Joe Biden Has Already Forgiven Student Loan Debt for Nearly 5 Million People With Plans to Help Over 30 Million!  

While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are fighting to fix our broken student loan system, Donald Trump would make it worse. Trump and MAGA Republicans want to reverse Joe Biden’s successes and increase the amount people are paying. And Trump’s long history of opposing relief makes it clear he would not only hang borrowers who have yet to receive relief out to dry, but also make the student debt crisis worse. The difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on student loans could not be more clear:

• Trump praised his Supreme Court nominees for blocking Joe 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. Joe Biden has fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, providing relief to nearly 900,000 teachers, nurses, first responders, military officials, and others who work in public service. 
• Trump proposed freezing Pell Grants, while Joe 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 Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan — the most affordable repayment plan in history. While Joe Biden is lowering the 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. Joe Biden made it a top priority to forgive the debt of students who were taken advantage of or saw their schools precipitously close, leading to forgiveness for more than 1.6 million borrowers.

To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $167 billion in student debt cancelation for nearly 5 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, firefighters, and other public servants through Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs;
• Borrowers with a total and permanent disability, including veterans; and
• Borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements. 

Last fall, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris launched the SAVE Plan, the most affordable repayment plan in history. Over 8 million borrowers are already enrolled in the SAVE Plan; 4.6 million have a $0 monthly payment; and over 1 million additional borrowers have a monthly payment of less than $100. To date, more than 414,000 borrowers have had their loans canceled under the SAVE Plan. Additional benefits go into effect in July 2024, including that 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, Joe Biden and Kamala 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-Harris Administration was on the verge of providing more than 40 million Americans with real relief from their student debt, but Republican elected officials and special interests sued to stop it. Extremist Republicans 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, preventing millions of Americans from receiving thousands of dollars in student debt relief. Joe Biden believes that this Supreme Court decision was a mistake – but they haven’t stopped him from providing nearly 5 million Americans with student debt relief.

Joe Biden believes that in order to remain the strongest economy in the world, we need to have the best education in the world. That’s why he is providing billions in student loan relief and making a college degree more affordable . Reducing the price of college will also reduce the need for future student loans and break the cycle of debt. That is why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have:

• Increased the maximum Pell Grant award by $900 over the past two years —the largest increase in more than 10 years. Joe Biden and Kamala 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 tens of billions in colleges and universities, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI). 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 across the country.
• 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.