness.

The current situation

On Nov. 8, the Biden Administration announced that over two million borrowers had enrolled in the new student loan repayment plan, most of whom were first-time program participants.  

Furthermore, the Education Department said that 5.5 million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE account for about $300 billion of the $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, according to Politico. SAVE is Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan, which allows most federal student loan borrowers to lower their monthly payments.

Republicans have shown strong disdain for the plan, proclaiming that it’s essentially a way to cancel student debt completely. Earlier this year, Senate Republicans attempted to hinder Biden’s student debt relief plan, but they were obstructed by the Supreme Court.

This is a developing story.