President Joe Biden will be sending out emails to nearly 400,000 borrowers who are on track to receive student loan forgiveness within the next two years. This announcement comes after the Biden administration’s latest wave of student loan forgiveness approvals under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. PSLF can eliminate federal student loan debt after 10 years of working for certain nonprofit or public organizations, and President Biden has made efforts to fix and improve the program since taking office in 2021.
The Education Department stated that almost 80,000 borrowers have been approved for over $5 billion in loan forgiveness through the recent improvements to the PSLF program. This brings the total amount of loan forgiveness under PSLF to $62.5 billion, with over 870,000 borrowers receiving student loan forgiveness since October 2021. Prior to these changes, fewer than 10,000 borrowers had received any relief through the program since its inception in 2007.
Borrowers on track for PSLF will receive emails from President Biden urging them to continue working toward loan forgiveness. Biden acknowledges the past failures of the PSLF program but assures borrowers that his administration has implemented fixes to ensure that eligible public service workers receive the relief they are entitled to under the law. To qualify for loan forgiveness, borrowers must make 120 qualifying payments on eligible federal student loans while working for an eligible employer.
In order to qualify for PSLF, borrowers must make payments on Direct federal student loans under specific repayment plans and work at least 30 hours per week as a W-2 employee for eligible nonprofit or public entities. Borrowers can use the Department of Education’s PSLF Employer Search Tool to verify if their employment qualifies, and they must certify their employment through the PSLF Help Tool to ensure past payments count toward forgiveness. The IDR Account Adjustment, a temporary opportunity offered by the Biden administration, allows borrowers to receive retroactive credit for past periods of repayment that normally wouldn’t count under PSLF rules.
President Biden encourages borrowers to continue serving their communities in public service work, as those who stay on track could have their remaining student loans forgiven in less than two years through PSLF. The program is an essential way to bring more Americans into public service while helping them alleviate the burden of student loan debt. Biden emphasizes the importance of staying the course to receive full forgiveness through the PSLF program as partial completion does not result in partial loan forgiveness. Borrowers must complete the full 120 qualifying payments while working for an eligible employer to qualify for student loan forgiveness.
