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09/29/2022 | News release | Archived content

What you need to know about the student loan forgiveness program

September 29, 2022

There has been a lot of talk recently about the student loan forgiveness program recently announced by President Biden.

You may have heard about $10,000 or even $20,000 in student loans being forgiven. Perhaps you read something about income requirements to qualify. Maybe you even saw the whole program could still be cancelled!

To clear up confusion and give you a better picture the facts surrounding student loan forgiveness, we'll explain more about the proposed federal program, its qualifications, and how it could impact you.

Will student loans be forgiven?

In August 2022, the Biden Administration announced a one-time "Student Loan Relief" cancellation of up to $20,000 of federal student loans for millions of Americans. But not everyone with student loans will qualify for this forgiveness program, and the exact timeline for debt relief is still unclear.

To make things more complicated, there will likely be an array of legal challenges that could still freeze the plan before it gets up and running.

In other words, nothing is official yet. However, there are still some things you can do to prepare if the plan moves forward.

Do I qualify for student loan forgiveness?

First things first, the student loan forgiveness program only applies to federal student loans.

Private student loans from a financial institution like a bank, or a loan funded through the school, do not qualify for this loan forgiveness program.

If you are unsure whether your student loans are federal or private, you can check the Department of Education's "Who is my loan servicer?" website at studentaid.gov.

There are four types of Federal Direct loans:

  • Direct Subsidized Loan
  • Direct Unsubsidized Loan
  • Direct PLUS Loans (for parents; or graduate or professional students)
  • Direct Consolidation Loans

As of Sept. 29, 2022, the Biden administration says borrowers will not qualify who have older federal student loans now held by private lenders. These include Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) or Perkins Loans, which up until Sept. 29, borrowers were told could be consolidated into a Federal Direct loan to qualify. Not anymore.

Any borrower who consolidated their FFEL or Perkins loans before Sept. 29 will still qualify and be "grandfathered" in; others appear to be out of luck.

Meanwhile, if you have one of the four federal student loans listed above, you may qualify for loan forgiveness - as long as you also meet the income requirements listed below.

Loan forgiveness income requirements:

Here is how the Department of Education outlines eligibility for student loan cancellation:

  • "To be eligible, your annual income must be below $125,000 (for individuals) or $250,000 (for married couples or heads of households).
  • Up to $20,000 debt cancelled: If you received a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold.
  • Up to $10,000 debt cancelled: If you did not receive a Pell Grant in college but still meet the income threshold.

If you have additional questions, you can view the FAQs on the Student Debt Relief Plan Explainedpage on the Department of Ed's website.

How to apply for student loan forgiveness

The Department of Education says nearly 8 million people will "automatically" receive forgiveness, because their income data is already on file with the government. That still leaves millions of other people who qualify, so if you have a federal student loan and meet the income requirements, there are a few things you can do to make sure the process runs smoothly.

  • Update your information. Log in to your account on StudentAid.gov to update your personal information and sign up for emails and text messages to stay up-to-date with the student loan forgiveness process.
  • Mark November 15th on your calendar. The U.S. Department of Education announced that a simple federal student loan forgiveness application will be available online by early October 2022. Student loan borrowers must complete that application before Nov. 15, 2022, to receive debt relief. To be notified when the application is available, you can sign up for alerts on the Department of Education Subscription Page.
  • Watch out for scams. If you've heard about the new student loan forgiveness program, you can bet that scammers have too. Know the signs of a student loan forgiveness scam, and remember this - no government or financial agency will contact you out of the blue and ask for your personal information. If you get an email, text, phone call or mail offer that asks for up-front fees, claims to instantly wipe out debt, or doesn't come directly from a college, bank or government agency - it's probably a scam.

Don't forget about another forgiveness program:

In addition to the one-time debt cancellation we've just talked about, anyone who works 10 years for a non-profit, the military, or the government could be eligible to have all of their student loans forgiven through a different program - the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

This is because of limited-time changes that were made to the program that expanded eligibility. However, those changes will expire on Oct. 31, 2022. For more information, visit PSLF.gov.

Federal student loan payments are still paused for everyone.

At the same time as announcing the new student loan forgiveness, Biden also extended the existing student loan repayment pause through Dec. 31, 2022. No one has been required to make federal student loan payments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this will continue through at least December.

What matters most:

While there are still details to be announced, and possible legal challenges to the Student Debt Relief program, it's pretty clear who will qualify for federal student loan forgiveness if the program survives.

And all is not lost for private student loan borrowers, either. Your financial institution may have options and programs to help with your debt, so set up a time to talk with an expert on how to best manage your student loans.

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