About $ 6.8 billion in student debt relief was made through adjustments to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, the education ministry said on Wednesday.
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A statement from DOE said changes to the program had allowed more people to qualify for student loan debt cancellation. The relief provided by the program, which was offered to more than 110,000 borrowers, averaged about $ 60,000 per person.
Initially, the program offered the cancellation of federal student loans for nonprofits and government employees after 10 years of service or 120 loan payments.
Hundreds of thousands of borrowers can still see their debt written off due to changes in the definition of “qualified payment”, according to the department.
While some need to update their information on the DOE website to take advantage of the exemption, many borrowers do not need to take any action to review the DOE and update the number of their eligible payments, CNN reported.
The website offers guidance on the waiver program to help borrowers apply for loan forgiveness. Borrowers have until October 31, 2022 to make changes to meet the conditions for forgiveness.
If the borrower has a federal family education loan (FFEL) or a federal Perkins loan, he or she may consolidate these loans into direct servicing loans, according to the DOE. These loans will then be eligible for forgiveness under the program.
FFEL and Perkins loans do not usually count towards public service loan forgiveness, but do so now, at least temporarily.
President Joe Biden said he would soon announce a decision to forgive student loan debt, according to three people familiar with the administration’s discussions with The Washington Post.
Biden’s aides have studied limiting relief to people who earned less than $ 125,000 or $ 150,000 as individual taxpayers in the previous year, the story said.
Biden said he would not forgive $ 50,000 in debt, something his party’s progressives were pushing him to do. He suggested lending at least $ 10,000 in student loans to the borrower.
The repayment of the federal student loan debt has been suspended since March 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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