More student loan relief, thanks to Joe Biden!

President Joe Biden's administration announced on Friday another $4.28 billion dollars in student loan relief for nearly 55,000 public service workers. The announcement brings the total loan forgiveness by the Biden administration to "approximately $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans," according to a fact sheet from the Department of Education. The forgiveness will be delivered to individuals enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), which allows for debt forgiveness for people in jobs like firefighting, nursing and teaching after 10 years of continuous payment.

The Biden administration has made fixes to this program that had failed to deliver student loan relief to many due to poor implementations and errors in the program, officials said. "The public servants approved for debt cancellation today include teachers, nurses, service members, law enforcement officials, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to giving back to their communities and who are finally earning the relief they are entitled to under the law," Biden said in a statement. Of the nearly 5 million borrowers who have had more than $180 billion in debt relieved by the administration, more than 1 million were through the PSLF. The relief for those PSLF borrowers totals about $78 billion, the administration said. forcomplete article see: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-announce-428-billion-student-loan-relief-55000/story?id=116975860

what is in the debt celing deal for student loans?

Speaker McCarthy says student loan payment pause 'gone' under debt ceiling deal. Here’s what that means.

The debt ceiling deal finalized between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday would reinstate student loan payments and the accrual of interest in late August. "The pause is gone within 60 days of this being signed," McCarthy said on Fox News, though the legislation, as with existing plans to sunset the pause, actually stipulates a timeline of 60 days after June 30. "So that is another victory because that brings in $5 billion each month to the American public." The Biden-McCarthy deal would suspend the debt limit until January 2025. The plan now heads to Congress for a vote. 'TWO VERY DIFFERENT PLACES':As Supreme Court gears up to rule on student loan cases, Americans are split on debt forgiveness Are student loans still deferred? Yes. Student payments and interest have been on pause since the onset of the pandemic, a moratorium first adopted and extended under former President Donald Trump and then extended again under Biden. But that won’t be the case for long. The Biden administration, whose mass student debt forgiveness plan is currently held up in the Supreme Court, has faced mounting pressure to lift the moratorium. Even before Sunday’s deal, efforts were underway to bring student loan payments back. A bill that passed out of the House last Wednesday would end the payments as well as Biden’s broader plan to relieve up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Americans with individual incomes of less than $125,000. Before that, in March, the student loan refinancing company SoFi sued the federal government over the pause, seeking to end it. BIDEN'S STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS PLAN:Lawsuit filed to end student loan payment pause Education Department prepares for return to student loan payments Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has stressed the moratorium has an expiration date. In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in May, the secretary said borrowers should prepare to start making payments again no later than 60 days after June 30 or after the Supreme Court issues its decision on the two cases challenging Biden’s broad relief plan. "The emergency period is over, and we’re preparing our borrowers to restart," Cardona said in the hearing. But as reported by Politico, internal Education Department documents indicate it could be until October at the earliest that the process resumes. According to the documents, department officials anticipate needing several months to transition back into payments. In a statement, a White House official said Biden "protected the student debt relief plan in its entirety," including that for mass forgiveness and for improvements to income-driven repayment options. "The administration announced back in November that the current student loan payment pause would end this summer — this agreement makes no changes to that plan," the official said, noting Biden retained his administration's "authority to pause student loan payments, as appropriate, in the event of future emergencies." *************************** for complete article go to:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/05/28/debt-ceiling-deal-student-loan-debt-payment-pause/70266126007/

