Savanna Hoffman
During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to address the student loan crisis in the United States. While he has not delivered on his promise for broad student loan forgiveness, his administration has overseen the cancellation of student loans for millions of Americans. The Biden administration expanded existing programs and loosened rules for debt forgiveness, allowing more people to qualify for loan relief. Despite criticism from some, Biden's efforts have provided financial relief to borrowers who were defrauded or misled by their schools, as well as those with disabilities and those in public service jobs.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Total student loan forgiveness | $183.6 billion |
| Number of borrowers | 5 million |
| Borrower defense forgiveness | $29.9 billion |
| Number of borrowers eligible for borrower defense | 1.7 million |
| Forgiveness for borrowers with disabilities | $18.7 billion |
| Number of borrowers with disabilities | 633,000 |
| Number of borrowers who received relief via Income-Based Repayment (IBR) | 4,550 |
| Total number of forgiveness measures | 33 |
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What You'll Learn
Student loan forgiveness
Biden's administration loosened the rules for debt forgiveness, making it easier for borrowers to obtain relief. This included expanding the use of existing programs, such as borrower defence, which allows students to have their loans canceled if they were cheated or misled by their colleges. Additionally, the Biden administration wrapped up its IDR waiver program, which recounted and forgave longtime borrowers' debt, moving many closer to IDR forgiveness.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is another program that has gained attention. PSLF forgives remaining student debt after 10 years of payments and full-time work for a qualifying nonprofit employer. However, this program faced criticism due to its complex rules and high rejection rates before the Biden administration, which simplified the rules and expanded eligibility.
Other existing federal student loan forgiveness programs include Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) forgiveness, Teacher Loan Forgiveness, and borrower defence to repayment. IDR forgiveness applies after 20 or 25 years of payments on an income-driven repayment plan, while Teacher Loan Forgiveness provides up to $17,500 in forgiveness after five years of full-time work at a qualifying low-income school. Borrower defence to repayment offers loan forgiveness and payment refunds for borrowers defrauded or misled by their schools.
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Biden's Education Department
The IDR plan forgives remaining student debt after 20 or 25 years of payments made under an income-driven repayment plan. The Biden administration wrapped up its IDR waiver program in mid-January, which forgave the debt of longtime borrowers and moved millions closer to IDR forgiveness.
The borrower defence program allows students to get their loans canceled if they were cheated or misled by their colleges. This was rarely used until the Obama administration, when a wave of high-profile for-profit college scandals occurred.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) forgives remaining student debt after 10 years of payments and working full-time for a qualifying nonprofit employer. Before the Biden administration, only 7,000 borrowers had gotten their loans canceled through PSLF due to complex rules and widespread confusion about eligibility. Biden's Education Department loosened some of these rules, expanding eligibility and pressing on with cancellation despite the Supreme Court rejecting Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy.
Other forgiveness programs include Teacher Loan Forgiveness, which forgives up to $17,500 after five years of full-time work at a qualifying low-income school, and forgiveness for borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
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Borrower defense
While Joe Biden's broad student loan forgiveness plan did not come to fruition, his administration has overseen the cancellation of student loans for more than five million Americans, the most of any US president in history. The Biden administration has approved around $188.8 billion in student loan forgiveness for 5.3 million borrowers. This includes $56.5 billion for more than 1.4 million borrowers through income-driven repayment, $29.9 billion for 1.7 million borrowers eligible for borrower defence or closed school discharges, and $18.7 billion for 633,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
Borrower defence is a program that allows students to get their loans canceled if they were defrauded or misled by their colleges. The Biden administration approved forgiveness through borrower defence for 4,100 borrowers who attended DeVry University, 18,000 ITT Technical Institute borrowers, and 1,800 former students at three smaller schools. DeVry University has been accused of misleading students by making deceptive advertising claims. The Biden administration has also approved forgiveness for borrowers who attended several defunct colleges owned by the Centre for Excellence in Higher Education, including CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College, and Independence University.
