Total Approved Student Debt Relief Reached Almost $189 Billion for 5.3 Million Borrowers
The Biden-Harris Administration today announced its final round of
student loan forgiveness, approving more than $600 million for 4,550
borrowers through the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan and 4,100
individual borrower defense approvals. The Administration leaves office
having approved a cumulative $188.8 billion in forgiveness for 5.3
million borrowers across 33 executive actions. The U.S. Department of
Education (Department) today also announced that it has completed the
income-driven repayment payment count adjustment and that borrowers will
now be able to see their income-driven repayment counters when they log
into their accounts on StudentAid.gov. Finally, the Department took
additional actions that will allow students who attended certain schools
that have since closed to qualify for student loan discharges.
“Four
years ago, President Biden made a promise to fix a broken student loan
system. We rolled up our sleeves and, together, we fixed existing
programs that had failed to deliver the relief they promised, took bold
action on behalf of borrowers who had been cheated by their
institutions, and brought financial breathing room to hardworking
Americans—including public servants and borrowers with disabilities.
Thanks to our relentless, unapologetic efforts, millions of Americans
are approved for student loan forgiveness,” said U.S. Secretary of
Education Miguel Cardona. “I’m incredibly proud of the Biden-Harris
Administration’s historic achievements in making the life-changing
potential of higher education more affordable and accessible for more
people.”
From Day One the Biden-Harris Administration took steps
to rethink, restore, and revitalize targeted relief programs that
entitle borrowers to relief under the Higher Education Act but that
failed to live up to their promises. Through a combination of executive
actions and regulatory improvements, the Biden-Harris Administration
produced the following results for borrowers:
Fixed longstanding problems with Income-Driven Repayment (IDR). The Administration has approved 1.45
million borrowers for $57.1 billion in loan relief, including $600
million for 4,550 borrowers announced today for IBR forgiveness.
IDR
plans help keep payments manageable for borrowers and have provided a
path to forgiveness after an extended period. These plans started in the
early 1990s, but prior to the Biden-Harris Administration taking
office, just 50 borrowers had ever had their loans forgiven. The
Administration corrected longstanding failures to accurately track
borrower progress toward forgiveness and addressed past instances of
forbearance steering whereby servicers inappropriately advised borrowers
to postpone payments for extended periods of time. These totals also
include borrowers who received forgiveness under the Saving on a
Valuable Education (SAVE) plan prior to court orders halting forgiveness
under the SAVE plan.
Today, the Department also announced the
completion of the IDR payment count adjustment, correcting eligible
payment counts. While the payment count adjustment is now complete,
borrowers who were affected by certain servicer transitions in 2024 may
see one or two additional months credited in the coming weeks. The
Department is also launching the ability for borrowers to track their
IDR progress on StudentAid.gov. Borrowers can now log in to their
accounts and see their total IDR payment count and a month-by-month
breakdown of progress.
Restored the promise of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The Administration has approved 1,069,000 borrowers for $78.5 billion in forgiveness.
The
PSLF Program provides critical support to teachers, service members,
social workers, and others engaged in public service. But prior to this
Administration taking office, just 7,000 borrowers had received
forgiveness and the overwhelming majority of borrowers who applied had
their applications denied. The Biden-Harris Administration fixed this
program by pursuing regulatory improvements, correcting long-standing
issues with tracking progress toward forgiveness and misuse of
forbearances, and implementing the limited PSLF waiver to avoid harm
from the pandemic.
Automated discharges and simplified eligibility criteria for borrowers with a total and permanent disability. The Administration has approved 633,000 borrowers for $18.7 billion in loan relief.
Borrowers
who are totally and permanently disabled may be eligible for a total
and permanent disability (TPD) discharge. The Biden-Harris
Administration changed regulations to automatically forgive loans for
eligible borrowers based upon a data match with the Social Security
Administration (SSA). This helped hundreds of thousands of borrowers who
were eligible for relief but hadn’t managed to navigate paperwork
requirements. The Department also made it easier for borrowers to
qualify for relief based upon SSA determinations, made it easier to
complete the TPD application, and eliminated provisions that had caused
many borrowers to have their loans reinstated.
