By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
The Biden-Harris Administration announced the next phase in its efforts to provide tens of millions of borrowers with student debt relief. Starting Aug. 1, the U.S. Department of Education will email all borrowers with at least one outstanding federally held student loan, providing updates on potential debt relief and informing them they have until August 30 to opt out if they do not want this relief.
The rules that would provide this relief are not yet finalized, and the email does not guarantee specific borrowers will be eligible. The Administration said it would provide additional details this fall.
If enacted as proposed, these rules would expand relief efforts, building on the Administration’s existing work that has approved more than $168 billion in student loan relief for nearly 4.8 million borrowers.
“Today, the Biden-Harris administration takes another step forward in our drive to deliver student debt relief to borrowers who’ve been failed by a broken system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These latest steps will mark the next milestone in our efforts to help millions of borrowers who’ve been buried under a mountain of student loan interest or who took on debt to pay for college programs that left them worse off financially.”
Cardona added that the Biden-Harris Administration made a commitment to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible,
and today, we’re one step closer to keeping that promise.”
Administration officials noted that Biden and Harris already had taken historic steps to reduce the burden of student debt and ensure that student loans do not impede educational and economic opportunities. Efforts include a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant—the most significant increase in a decade—and new rules to protect borrowers from career programs that leave graduates with unaffordable debts or insufficient earnings. Officials said the administration continues to work on issuing debt relief regulations under the Higher Education Act.
So far, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved significant debt relief for borrowers, including:
- $69.2 billion for 946,000 borrowers through fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
- $51 billion for over 1 million borrowers through administrative adjustments to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) payment counts.
- $28.7 billion for over 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions close, or are covered by related court settlements.
- $14.1 billion for over 548,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
- $5.5 billion for 414,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan.
In April, the president and vice president proposed new rules that would authorize the Secretary of Education to grant student debt relief to millions of borrowers. These proposals include relief for borrowers whose balances have grown due to runaway interest, those who have been in repayment for decades, and those eligible for loan forgiveness but have yet to apply. If finalized as proposed, these rules could authorize relief for over 30 million borrowers, including those already approved for debt cancellation.
Borrowers who prefer to opt out of this debt relief can do so by contacting their servicer by August 30, 2024. Borrowers who opt-out will be temporarily opted out of forgiveness due to enrollment in an IDR plan until the Department can automatically assess their eligibility for that benefit in the coming months.
For more information on this debt relief initiative, borrowers can visit StudentAid.gov/debt-relief.
