Nearly 30,000 Pennsylvanians approved for student loan forgiveness
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Nearly 30,000 Pennsylvanians are among the 804,000 federal student loan borrowers across the United States who have been approved for loan forgiveness, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The Biden-Harris administration last week approved $39 billion in federal student loans for automatic discharge this summer.
Pennsylvanians will receive more than $1.3 billion in income-driven repayment (IDR).
This student loan forgiveness plan is different from the plan Biden announced in August that the Supreme Court struck down in June. That plan would have forgiven $10,000 per qualifying borrower and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
This debt relief is for borrowers who were enrolled in IDRs (which are designed to reduce student loan monthly payments by tying a person’s payment amount to their salary) and who have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments.
The DOE started notifying eligible borrowers by email on July 14 that they qualify for forgiveness. In all, 29,840 Pennsylvania borrowers are being granted relief.
The DOE said discharging the loans now is part of the department’s efforts “to address historical failures in the administration of the federal student loan program.”
“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress toward forgiveness,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
Borrowers with Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans held by the department, and Parent PLUS loans are covered.