The following report is a press release by the United States Department of Education, published February 21st, 2024:
The Biden-Harris Administration today is announcing that it will automatically discharge $1.2 billion in loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers who are eligible for the shortened time to forgiveness benefit under President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. This action comes as 7.5 million borrowers are now enrolled in SAVE, 4.3 million of whom have a $0 monthly payment.
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.
Under President Biden’s leadership, our Administration has now approved loan forgiveness for nearly 3.9 million borrowers, and our historic fight to cancel student debt isn’t over yet.
Said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
President Biden announced in January that his Administration was accelerating the shortened time to forgiveness component of the SAVE Plan nearly six months earlier than anticipated in order to provide borrowers the relief they have earned as quickly as possible. For a borrower to be eligible for this forgiveness they must be enrolled in the SAVE Plan, have been making at least 10 years of payments, and have originally taken out $12,000 or less for college. For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments. All borrowers on SAVE receive forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether they have loans for graduate school. The benefit is based upon the original principal balance of all Federal loans borrowed to attend school, not what a borrower currently owes or the amount of an individual loan.
As of today, we have approved loan relief for nearly 3.9 million borrowers who were counting on the Biden-Harris Administration to fix the broken student loan system and provide the forgiveness they earned and have been waiting for.
For too long the system did not work for borrowers, even when they were eligible for loan forgiveness. Today’s announcement shows that President Biden’s commitment to student debt cancellation continues to deliver.
Said U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal.
Borrowers will begin receiving emails from President Biden today telling them they are approved for forgiveness and will not need to take any further action to receive relief. In the coming days servicers will process the forgiveness and borrowers will see their loans forgiven on their accounts. Moving forward, borrowers who meet the eligibility criteria for forgiveness under the SAVE Plan will have their loans automatically discharged with no action needed on their part. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) will continue to identify and discharge the loans on a regular basis. Next week, the Department will start emailing borrowers who can become eligible for this forgiveness if they switch onto SAVE. No action is needed by borrowers who have already enrolled in SAVE.
Borrowers who believe they meet these criteria are strongly encouraged to immediately sign up for SAVE at StudentAid.gov/save.
An Unparalleled Track Record of Student Debt Cancellation
The Biden-Harris Administration has fought tirelessly to provide borrowers the relief they have earned. In total, the Administration has now approved debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million hard-working Americans totaling almost $138 billion in relief. Many of these borrowers planned their lives and families around the promise of forgiveness through programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The Administration also secured the largest increase to Federal Pell Grants in a decade and finalized new rules to protect borrowers from career programs that leave graduates with unaffordable debts or insufficient earnings.
To date the Biden-Harris Administration has also approved:
- $56.7 billion for more than 793,000 borrowers through fixes to PSLF.
- $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment.
- $11.7 billion for 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability. This includes providing automatic discharges off a data match with the Social Security Administration
- $22.5 billion for 1.3 million borrowers through closed school discharges, borrower defense, and related court settlements.
The Biden-Harris Administration is currently writing proposed regulations that would make more borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness and this week will hold another session of negotiated rulemaking to discuss a proposal to provide loan forgiveness for borrowers experiencing hardship. These efforts are part of President Biden’s commitment to finding an alternative path to student debt relief in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision striking down the Administration’s original student debt relief plan. The Department is also conducting negotiated rulemaking on regulations that will strengthen institutional quality and program integrity to ensure students are well served by their colleges and that the federal student aid programs work in their best interest.
Additional Borrowers Enrolled in SAVE
There are now 7.5 million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, of whom 4.3 million have a $0 payment. The SAVE Plan is the most-affordable repayment plan for low- and middle-income borrowers and puts many on a path to earlier forgiveness.
The SAVE Plan protects borrowers from runaway interest and balances larger than what they originally took out. The improved application allows for a borrower’s income to be shared with the Internal Revenue Service so that they do not have to recertify on an annual basis.
The Department will implement the remaining full benefits of the SAVE Plan in July 2024, which will further reduce monthly payments from 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income to 5 percent.
Borrowers can learn more about forgiveness programs at StudentAid.gov/forgiveness. Borrowers can learn more about the right repayment plan for their financial situation at StudentAid.gov/restart. More information about the SAVE plan is available at StudentAid.gov/save
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
And who’s going to pay for this? You guessed it, you and I will, via taxation and hidden taxes baked into inflation. Money does not just fly away to money heaven, it just transfers from one asset class to the next; and so in order to pay for this “forgiveness,” we the American tax cattle must flip the bill by paying more in taxes and inflation, generated through money printing to service the debt that is never repaid.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
Getting into debt is a very easy and enticing trap to get into, and your typical preacher and pastor, these generations of hypocrites playing religion, wouldn’t dare touch this topic with a ten-mile pole, warning their congregations to flee debt and servitude, as they themselves are some of the biggest debtors we got in this country!
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
Psalm 37:21
People who get themselves into debt, especially those who carry massive amounts, and have no real intention to get it paid-off via hard work and living well below their means, and are banking others to pay for it, are thieves and criminals and should be viewed and treated as such; and on just the debt issue alone we have multiple generations of thieves and robbers, forcing each generation proceeding to pay for other people’s theft. Gen-Z and Gen Alpha have already inherited so much debt before they’ve even entered the workforce, let alone finish potty training, is absolutely repulsive and has completely stolen any real chance of financial freedom for their future, by conventional economic standards that is.
Do not fall for the college scam. To my Gen-Z friends, and to those coming up, listen to me: don’t allow yourself to be enticed by the scam. If you got out and skipped college, then good for; but if you are a Gen-Z’er my age, and you got yourself into massive debt and praying for a bailout with no real intent to pay for it, then shame on you, thief: and don’t use the excuse of, ‘I got tricked into it.’ Then how did I avoid the temptation and snare? What does that make me and what does that make you then?
These are the cold, hard truths that so many do not want to discuss and or acknowledge, and instead play the blame game, lest they be forced to look in the mirror and be judged…
A wicked man hardeneth his face: but as for the upright, he directeth his way.
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Proverbs 21:29, 27:19
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Amen