President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he would be moving forward with his administration’s plan to cancel $49 billion in student loan debt for over 800,000 borrowers.
“On Day One of my Administration, I promised to fight for hardworking families and to fix problems in the student loan system that have been failing borrowers for too long,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
“I’m proud that my Administration is delivering on that promise and has already approved over $116 billion in debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans – no matter how many lawsuits, challenges, or roadblocks Republican elected officials or special interests put in our way,” he added.
Biden said the loan cancellation plan, which was announced by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in July, seeks to address “errors and administrative failures of the student loan system that started long before I took office.”
“When I came into office, hundreds of thousands of borrowers weren’t accurately getting credit for student loan payments that should have delivered them forgiveness under Income-Driven Repayment plans or were placed into forbearance by loan servicers in violation of Department of Education rules,” Biden claimed. “Under these plans, if a borrower makes 20 or 25 years’ worth of payments, they get the remaining balances of their loans forgiven.”
On Monday, ABC News reported that some of the 800,000 borrowers who are eligible for the plan will receive an email containing the subject line: “Your student loans have been forgiven.” The outlet noted that the email process would be completed in a “matter of weeks.”
Approximately 614,000 individuals are expected to have their student loan debts nullified.
Biden said on Monday that his latest effort to cancel student loan debt is an example of one of the “alternative” paths his administration has taken to provide relief to several borrowers.
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“As I announced earlier this summer in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we will continue to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. We will use every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” the president said. “We will use every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams.”
Since Biden took office in January 2021, the Department of Education has forgiven over $116 billion in federal student loan debt held by more than 3.4 million students.
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