The Biden-Harris Administration has announced the next step in providing student debt relief to tens of millions of borrowers this fall. Beginning tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Education will email all borrowers with at least one outstanding federally held student loan to provide updates on potential student debt relief. Borrowers have until August 30 to call their servicer and opt out if they do not want this relief.
The proposed rules for this relief are not yet finalized, and the email does not guarantee eligibility for specific borrowers. The Department will provide additional information once the rules are finalized this fall. These proposed rules build upon the Administration’s existing efforts that have approved over $168 billion in student loan relief for nearly 4.8 million borrowers through various actions.
“Today, the Biden-Harris administration takes another step forward in our drive to deliver student debt relief to borrowers who’ve been failed by a broken system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These latest steps will mark the next milestone in our efforts to help millions of borrowers who’ve been buried under a mountain of student loan interest, or who took on debt to pay for college programs that left them worse off financially, those who have been paying their loans for twenty or more years, and many others.”
In April, the Administration released its first set of draft rules proposing authorizing the Secretary of Education to grant student debt relief to tens of millions of borrowers across the country. If these rules are finalized as proposed, they would authorize partial or full debt relief for several groups:
- Borrowers who owe more now than they did at the start of repayment due to runaway interest.
- Borrowers who have been in repayment for decades.
- Borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness but have not yet applied.
- Borrowers enrolled in low-financial value programs.
If finalized as proposed, these new rules would authorize relief without requiring any action from eligible borrowers; no application would be needed.
Borrowers preferring to opt out can do so by contacting their servicer by August 30, 2024. Those opting out will temporarily be opted out of forgiveness due to enrollment in an income-driven repayment plan until automatic assessment is possible.
More information is available at StudentAid.gov/debt-relief.
The Biden-Harris Administration has taken significant steps toward reducing student debt burdens and ensuring educational and economic opportunities are accessible. This includes securing a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant and finalizing new rules protecting borrowers from unaffordable debts or insufficient earnings from career programs.
The Administration has approved substantial debt relief:
- $69.2 billion for 946,000 borrowers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness fixes.
- $51 billion for over 1 million borrowers via administrative adjustments.
- $28.7 billion for over 1.6 million defrauded or institutionally impacted borrowers.
- $14.1 billion for over 548,000 permanently disabled borrowers.
- $5.5 billion for 414,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan.
