Roughly 3.6 million people have had their student debt forgiven in the past three years
The Biden administration has found ways to wipe out $127 billion in student debt for roughly 3.6 million borrowers despite the Supreme Court striking down President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan.
How?
It was made possible by modifying two existing student debt forgiveness programs, notoriously known for rejecting borrower applications—the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans.
Bloomberg notes that the US Government Accountability Office found that 99% of the PSLF and IRD applicants were denied in 2017. The current administration fixed the rules and requirements to provide ease to borrowers who want to have their debts canceled.
The PSLF has now canceled $51 billion for 715,000 borrowers, and the IDR canceled $42 billion for 855,000 borrowers.
The US administration also forgave $11.7 billion in college education debt for permanently disabled students and canceled $22.5 billion in study loans for borrowers whose universities shut down or cheated them.
But, the US Education Department, the largest student loan lender, has $1.8 trillion in outstanding federal student debt. Roughly 43 million borrowers currently owe the government.