CNN does a piece that could help student loan borrowers find out if they are effected by the effort’s of the Biden admin to correct problems of the Trump admin and take the pressure off the President who has some people looking for him to ‘fogive’ ALL of the student loan debt floating around now….
The Biden administration has taken multiple actions to make it easier for federal student loan borrowers to receive debt forgiveness that they may already be entitled to under existing programs.
The latest moves, announced earlier this week, help borrowers who are enrolled in what’s known as the income-driven repayment program, or IDR. Roughly 9 million borrowers with more than $500 billion in outstanding federal student loans are currently using an IDR plan to pay off their debt, according to government data.
There are four IDR plans that allow borrowers to avoid loan default by lowering their monthly payments based on their income and family size — so that the amounts are smaller than they would be under the standard 10-year repayment plan. IDR also promises loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of payments are made, depending on the specific plan.
But reviews by the Department of Education and the Government Accountability Office show that the program has been mismanaged. A recent report found that at least 3,000 borrowers potentially had enough qualifying payments to be eligible for forgiveness as of September 1, 2020, but only 132 borrowers had received forgiveness by June 2, 2021.
The actions announced this week aim to resolve those issues. The Department of Education said it will begin implementing the changes immediately but that borrowers may not see an updated account until later this year.
These new moves can potentially help millions of people. A vast majority of borrowers qualify for smaller monthly payments under IDR plans regardless of their income or debt amount.
The Department of Education estimates that 3.6 million borrowers will be three years closer to receiving loan forgiveness through the IDR program and thousands will be eligible for forgiveness immediately after the changes are implemented….