Biden cancels additional $9bn in student loan debt
President Joe Biden has announced an additional 125,000 people have been approved for student debt relief in a total of $9bn.
Biden’s latest approval brings the total approved debt cancellation under his administration to $127bn for nearly 3.6 million Americans, the White House said in a statement.
Related: ‘Totally devastating’: borrowers on the start of student loan repayment
The new approvals include $5.2bn in additional debt relief for 53,000 borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, nearly $2.8bn in new debt relief for nearly 51,000 borrowers through fixes to income-driven repayment, as well as $1.2bn for nearly 22,000 borrowers who have a total or permanent disability.
In an address on Wednesday, Biden said that his administration’s efforts to relieve student debt is “not done yet”, adding: “My administration is doing everything we can to deliver student debt relief for as many as we can, as fast as we can.”
“While a college degree is still the ticket toward a better life, that ticket has become excessively expensive. Americans who are saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree has become norm,” he said.
Biden went on to criticize the conservative-majority supreme court’s 6-3 decision earlier this year that ruled against his administration’s $430bn student debt forgiveness plan for 40 million borrowers.
“Republican-elected officials and special interests stepped up and sued us and the supreme court sided with them, snatching from the hands of millions of Americans thousands of dollars of student debt relief that was about to change their lives,” he said of the decision.
The education secretary, Miguel Cardona, hailed Biden’s decision on Wednesday, saying: “The Biden-Harris administration’s laser-like focus on reducing red tape, addressing past administrative failures, and putting borrowers first have now resulted in a historic $127bn in debt relief approved for nearly 3.6 million borrowers.”
“Today’s announcement builds on everything our administration has already done to protect students from unaffordable debt, make repayment more affordable, and ensure that investments in higher education pay off for students and working families,” he added.
Following the supreme court’s ruling earlier this year, the Biden administration launched Saving on a Valuable Education (Save) plan, which will go into full effect next July and increases the income exception from 150% to 225% of the poverty line.
It also intends to reduce payments on undergraduate loans in half and ensure that borrowers “never see their balance grow as long as they keep up with their required payments”, the education department said.
