President Biden has already forgiven Student Loans for Nearly 4 Million People with plans to help over 30 Million!

While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been working to reduce the burden of student loans, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans want to reverse these successes and increase the amount people are paying. The difference between Donald Trump and President Biden on student loans could not be more clear:

• Trump praised his Supreme Court nominees for blocking President Biden’s original plan to relieve student debt for low- and middle-income borrowers.
• Trump proposed eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. And, under Trump’s administration only 7,000 borrowers had their loans forgiven. President Biden has fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, providing relief to over 870,000 teachers, nurses, first responders, military officials, and others who work in public service. 
• Trump proposed freezing Pell Grants, while President Biden has increased Pell Grants to record levels, increasing the maximum award by $900.
• Trump’s allies in Congress have released a proposal to end the President’s SAVE Plan — the most affordable repayment plan in history. While President Biden is lowering payments borrowers have to make each month, Trump proposed increasing them while in office. And, Trump’s allies in 11 Republican-led states have sued to block the President’s SAVE Plan.
• Trump made it harder for students to discharge their loans after they were lied to and misled by predatory for-profit colleges. President Biden made it a top priority to forgive the debt of students who were taken advantage of, leading to forgiveness for more than 1.3 million borrowers.

To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $153 billion in student debt cancelation for over 4 million borrowers, including:

• Borrowers who are eligible for forgiveness through income-driven repayment by fixing historical inaccuracies in the count of payments that qualify toward forgiveness;
• Teachers, nurses, members of the military, and other public servants through Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs;
• Borrowers with a total and permanent disability; and
• Borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements. 

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris understand that runaway interest on student debt should not be a perpetual burden. That is why, starting this fall, they plan to begin automatically canceling up to $20,000 in interest accrued for millions of borrowers and full loan forgiveness for millions more! This includes borrowers who owe more on their loans than they borrowed, have been paying back loans for 20+ years, enrolled in “low value” academic programs or are experiencing financial hardship. The Biden-Harris Administration is also looking for this interest cancellation to automatically apply to people who qualify for a pre-existing program but are not enrolled yet. In total these combined actions will forgive debt for over 30 million Americans!

Last fall, President Biden and Vice President Harris launched the SAVE Plan, the most affordable repayment plan in history. Nearly 8 million borrowers are already enrolled in the SAVE Plan, 4.5 million have a $0 monthly payment, and over $1 million additional borrowers have a monthly payment of less than $100. To date, more than 150,000 borrowers have had their loans canceled under the SAVE Plan. Additional benefits go into effect in July 2024, including the payments for borrowers with only undergraduate student loans will be cut in half based on income.

You can use this official U.S. Department of Education link to find out if you are eligible for loan forgiveness from the Biden-Harris Administration. Some of the reasons for eligibility include, but are not limited to:

• Working as a teacher in an elementary school, secondary school, child care center, or educational service agency.
• Working for the government, including military service along with state, local, or tribal government. 
• Working for a nonprofit entity.
• Working as a nurse, doctor, or other medical professional.
• Your school has closed or misled you.
• You have been on an income-driven repayment plan.
• Many more reasons…

Also, you should know that the Biden-⁠Harris Administration recently launched the SAVE Plan, which is the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever to lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers. The SAVE Plan is the newest income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Like other IDR plans, the SAVE Plan calculates your monthly payment amount based on your income and family size. In addition, the SAVE Plan has unique benefits that will lower payments for many borrowers. 

Please visit https://studentaid.gov/SAVE to learn more and apply.

In 2022, President Biden and Vice President Harris announced a major proposal for student debt relief of up to $20,000 for Americans earning less than $125,000 per year who had Pell Grants in college and up to $10,000 for all other borrowers below that income threshold. The Biden Administration was on the verge of providing more than 40 million Americans with real relief from their student debt. The relief was literally about to go out the door, but Republican elected officials and special interests stepped up and sued to stop it. Republican leaders went to court to block millions of Americans from getting relief, including many of their own constituents.

And the Supreme Court, including all three of Donald Trump’s appointees, sided with them, snatching thousands of dollars in student debt relief from the hands of millions of Americans whose lives would have been changed by President Biden’s efforts. President Biden believes that this Supreme Court decision was a mistake and will not stop fighting to deliver borrowers the relief they need.

President Biden believes that if America is going to set the pace around the globe once more — on research and development, innovation and discovery, equity and opportunity, and creating good-paying jobs with dignity — it is imperative that we put an affordable, high-quality education after high school within reach of every American. Reducing the price of college will also reduce the need for future student loans and break the cycle of debt. That is why President Biden and Vice President Harris have:

• Increased the maximum Pell Grant award by $900 over the past two years – the largest increase in more than 10 years. President Biden and Vice President Harris are calling on Congress to provide a path to double the maximum Pell Grant award by 2029 for students attending public and non-profit institutions. 
• Invested $39 billion in colleges and universities, including more than $25 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI), which they are using to support students at risk of dropping out. They are calling on Congress to provide two years of subsidized tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 enrolled in a participating four-year HBCU, TCCU, or MSI.
• Called on Congress to expand free community college for students enrolled in high-quality programs that lead to a four-year degree or good-paying jobs.
• Cracking down on junk fees in higher education, including calling on Congress to eliminate the origination fees charged to borrowers on every new federal student loan, which can add up to thousands of dollars for borrowers.