How To Apply For New Student Loan Forgiveness Program
As expected, President Biden announced yesterday his plan to eliminate millions of dollars in student loan debt. The new program aims to provide relief for people in Iowa and across the United States struggling with crippling student loan debt. So how do you find out if you qualify and if you do, how do you get signed up to have some of your debt wiped away?
First, let's look at who qualifies for the new debt forgiveness. CNN reports that the new plan only applies to federal student loan borrowers. The new plan states that individuals who make less than $125,000 per year and joint households or married couples who earn less than $250,000 per year will have up to $10,000 of their student loan debt forgiven as long as they did not receive a Pell grant as an undergraduate student, according to CNN. Those who did get a Pell grant and still meet the financial requirements will have up to $20,000 of their debt wiped away.
So now that you know whether or not you qualify, how do you get signed up? An application for the new program will be sent out soon, according to CNN. Nearly 8 million borrowers will get forgiveness automatically because the Department of Education already has their income information. In the meantime, you can sign up to get email notifications on when the application is available at the Department of Education's subscription page HERE.
For those that don't qualify, there was still a sliver of good news yesterday. The student loan repayment pause that was implemented due to COVID was set to expire at the end of this month has been extended to the end of the year. Loan payments will begin again in January of 2023.