The Biden administration on Friday announced that officials will forgive $5 billion of student loan debt for 74,000 borrowers who have worked for the government for at least a decade or who failed to get proper credit for payments made under income-driven repayment plans.
A majority of those affected — nearly 44,000 people — earned forgiveness after spending at least 10 years in public service, The White House said. They accounted for about $3.2 billion of the forgiven debt, according to the Education Department.
Nearly 30,000 of those impacted have been paying back their loans for at least 20 years but never got the relief they earned through income-driven repayment plans, officials said. Their debt cancellation amounts to about $1.7 billion.
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“The Biden-Harris Administration has worked relentlessly to fix our country’s broken student loan system and address the needless hurdles and administrative inaccuracies that, in the past, kept borrowers from getting the student debt forgiveness they deserved,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Friday in a statement.
“The nearly $5 billion in additional debt relief announced today will go to teachers, social workers, and other public servants whose service to our communities have earned them Public Service Loan Forgiveness, as well as borrowers qualifying for income-driven repayment forgiveness because their payments are for the first time being accurately accounted for.”
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Previously, the Education Department said it would address “historical failures” that kept borrowers from getting credit toward their loans. Borrowers had long complained that because of mismanagement, they did not receive loan forgiveness under the rules of income-driven repayment plans, despite qualifying, NPR reported.
Friday’s announcement raised the number of Americans to see their student loan debt canceled under President Joe Biden to 3.7 million, White House officials said. In total, $136.6 billion worth of debt has been forgiven, according to the Education Department.