President Joe Biden announced a plan today, Aug. 24 to forgive a minimum of $10,000 in federal student loan debt from all borrowers.

The plan, as directed by the President through the Department of Education, will forgive the minimum amount for qualified borrowers and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

“Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most, working and middle class people hit especially hard during the Pandemic making under $125,000 a year,” Biden said.

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In addition to loan forgiveness, monthly payments on federal student loans will be capped at 5% of the borrower’s income, reducing the previous cap by half.

According to a factsheet released on whitehouse.gov, the three part plan will include measures to provide targeted debt relief to ease Pandemic financial hardships, make the student loan system less cumbersome to borrowers and fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. 

“The Department of Education will work quickly and efficiently to set up a simple application process for borrowers to claim relief,” the factsheet said. “The application will be available no later than when the pause on federal student loan repayments terminates at the end of the year.”

Biden has extended the student loan repayment pause through Dec. 31, 2022. Students currently enrolled or enrolled at the time of the rollout of the program will be able to receive loan forgiveness as well. 

Updates for receiving debt relief can be found at studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement. 

Staff reporter William Box can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @William17455137. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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