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President Biden is allocating another $4.8 billion to relieve student loan debt for over 80,000 borrowers enrolled in the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program or the income-driven repayment plan, the Biden-Harris Administration announced Wednesday.

The Department of Education addressed various errors in the PSLF and IDR programs, which aim to provide debt relief to borrowers after a set period. The programs previously “failed to keep track of borrowers’ payments” and borrowers never received forgiveness, according to CNBC.

Since Biden announced his new loan forgiveness plan in July, the Biden-Harris Administration has successfully canceled a total of $132 billion in student loan debt for more than 3.6 million Americans, according to a U.S. Department of Education press release.

“This level of debt relief is unparalleled and we have no intention of slowing down,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the press release.

The Supreme Court blocked Biden’s initial student loan forgiveness plan in June 2023. In response, Biden announced he would open “an alternative path to relief.” Cardona said the Biden-Harris Administration has made “relentless” efforts to provide relief for borrowers.

“From day one of my administration, I vowed to improve the student loan system so that a higher education provides Americans with opportunity and prosperity — not unmanageable burdens of student loan debt,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.

The funding has the potential to affect loan-borrowing Syracuse University alumni. Forty nine percent of students graduating from SU took out some type of loan in 2022, according to U.S. News & World Report’s profile of the university.

Errors in payment counts and other issues inhibited debt erasure promised to borrowers in the PSLF program, according to CNBC. The administration addressed issues with the programs primarily by ending forbearance steering — when loan servicers place borrowers in forbearance despite them being better off in an IDR plan.

The Department of Education also announced that approximately 34,400 borrowers who have worked in public service for a decade or more will receive $2.6 billion.

“I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” Biden said in his Wednesday statement.

Published on December 7, 2023 at 12:59 am

Contact Ahna: arflemin@syr.edu