Delivered
long-awaited help to borrowers ripped off by their institutions, whose
schools closed, or through related court settlements. The Administration has approved just under 2 million borrowers for $34.5 billion in loan relief.
For
years, students had sought relief from the Department through borrower
defense to repayment—a provision that allows borrowers to have their
loans forgiven if their college engaged in misconduct related to the
borrowers’ loans. The Department delivered long-awaited relief
to borrowers who attended some of the most notoriously predatory
institutions to ever participate in the federal financial aid programs.
This included approving for discharge all remaining outstanding loans
from Corinthian Colleges, as well as group discharges for ITT Technical
Institute, the Art Institutes, Westwood College, Ashford University, and
others. The Department also settled a long-running class action lawsuit
stemming from allegations of inaction and the issuance of form denials,
allowing it to begin the first sustained denials of non-meritorious
claims.
Today, the Department also approved 4,100 additional
individual borrower defense applications for borrowers who attended
DeVry University, based upon findings announced in February 2022.
“For
decades, the federal government promised to help people who couldn’t
afford their student loans because they were in public service, had
disabilities, were cheated by their college, or who had completed
decades of payments. But it rarely kept those promises until now,” said
U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal. “These permanent reforms
have already helped more 5 million borrowers, and many more borrowers
will continue to benefit.”
The table below compares the progress
made by the Biden-Harris Administration in these key discharge areas
compared to other administrations.
| | Borrowers approved for forgiveness |
| | Prior Administrations | Biden-Harris Administration |
| Borrower Defense (Since 2015) | 53,500 | 1,767,000* |
| Public Service Loan Forgiveness (Since 2017) | 7,000 | 1,069,000 |
| Income-Driven Repayment (all-time) | 50 | 1,454,000 |
| Total and Permanent Disability (Since 2017) | 604,000 | 633,000 |
*
Includes 107,000 borrowers and $1.25 billion captured by an extension
of the closed-school lookback window at ITT Technical Institute.
Additional actions related to closed school discharges
The
Department today also announced additional actions that will make more
borrowers eligible for a closed school loan discharge. Generally, a
borrower qualifies for a closed school discharge if they did not
complete their program and were either still enrolled when the school
closed or left without graduating within 120 days before it closed. .
However, the Department has determined that several schools closed under
exceptional circumstances that merit allowing borrowers who did
complete and were enrolled in the school more than 120 days prior to the
closure to qualify for a closed school discharge. justify extending the
look-back window beyond the applicable 120 or 180 days--allowing
additional borrowers to qualify for a closed school discharge.
Generally, eligible borrowers will have to apply for these discharges,
but the Secretary has directed Federal Student Aid to make borrowers
aware of their eligibility, and to pursue automatic discharges for those
affected by closures that took place between 2013 and 2020 and who did
not enroll elsewhere within three years of their school closing.
These adjusted look-back windows are:
- To
May 6, 2015, for all campuses owned at the time by the Career Education
Corporation (CEC), which have since closed. That is the day CEC
announced it would close or sell all campuses except for two brands.
This affected the Art Institutes, Le Cordon Bleu, Brooks Institute,
Missouri College, Briarcliffe College, and Sanford-Brown.
- To
December 16, 2016, for campuses owned by the Education Corporation of
America (ECA) on that date that closed. ECA operated Virginia College,
Brightwood College, EcoTech, and Golf Academies and started on the path
to closure after its accreditation agency lost federal recognition and
ECA could not obtain accreditation elsewhere.
- To October 17,
2017 for all campuses owned or sold on that date by the Education
Management Corporation (EDMC) and that later closed. That is the day
EDMC sold substantially all of its assets to Dream Center Educational
Holdings. The decision affects borrowers who attended the Art
Institutes, including the Miami International University of Art &
Design and Argosy University.
- To April 23, 2021, for Bay State
College. That is the day this Massachusetts-based college began to face
significant accreditation challenges, which eventually led to the
school losing accreditation and closing in August 2023.
Borrowers who want more information about closed school discharge, including how to apply, can visit StudentAid.gov/closedschool.
A state-by-state breakdown of various forms of student debt relief approved by the Biden-Harris Administration is available here.