The Biden Administration’s Student Loan Debt Relief Plan

Part 1. Final extension of the student loan repayment pause Due to the economic challenges created by the pandemic, the Biden-Harris Administration has extended the student loan repayment pause a number of times. Because of this, no one with a federally held loan has had to pay a single dollar in loan payments since President Biden took office. The Biden-Harris Administration’s one-time student debt relief plan is necessary to address the financial harms of the pandemic, provide borrowers with a smooth transition back to repayment, and help borrowers at highest risk of delinquency or default once payments resume. While litigation is preventing us from providing the relief needed to avoid these harms, we don’t think it’s right to ask you to pay on loans you wouldn’t have to pay were it not for the lawsuits challenging the program.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in February 2023, and we’re hopeful the Court will rule in the Administration’s favor and allow us to move forward with the debt relief program. The pause will end 60 days after the Supreme Court makes a decision on the case. If no decision has been made by June 30, 2023, payments will resume 60 days after that. Visit StudentAid.gov/coronavirus regularly for the latest information on the payment pause and other COVID-19 relief.  Frequently Asked Questions Do I need to do anything to extend my student loan pause? No. The extended pause will occur automatically.   Part 2. Providing targeted debt relief to low- and middle-income families To smooth the transition back to repayment and help borrowers at highest risk of delinquencies or default once payments resume, the U.S. Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt relief to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education and up to $10,000 in debt relief to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households. Get details about one-time student loan debt relief. In addition, borrowers who are employed by nonprofits, the military, or federal, state, Tribal, or local government may be eligible to have all of their student loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. For more information on eligibility and requirements, go to PSLF.gov.  FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE: https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement Frequently Asked Questions How do I know if I am eligible for debt relief?  To be eligible, your annual income must have fallen below $125,000 (for individuals) or $250,000 (for married couples or heads of households).  If you received a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief.  If you did not receive a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $10,000 in debt relief.   What does the “up to” in “up to $20,000” or “up to $10,000” mean?  Your relief is capped at the amount of your outstanding debt. For example: If you are eligible for $20,000 in debt relief, but have a balance of $15,000 remaining, you will only receive $15,000 in relief.   What is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program? The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program forgives the remaining balance on your federal student loans after 120 payments working full time for federal, state, Tribal, or local government; the military; or a qualifying non-profit. Learn more about PSLF and apply. Temporary changes, which ended on Oct. 31, 2022, provided flexibility that made it easier to receive forgiveness by allowing borrowers to receive credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF. A borrower who missed the limited PSLF waiver deadline has one more chance to have their payment count corrected. Learn more about the opportunity for the one-time account adjustment. Visit the one-time student loan debt relief page for more information.  Part 3. Make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers Income-based repayment plans have long existed within the U.S. Department of Education. However, the Biden-Harris Administration proposed a rule to create a new income-driven repayment plan that will substantially reduce future monthly payments for lower- and middle-income borrowers. The draft rule would: Require borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their discretionary income monthly on undergraduate loans. This is down from the 10% available under the most recent income-driven repayment plan. Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment, guaranteeing that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level—about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower—will have to make a monthly payment. Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of 20 years, for borrowers with loan balances of $12,000 or less. Cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest, so that unlike other existing income-driven repayment plans, no borrower’s loan balance will grow as long as they make their monthly payments—even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low.  The Biden-Harris Administration is working to quickly implement improvements to student loans. Check back to this page for updates on progress. If you’d like to be the first to know, sign up for email updates from the U.S. Department of Education.

What are the chances Biden extends the student loan pause again?

President Biden faces a ticking timer on the resumption of student loan payments by the end of the summer — but will he allow it to go off? The payments, paused amid the coronavirus pandemic, are set to begin either 60 days after the Supreme Court makes a ruling on Biden’s student debt forgiveness program or 60 days after June 30, the White House has said. Biden had also previously said the payments would resume at the beginning of 2023, and that there would not be another extension of the pause, which began under then-President Trump in 2020. Although the White House won’t discuss the possibility of a Plan B if the high court strikes down Biden’s relief proposal, experts believe yet another extension of the loan payment pause is a possibility.

“I definitely think this is on the table,” said Rebecca Natow, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at Hofstra University and a higher education policy expert. Policy-wise, the move would put the Democratic president in line with student debt advocates and others in his party who are demanding an extension of the payment pause. “From a political standpoint, this is popular among a cross section of voting demographics, and that should always be a a consideration going into a presidential election year,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist. Borrowers have not had to make their payments since March 2020, as the pause has been extended nine separate times. Even if the legality of Biden’s student debt relief plan isn’t resolved by June 30, the administration insists borrowers will have to soon begin repayment of student loan debt. “If the program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, 2023 — payments will resume 60 days after that,” the White House said when the last pause was extended. Trump and then Biden paused the payments under the authority of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act, which gives the Education secretary more power over student loans during a national emergency. Biden previously tied the resumption of payments to his proposal for up to $20,000 in student loan relief, but if that plan is struck down by the Supreme Court, the resumption of payments could be a blow for voters going into a presidential election year. “Anybody that takes the pause off is going to be relatively unpopular for a while and not just with Democrats,” said Daniel Collier, assistant professor of higher and adult education in the Department of Leadership at the University of Memphis. 7.8M people at high risk of struggling to pay student loans if pause expires However, if Biden sticks with payments resuming at the end of this summer, there is another whole year until the election, which could give borrowers time to move on from the decision. “The 2024 elections are still a year and a half away, so any action that occurs in the next few months would probably not be as impactful on the next presidential election as an action that happens closer to next November,” Natow said. The Biden administration could face difficulty either way, as it has not given a specific reason defining when the pause is no longer needed. “I believe the Biden administration has made several blunders with the repayment pause in the way that they’ve extended it,” Collier said. “They’re doing this seemingly arbitrarily, you know, there’s no economic targets for like when is it OK to turn this on.” Even if the political climate would seem ripe for another student loan extension, the legal headaches that follow might be costly. Currently, the administration is arguing that although the COVID-19 national emergency declaration is ending in May, they can still forgive student loan debts under the HEROES Act because it relates to the lingering effects of the pandemic. The White House could use the same argument for extending student loan payments yet again. “There’s nothing in the HEROES Act that limits the relief that the secretary can provide to the end date of the national emergency,” said Abby Shafroth, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. The administration could point to its data that shows resuming student loan payments without debt relief could increase the number of delinquency and put borrowers in a worse financial position than before the pandemic. “There isn’t like a date certain. It’s not like you can only use [the HEROES Act] for one year after the end of the national emergency or anything like that. It’s just based on the facts. It’s based on when and whether relief is still needed to ensure that people aren’t left worse off as a result of the national emergency,” Shafroth added. FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE GO TO https://thehill.com/homenews/education/3937687-what-are-the-chances-biden-extends-the-student-loan-pause-again/

THE LATEST INFORMATION ON STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS

The Biden administration has yet again quietly updated the timeline for borrowers seeking student loan forgiveness under a one-time account adjustment, according to reports.

