Key Takeaways
- Another 160,500 people had some of their federal student loan debt forgiven by the Department of Education, totaling $7.7 billion.
- It was the latest batch of borrowers to see debt relief under President Joe Biden’s ongoing efforts to cancel student loans.
- In total, the administration has forgiven debts for 4.75 million people since Biden took office despite the Supreme Court striking down his most ambitious plan for student debt forgiveness.
President Joe Biden’s campaign of piecemeal student loan forgiveness is rolling on.
The Department of Education has forgiven $7.7 billion worth of federal student debt for 160,500 borrowers through different programs affecting borrowers in various situations, the department said Wednesday.
The latest round of forgiveness brings the total to $167 billion in relief for 4.75 million borrowers across several programs, according to the White House. Nearly a year after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s broad student loan forgiveness proposal, several smaller-scale programs are chipping away at canceling debt.
The latest announcement included borrowers in three programs:
- The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives loans for people who work in government and nonprofit organizations. This program predated the Biden administration but was overhauled in 2021 to make more people eligible.
- The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, a new type of income-driven repayment plan created by the Biden administration last year.
- An adjustment to older income-driven repayment plans, which resulted in millions of borrowers having their loans forgiven or moving them closer to that goal.
In addition to those programs, the department is finalizing a broader effort at student loan forgiveness which, if it survives legal challenges, will bring the total number of borrowers having some of their loans canceled to 30 million.