Biden administration to forgive $4.9B in debt for 73,600 student borrowers

The Biden administration announced Friday it was forgiving almost $5 billion for some 73,600 student loan borrowers.  

The White House said more than half, almost 44,000, of the borrowers who received student debt relief Friday are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other individuals who have been on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for 10 years.

The other almost 30,000 borrowers have been on an income-driven repayment program for 20 years.

With the announcement, President Biden brought up the total number of borrowers who have seen debt forgiveness under his administration to 3.7 million.  

“My Administration is able to deliver relief to these borrowers — and millions more — because of fixes we made to broken student loan programs that were preventing borrowers from getting relief they were entitled to under the law,” Biden said in a statement.  

In the announcement, he highlighted student loan accomplishments in his administration such as increasing federal Pell Grants, making changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and implementing the SAVE income-driven repayment option. 

He also pointed out after the Supreme Court defeat of his universal student debt relief proposal, the administration has been working on another plan for mass loan forgiveness, although it seems the new path will not reach as many borrowers as the previous one.  

“From Day One of my Administration, I vowed to improve the student loan system so that a higher education provides Americans with opportunity and prosperity — not unmanageable burdens of student loan debt. I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” Biden said.