The Biden Administration Streamlines Debt Cancellation for Eligible SAVE Borrowers

The Biden Administration has announced loan forgiveness under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan for borrowers who borrowed $12,000 or less for college.

Beginning next month, eligible SAVE borrowers with as little as 10 years of payments may have their debts forgiven with no action required on their part. To increase outreach, the Department is launching a campaign encouraging those who have not yet signed up for SAVE to do so, emphasizing the benefits of the shortened repayment period.

Furthermore, the Administration notes a significant increase, with 6.9 million borrowers now enrolled in the SAVE Plan, more than doubling the previous Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan as of early January.

The SAVE Plan’s shorter time to forgiveness is especially beneficial for borrowers from community colleges, where students typically take out smaller loans. The Department anticipates that this initiative will result in 85% of future community college borrowers becoming debt-free within a decade.

Furthermore, the SAVE Plan aims to assist borrowers who are experiencing loan difficulties, with a focus on those who borrowed $12,000 or less initially, a group that is more likely to default.

US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona emphasized that the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE Plan is the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever offered. The plan is specifically designed to expedite debt forgiveness for community college students and low-balance borrowers.

Cardona emphasized the administration’s commitment to providing relief as soon as possible, which resulted in the early implementation of this initiative.

President Biden’s SAVE plan, which includes lower monthly payments, protection against excessive interest, and faster paths to debt forgiveness, aims to benefit millions of current borrowers while also creating a more economically viable path for current and future students pursuing college degrees and credentials.

The Department is shortening the implementation of the SAVE plan, a Biden-Harris Administration initiative, by months, with the plan now taking effect on July 1, 2024.

Borrowers enrolled in SAVE who have repaid for at least ten years and borrowed $12,000 or less for undergraduate or graduate studies are eligible for forgiveness.

For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, forgiveness is possible after an additional year of payments. This means that borrowers earning less than $21,000 will be eligible sooner than the standard 20-year timeline for undergraduate SAVE participants.

The forgiveness is based on the original federal loan balance, not the current owed amount, and includes payment pause and repayment adjustments.

“Today’s announcement will help struggling borrowers who have been making loan payments for years, including many who never graduated from college,” said Under Secretary James Kvaal. “Giving borrowers with smaller loans a faster path to being debt free will help many borrowers avoid financial distress and have peace of mind.”

The Biden-Harris Administration is launching a comprehensive outreach campaign to encourage SAVE enrollment, with a focus on encouraging borrowers who are eligible for immediate forgiveness.

The Department intends to contact borrowers via email, focusing on those whose balances and repayment history indicate that they could benefit from the accelerated forgiveness provision.

In collaboration with the SAVE on Student Debt coalition and other supportive organizations, the Department intends to broaden its outreach in the coming months to increase program participation.

In February, the Department will begin notifying eligible SAVE borrowers that their loans will be discharged automatically, with no action required on the borrower’s part.

The Department will also send an email to non-SAVE borrowers who are eligible for forgiveness as soon as they sign up for the plan. The Department will continue to identify and discharge eligible borrowers’ loans regularly in the future.

All eligible borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less are strongly encouraged to apply for SAVE as soon as possible.

The SAVE Plan is the most affordable repayment option for student borrowers. Individuals earning less than $32,800 per year or families of four earning less than $67,500 per year benefit from a $0 payment under this plan.

Notably, the SAVE Plan keeps a borrower’s balance from increasing due to unpaid interest as long as they make their monthly payments. The improved application process provides secure access to income information via the IRS, removing the need for yearly recertification or reapplication.

Furthermore, additional payment reductions for undergraduate loan borrowers are expected in July 2024, resulting in increased savings for borrowers.

The Biden-Harris Administration recently announced that the SAVE plan has 6.9 million borrowers enrolled. 2.8 million are new to an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, while 700,000 have switched from another IDR plan.

Notably, these borrowers collectively contribute to the repayment of $374 billion in federal student loans through the SAVE plan, accounting for roughly 30% of all Direct Loan dollars in various stages of repayment, deferment, or forbearance.

This highlights the SAVE plan’s significant impact and widespread adoption among student borrowers.

Borrowers on SAVE benefit financially significantly more than those on the previous REPAYE Plan. 3.9 million SAVE enrollees make no payments, and those who do save an average of $117 per month, totaling more than $1,400 per year.

These savings, however, do not include the interest that borrowers avoid each month after fulfilling their repayment obligation.

According to department data, SAVE enrollment effectively targets those in need, with 75% of SAVE borrowers also receiving Pell Grants, which are designed for low-income college students.

The SAVE Plan builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to alleviate the financial burden of student debt for American families.

Building on previous initiatives, the administration has authorized nearly $132 billion in targeted relief, which will benefit over 3.6 million borrowers. The Department recently approved an additional $4.8 billion in student loan debt relief for 80,300 borrowers.

These actions demonstrate the administration’s commitment to addressing the issues surrounding student debt and providing substantial assistance to those who are burdened by educational loans.

• Almost $44 billion in IDR relief for nearly 901,000 borrowers;
• $53.5 billion for almost 750,000 borrowers through fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness that began in October 2021. By contrast, only about 7,000 borrowers had received forgiveness through these programs at the start of the Biden-Harris Administration.

The Biden-Harris Administration is actively working on proposed regulations to expand debt relief eligibility, to assist a greater number of borrowers.

Furthermore, they recently completed regulations that establish a strong accountability system for colleges, with a particular emphasis on addressing the issue of students burdened with unaffordable debts.

The administration is committed to ongoing efforts to reduce college costs and increase the value of postsecondary education.

Borrowers can view more resources and tools that help them find the right repayment plan for their current circumstances at StudentAid.gov/restart. More information about SAVE is available at StudentAid.gov/save.