EDUCATION
Student loan forgiveness: Who qualifies for Biden’s $6 billion in debt cancellation
A new round of debt forgiveness is being undertaken and it will affect tens of thousands of students who work in the public sector.
The Biden administration recently announced $6 billion in student debt forgiveness for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programme participants. This targeted relief comes after a broader debt cancellation plan was blocked by the Supreme Court.
“For too long, our nation’s teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters and other public servants faced logistical troubles and trapdoors when they tried to access the debt relief they were entitled to under the law,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “With this announcement, the Biden-Harris Administration is showing how we’re taking further steps not only to fix those trapdoors, but also to expand opportunity to many more Americans.”
The PSLF is a programme offered by the US government to incentivize working in public service careers by forgiving student loan debt after a set period of qualifying employment and payments.
A breakdown of the PSLF programme
Eligibility
- Federal student loans,
- Work for a qualifying public service employer (government or non-profit),
- Make 120 qualifying monthly payments under an income-driven repayment plan.
Benefit
- Remaining student loan debt gets forgiven after 10 years of qualifying payments (120 payments intotal).
Who qualifies for the recent $6 billion relief?
This wave of forgiveness is directed towards public servants, including teachers, nurses, and firefighters, who enrolled in the PSLF program. The Biden administration made changes to PSLF eligibility, allowing more borrowers to qualify for debt cancellation after 10 years of qualifying payments.
This announcement specifically applies to those who benefitted from the limited PSLF waiver, which gave credit for past payments that previously wouldn’t have counted.
What about widespread student loan forgiveness?
President Biden had previously proposed a one-time, broad student loan forgiveness plan. This plan would have cancelled $10,000 in student loan debt for most borrowers, with additional relief for Pell Grant recipients. However, the Supreme Court halted the implementation of this plan in February 2024.
The future of broad student loan forgiveness remains uncertain. The Biden administration is exploring other avenues for providing relief, but no concrete plans have been announced.