Roughly 125,000 borrowers will have $9 billion in student debt cancelled, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. The cohort receiving the relief includes three groups of borrowers who have been eligible to have their debt forgiven for years but struggled to access that benefit. They are public servants who have been working for the government or certain nonprofits for more than 10 years and paying on their student loans during that time; borrowers who have been in repayment on their loans for more than 20 years; and borrowers who are severely disabled.
“My administration has taken significant action to provide student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible,” President Joe Biden said hours after officials announced the debt relief. “That starts by making sure the existing system works.” The announcement comes as payments are resuming this month for 28 million student-loan borrowers for the first time in three years, now that the pandemic-era payment pause has ended. Some have reported challenges enrolling in repayment plans and getting correct information from their servicers about their payment amounts. Student-loan borrower advocates had called on the Biden administration to wipe debt off the books for borrowers who are already eligible for cancellation under the law before resuming repayment. They’ve said that would help alleviate some of the strain the return to repayment is putting on the student-loan system. Some of the borrowers covered by the announcement have received notices about the relie …
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