The borrower defence program was created in 1994 but was rarely used until a wave of high-profile for-profit college scandals during the Obama administration. The Trump administration's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, opposed using borrower defence to provide loan relief, and under her watch, the consideration of applications slowed and then stopped. The Biden administration has expanded eligibility for loan forgiveness programs and used them to their fullest extent, even after the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy.
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Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in 2007 through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The PSLF program encourages Americans to enter the public service sector by forgiving their remaining student loans after they have completed 10 years of service in those jobs while making 10 years of minimum payments. Public servants staff schools, hospitals, local governments, the military, and non-profit organizations, providing essential services to the American people.
The Biden-Harris administration made significant improvements to the PSLF program in October 2021. They granted temporary waivers to provide borrowers with the opportunity to receive credit for past periods of repayment, improved the process to certify employment, rewrote program regulations to simplify eligibility requirements, and simplified the application process with electronic signatures and the PSLF Help Tool. As of October 2024, over 1 million public service workers have had their debt discharged via PSLF and Temporary Extended PSLF, providing over $73.7 billion in debt relief.
The Biden administration also loosened the rules for debt forgiveness, allowing more borrowers to qualify for relief. They expanded existing programs and used them to their fullest extent, pressing on with cancellation even after the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan for a new forgiveness policy. The latest round of relief came through a program known as borrower defense, which allows students to get their loans canceled if they were cheated or misled by their colleges.
While Biden's 'Plan B' for student loan forgiveness did not come to fruition, his administration forgave $183.6 billion in student loans for more than five million borrowers. This included forgiveness through income-driven repayment plans, borrower defense or closed school discharges, and for borrowers with disabilities.
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IDR waiver program
US President Joe Biden has overseen the cancellation of student loans for more than five million Americans, which is more than any other president in history. While Biden did not deliver on his promise for broad student loan forgiveness, his administration expanded pre-existing loan forgiveness programs and used them to their fullest extent.
The IDR waiver program, also known as the IDR account adjustment or payment recount, was a one-time student loan payment recount that forgave longtime borrowers' debt. The program was introduced in 2022 and wrapped up on January 16, 2025. It was a big deal for student loan borrowers paying back their federal student loans using an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. The IDR waiver bent the rules on which payments counted toward IDR forgiveness, so a greater number of months spent in student loan repayment or on pause since leaving school counted toward forgiveness. This included months spent in the three-year pandemic forbearance. The program applied to all borrowers with federal student loans, meaning both private- and public-sector workers could benefit.
The IDR waiver expanded on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program waiver, which only helped public servants. The PSLF program forgives remaining student debt after 10 years of making payments and working full-time for a qualifying nonprofit employer. The IDR waiver allowed all borrowers the chance to receive credit toward IDR forgiveness for any type of repayment plan, as well as qualifying forbearance periods and some types of deferment. All Direct Loan program borrowers, including graduate and Parent PLUS Loan holders, received at least three years of credit toward forgiveness. Millions of borrowers who had been repaying their student loans for more than 20 years automatically received student loan forgiveness with this account adjustment.
The IDR waiver was unexpectedly extended on May 15, 2024, after it had theoretically already expired on April 30, 2024. However, the program ended for good on June 30, 2024. As of January 16, 2025, 1.45 million student loan borrowers got forgiveness through the one-time IDR account adjustment, with an average of about $39,380 in forgiveness per person.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, Biden approved a total of $188.8 billion in student loan forgiveness for 5.3 million borrowers.
Biden's administration expanded existing forgiveness programs and used them to their fullest extent. He also loosened rules for debt forgiveness, making it easier for borrowers to get relief.
Some programs through which Biden forgave student loans include Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) forgiveness, and Teacher Loan Forgiveness.
Biden did not deliver on his promise of broad student loan forgiveness, but he did oversee the cancellation of student loans for more than 5 million Americans, more than any other president in US history.
