President Biden’s Student Loan Relief Efforts
US President Joe Biden speaks during an event in Madison, Wisconsin, US, on Monday, April 8, 2024.
In 2023, the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s plan to deliver wide-scale student loan forgiveness for tens of millions of borrowers.
But the Biden administration still managed to wipe away a large share of the country’s outstanding student debt by improving the Education Department’s existing debt relief programs.
“Four years ago, President Biden made a promise to fix a broken student loan system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement.
“We rolled up our sleeves and, together, we fixed existing programs that had failed to deliver the relief they promised, took bold action on behalf of borrowers who had been cheated by their institutions, and brought financial breathing room to hardworking Americans.”
Improvements in Borrower IDR Repayment
The U.S. Department of Education announced that it had completed its payment count adjustment for borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. IDR plans lead to loan forgiveness after a certain period, typically 20 or 25 years.
However, there were complaints from consumer advocates and borrowers that loan servicers were not properly keeping track of borrowers’ timeline to that relief. The Biden administration worked to fix this issue.
Borrowers can now access an accurate payment count by logging into their accounts on Studentaid.gov, according to the Education Department.