Money Talks: Student Loan Forgiveness

We’ve got a new angle on Student Loans to discuss today – the canceling of student debt. What’s the difference between canceling and forgiveness? Who is eligible and when? What happens after your debt is wiped away? We’ll discuss the new student debt elimination programs between your other personal finance questions.

President Biden's plan to forgive federal student loan debt – up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for others who qualify was announce last month.

Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). No high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit from this action. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/

What can borrows do now?

• Make sure your information is up to date with your loan servicer. To see who your servicer is: studentaid.gov/dashboard or call Federal Student Aid Information Center 1-800-433-3243
• Be ready to submit the online application with the Dept of Education: ed.gov/subscriptions Email alerts begin in October. After application is submitted, debt should be forgiven in 4 – 6 weeks. You should apply for forgiveness before Nov. 15th . The payment pause ends Deb. 31st, 2022

To ensure a smooth transition to repayment and prevent unnecessary defaults, the pause on federal student loan repayment will be extended one final time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume payment in January 2023.

The ability for public service workers to have debt forgiven has changed.

• Fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by proposing a rule that borrowers who have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state, tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness.
• To ensure borrowers are aware of the temporary changes, the White House has launched four PSLF Days of Action dedicated to borrowers in specific sectors: government employees, educators, healthcare workers and first responders, and non-profit employees. You can find out other information about the temporary changes on PSLF.gov.
• You must apply to PSLF for the waver before the temporary changes end on October 31, 2022. Check to see if you qualify for public service loan forgiveness (PSLF). Go to Studentaid.gov/pslf  to check to see if your employer qualifies: studentaid.gov/pslf/employer-search

If you paid off your loans in full during the federal payment freeze, you are likely still eligible for both a refund and student loan forgiveness. You can request a refund of the payments you made during the pandemic and your balance will return to the pre-pandemic amount. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/student-loan-payment-refunds/#:~:text=If%20you%20paid%20off%20your,to%20the%20pre%2Dpandemic%20amount. 

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