Student Loan Forgiveness: Relief for Public Loans Pushed Back Due to Lack of Funds Find Out: 10 Affordable New Items Coming to Dollar Tree This Spring In April 2022, the Department of Education announced updates that “will bring borrowers closer to forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.” Said updates include a one-time adjustment of IDR payment counters “to address past inaccuracies and permanently fixing IDR payment counting by reforming ED’s IDR tracking procedures going forward,” the department stated. As the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) indicated, IDR was originally designed to offer borrowers a reduced monthly payment tied to their income, not their outstanding balance. “In theory, federal law also provides that after a 20 or 25 year IDR repayment term, the borrower’s debt is canceled in full. However, in recent years, investigations by SBPC and the National Consumer Law Center, National Public Radio, and the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread problems with IDR,” the SBPC wrote in a January 2023 post. Forbes reported that when the Education Department announced the one-time adjustment last April, the guidance indicated that borrowers could start receiving student loan forgiveness by the fall of 2022, and that all others should receive their one-time retroactive credit by January. Then, in an updated guidance statement delivered October 2022, the department “maintained that borrowers eligible for immediate student loan forgiveness would still receive those benefits under the IDR account adjustment before the winter of 2022,” and that “all other borrowers would not receive retroactive IDR credit until July 2023,” according to Forbes. In a further December 2022 update, the department extended this timeline further, “pushing out expected student loan forgiveness under the adjustment to the spring of 2023, with all others receiving the benefits of the adjustment in the summer of 2023.” And now, the key dates have been pushed even further, Forbes noted. Take Our Poll: Do You Think Bankruptcy Is an Acceptable Way To Escape Student Loan Debt? Live Richer Podcast: How To Get Rid of Your Student Loan Debt In the latest guidance document released this week, the Education Department declared it still expects borrowers eligible for immediate student loan forgiveness under the IDR account adjustment to receive those benefits in the spring. But now, “All other borrowers will see their accounts update in 2024,” according to a press release — which, as Forbes noted, could translate to a delay of more than one year. FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE:https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loan-forgiveness-rule-quietly-170841968.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJEwQv4N00WJmpJwuoy_Oi7214TOJHmyDSxBrMd4JpORsa6TOnqAJBIFUmegl27KazkntrCDgo2iR728wE20wmt3KyDbRnQsEiVZ0dKiAXtuWVs9YV5__omJX3KReGWmYWkF1da7eAd3Cz--8HW8WeRObAbY6ycYBnCkbZMljAEp According to Forbes, the delays are due to Congress not providing additional funding to the Office of Federal Student Aid in a recent budget bill.

student loan foregiveness programs

Teacher & Disability Forgiveness There are other programs that offer student loan forgiveness as well, but they are not part of the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness (Direct Loan) program. These are separate programs that exist specifically to help teachers by offering principal reduction, or the disabled by offering a complete discharge on your federal student loans. For more information on these programs please visit the Teacher Loan Forgiveness page, or the Total & Permanent Disability Discharge page. ********************************************************************************************************************************************* Public Service Loan Forgiveness Payments made in the Direct Loan program in an IBR, ICR, or PAYE repayment count as qualifying payments for those who work in the public sector and would like to apply for public service loan forgiveness. In the public service loan forgiveness program, you may qualify for forgiveness after 10 years or 120 payments instead of the standard 20-25 year forgiveness. Unfortunately, many people are not aware that they must be in the Direct Loan program and in one of the correct repayment plans to qualify for this forgiveness. The public service loan forgiveness program is also quite often confused with the term Obama Student Loan Forgiveness. ********************************************************************************************************************************************* Student Loan Forgiveness At The End Of The Term If you enroll into either the Income Contingent, Income Based, or Pay As You Earn repayment plans, you loan balance would be forgiven at the end of the term if you still have a remaining balance. The term of the loan would be between 20-25 years depending on which repayment plan you choose, and when your loans were originally borrowed. How much you will forgiven will depend on your original loan amount, how much you are earning, and how much your earnings fluctuate during your repayment term. ********************************************************************************************************************************************* (for complete article) http://www.studentdebtrelief.us/forgiveness/obama-student-loan-forgiveness/