President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his administration has approved $9 billion in student loan forgiveness affecting 125,000 borrowers. The loan forgiveness is the result of corrections the Biden administration has made in three programs that have been plagued with problems in the past, the White House said.
About 53,000 borrowers owing $5.2 billion will see forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which applies to public service workers and requires 10 years of payments. Another 51,000 borrowers owing $2.8 billion who participated in income-driven repayment plans for 20 years but never received proper credit will benefit. And nearly 22,000 borrowers owing $1.2 billion will have their loans forgiven due to having total or permanent disabilities.
Although President Biden’s previous effort to erase hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans for millions of Americans was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this year, he has pledged to continue to find ways to reduce student loan debt. The Biden administration has now forgiven about $127 billion of student debt for nearly 3.6 million borrowers, according to a White House press release.
