Biden approves another $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it would automatically discharge another $1.2 billion in student loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers across the U.S.

“With today’s announcement, we are once again sending a clear message to borrowers who had low balances: if you’ve been paying for a decade, you’ve done your part, and you deserve relief,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Under President Biden’s leadership, our Administration has now approved loan forgiveness for nearly 3.9 million borrowers, and our historic fight to cancel student debt isn’t over yet.” 

Borrowers are eligible for this first round of discharges if they enrolled in the president’s income-driven Saving on a Valuable Education plan, have made at least 10 years of payments, and originally took out $12,000 or less in student loans for college. Borrowers will begin receiving emails immediately alerting them to the forgiveness.

The Supreme Court blocked Biden’s plan to cancel $400 billion in student debt for about 43 million borrowers, but the White House has since responded by targeting smaller programs to forgive debt for specific groups. Biden has now canceled $138 billion of student debt through about two dozen executive actions, according to the White House.