As student loan payments are set to resume in the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of Education is in the process of notifying borrowers if their payments will be eligible for forgiveness.
An update posted on the Federal Student Aid website states that eligible borrowers were notified by the Education Department on July 14, 2023, if their payments will be forgiven and additional notifications are set to go out every two months until next year, meaning that the next group of eligible borrowers will be notified in September.
"Your student loan servicer(s) will notify you directly after your forgiveness is processed. Make sure to keep your contact information up-to-date with your servicer and on StudentAid.gov," the update said.
On Monday, a federal district judge in Michigan ruled against a lawsuit that sought to challenge U.S. President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness program through income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
"Today, thanks to my Administration's actions, 804,000 borrowers will start to see their debt cancelled," Biden said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. "As I announced 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."
And, we’re not done.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 14, 2023
As I announced 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.
Biden continued, "As I announced 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...I promised to fix the student loan system that's failed borrowers for years. Already, we've approved over $116 billion in debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans, and we're not backing down—No matter the roadblocks Republican officials or special interests put in our way."
As Biden noted, the U.S. Supreme Court previously struck down his student loan cancellation plan but in response, the president and the Education Department have announced additional efforts to alleviate student loan debt for thousands of borrowers.
The Education Department currently has several different IDR plans in place including the Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE Plan), the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (PAYE Plan), the Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR Plan) and the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (ICR Plan).
These plans allow for student loan debt forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments and each is mainly based on lowering student debt prices based on a person's income and family size.
The Department of Education directed Newsweek to an announcement issued yesterday which said, "The U.S.Department of Education today announced that automatic discharges will begin for 804,000 borrowers who qualify for $39 billion in student loan relief as a result of fixes to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration since April 2022."
"The discharges are a result of fixes implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under IDR plans," the announcement added.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
