President Joe Biden has cancelled $1.2 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 153,000 borrowers currently enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan, the White House announced.
SAVE, which the Biden Administration announced in August 2023, will forgive the debt of borrowers who make at least 20 to 25 years of qualifying payments, based on their income. In January, CNBC reported that the Biden administration would soon start to forgive the debt of these borrowers who had signed up for its new plan.
“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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a Department of Education announcement.
The White House announcement said that the nearly 153,000 borrowers identified by the Department of Education who are enrolled in the SAVE plan would receive an email today from President Biden to inform them of their debt cancellations. Next week, the department will contact borrowers who are eligible for early relief, but not currently enrolled in the SAVE plan, to encourage them to enroll as soon as possible.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court Supreme struck down the president’s previous student loan forgiveness plan, he has used existing authority, including executive orders, to relieve student debt. The White House announcement noted that the Biden Administration has now approved nearly $138 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 3.9 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions.