(USNewsBreak.com) – President Joe Biden has made student loan debt cancellation a cornerstone of his tenure in office. During his campaign, he promised to work toward solutions that would relieve loan holders. While he couldn’t enact widespread cancellation, his administration has worked on fixing programs and targeting breaks to specific groups. It recently announced another round of relief.
On Wednesday, May 22, the Biden Administration announced it was canceling another $7.7 billion in student loans for 160,000 borrowers. This latest round brought the student debt forgiveness total to a stunning $167 billion.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he is canceling another $7.7 billion in student debt, the latest move in his signature relief targeting education debt that has faced fierce pushback from Republicans.
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The newest round of relief focused on those who received Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and included professionals such as nurses, law enforcement officials, and teachers. The latest package also included relief for some qualifying loan holders who signed up for the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program, the administration’s new income-driven repayment plan.
Broken down, the $7.7 billion is allocated across three different groups:
- Nearly 67,000 borrowers in the PSLF program received $5.2 billion in debt cancellation due to changes.
- Over 54,000 borrowers saw $613 million in student debts forgiven through the administration’s SAVE Plan.
- More than 39,000 borrowers received administrative adjustments applied to their income-driven repayment plans, totaling $1.9 billion.
This package was just the latest in the Biden Administration’s quest to provide loan forgiveness. Around 277,000 loan holders saw $7.4 billion forgiven in April in a mixture of the PSLF and SAVE plans.
Last year, the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s plan to issue broader relief that would’ve seen qualifying applicants — approximately 43 million individuals — receive either $10,000 or $20,000 in student loan forgiveness. Lawmakers challenged the plan in the courts, saying Biden didn’t have the authority to enact such relief.
With the current and past rounds of relief, around 4.75 million people have received some form of relief. According to US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, that amounted to approximately 10% of student loan borrowers. Biden has committed to continuing to find additional paths for student debt relief.
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