Thousands of Federal Borrowers Receiving Student Loan Forgiveness

After decades of shaky performance, student loan forgiveness is finally coming into its own as over a million borrowers’ balances are wiped out this year. Since August, the Department of Education has been sending emails headed, “Your student loans have been forgiven.” It’s a huge leap forward for a system that—despite being so universally relied upon—has had an abysmal track record. Much of this success is owed to the Biden Administration, which has made it a priority from day 1 to reform the student loan system, especially to revamp the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) programs.  With the help of Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, President Biden has forgiven more student loan debt than any other president in history.

Student Loan Forgiveness on 2 Fronts: IDR & PSLF

Since the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s $10k forgiveness for all student loan borrowers, the Administration has continued to focus on existing programs to help borrowers achieve loan forgiveness: IDR and PSLF. Both programs were designed to help borrowers reduce their monthly payments to amounts that they could afford, and eventually work toward having their balances forgiven after a period of good-faith payment. Both, however, have been plagued by mismanagement and difficult-to-navigate bureaucracy.

Using the “negotiated rulemaking” process—a tedious and less flashy way of updating policy—the Dept. of Education has been able to revamp both IDR and PSLF to streamline procedures and broaden access to their benefits. First came the Limited Waiver Opportunity, which allowed PSLF applicants to get around some of the more confusing elements of repayment, such as qualifying payment plans, and included types of federal loans that were previously excluded from forgiveness. Then, in 2023, the Administration announced the IDR Account Adjustment, which took some of the successes of the LWO and applied them to all IDR plans, including a recount of all borrower payments. 

Between these two initiatives, President Biden and Secretary Cardona have forgiven the federal student loans of over 1.5 million Americans by correcting decades old failures. We can’t wait to see what comes next! If you’re one of those whose loans were forgiven, we want to hear your story! If you want to become one of them, drop us a line and let us show you how we can make it happen!