Jan. 19 (UPI) — President Joe Biden announced on Friday that his administration was canceling nearly $5 billion in student loans impacting nearly 74,000 borrowers.
Most of the forgiveness goes to 44,000 borrowers who have spent more than 10 years in public service working as teachers, nurses, firefighters and other positions, while the remaining 30,000 are borrowers who have been in repayment for at least 20 years without receiving relief, the White House said.
“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,” Biden said. “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.”
The relief for public service workers builds on efforts in October to make permanent changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, to make it easier for workers who have made on-time payments for 10 years while working in education, healthcare, the military, law enforcement etc., to receive forgiveness.
The Biden administration has announced multiple waves of student debt relief in various forms after the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s broad debt relief plan.
“We are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible,” Biden said. “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.”
Last week, the Education Department also said it would begin forgiving student loans for ahead of schedule for borrowers involved in its Saving on a Valuable Education plan. That plan affected borrowers who had been paying for at least 10 years whose initial loans were for $12,000 or less.
The SAVE plan was created last year as a replacement for the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan after the U.S. Supreme Court declared the wide net student forgiveness plan illegal.