Even as President Joe Biden ends his tenure in the White House, he remains committed to his student loan forgiveness efforts, wiping away education debt for thousands of additional borrowers.
On Monday, Biden announced that his administration had approved federal student loan relief for over 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total to more than 5 million since he took office, according to a White House release.
Despite losing a legal battle over his broader forgiveness plan, Biden emphasized that his administration “forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history.” The newly announced 150,000 beneficiaries include more than 80,000 defrauded by their schools, over 60,000 with total and permanent disabilities, and more than 6,000 public service workers.
The Biden administration has focused on revising and expanding existing forgiveness programs. This approach allowed for loan relief despite the Supreme Court blocking his original plan in 2023. Biden pointed to improvements in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives debt after ten years of payments from public servants, and fixes to income-driven repayment programs. Additionally, the expansion of Pell Grants aims to assist low-income students.
Of the 5 million borrowers, 1.4 million were relieved through income-driven repayment programs, 1 million were public service workers, 1.7 million had fallen victim to fraud, and 663,000 had disabilities. However, the Education Department recently withdrew plans to forgive loans for those facing severe financial hardship.
