How much has the Biden administration spent on student loan forgiveness since he has been in office?
The Biden administration has launched a new income-driven student debt repayment plan. How much has his government spent on student loan forgiveness?
A month ago, the Supreme Court struck down the student loan forgiveness program proposed by President Joe Biden, which would have forgiven more than $400 billion in student debt, and up to $20,000 per borrower.
In the wake of the high court’s decision, the president announced a series of measures and new plans to help students and their families. Now, the education department has launched a website for the new loan repayment scheme.
READ ALSO: Is the SAVE plan an improvement on debt forgiveness?
Borrowers can apply for new income-driven loan repayment scheme
The government’s new plan for student loan repayment is income-driven, and the newly launched beta site will allow borrowers to start submitting applications for the program.
Under the Saving on a Valuable Education or SAVE Plan, many borrowers will not have to make monthly payments, such as single borrowers who make less than $15 an hour.
Borrowers earning above that amount will save more than $1,000 a year on their payments compared to other income-driven repayment or IDR plans.
READ ALSO: How to enroll in SAVE, Biden’s new student debt repayment plan
READ ALSO: Biden government launches new student debt repayment plan
How much has the Biden administration spent on student loan forgiveness since he has been in office?
The Department of Education has begun notifying more than 804,000 people with debt that their federal student loans will be automatically discharged in the coming weeks. The funds available to these borrowers amount to $39 billion.
According to the department’s website, this debt relief is a result of the government’s fixes to ensure that “all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under IDR plans.”
The department adds that the Biden-Harris government has approved more than $116.6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers.