President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most

President Biden believes post-high school education should be the ticket to middle-class life, but for too many, the cost of college debt is a lifelong burden that robs them of that opportunity. During the campaign, he promised student debt relief. Today, the Biden administration is keeping its promises, offering a breather to families preparing to start paying off their student loan news after the economic crisis wrought by the pandemic.

Since 1980, the total cost of four years of public college and four years of private college has nearly tripled, even after adjusting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up. Pell grants once covered nearly 80% of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now cover only one-third. As a result, many low- and middle-income students have no choice but to borrow if they want to complete their degree. A typical college student loan news now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt, according to a Department of Education analysis.

Skyrocketing federal student loan debt ($1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers) is a major burden on America’s middle class. Middle-class borrowers struggle with high monthly payments and bloated balances that prevent them from building wealth, such as buying a home, saving for retirement and starting small businesses.

For the most vulnerable borrowers, the effects of debt are even more devastating. Almost a third of borrowers have debt but do not have a degree, according to an analysis by the Ministry of Education of a recent cohort of students. Many of these students were unable to complete their studies because the tuition fees were too high. About 16% of borrowers are in default, including almost a third of seniors with student debt, which can lead the government to garnish a borrower’s wages or reduce their credit rating. The burden of student debt also falls disproportionately on black borrowers.

Today, President Biden is announcing a three-part plan to give American working families more breathing room as they continue to recover from the stresses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan provides targeted debt relief as part of an overall effort to reduce the burden of rising college costs and make the student loan system more manageable for working families. The President announces that the Ministry of Education:

1: Provide targeted debt relief to address the financial damage caused by the pandemic, as per the President’s campaign promise. The Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt relief to Pell Grant recipients with Department of Education loans, and up to $10,000 in debt relief to recipients who do not receive no Pell grants. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). No high-income person or high-income household, in the top 5% of income, will benefit from this action. To ensure a smooth transition to repayment and avoid unnecessary defaults, the federal student loan repayment pause will be extended one final time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume repayment in January 2023.

2: Make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers by:

• Cut monthly payments for undergraduate loans in half. The Department of Education is proposing a new income-based repayment plan that stops more low-income borrowers from making payments and caps monthly college loan payments at 5% of the borrower’s discretionary income, half the rate borrowers now have to pay in most cases. existing schemes. This means that the average annual student loan payment will decrease by more than $1,000 for current and future borrowers.
• Fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by proposing a rule that borrowers who have worked in a nonprofit organization, the military, or federal, state, tribal, or local government receive the appropriate credit for loan forgiveness. These improvements will build on the temporary changes the Department of Education has already made to the PSLF, under which more than 175,000 public servants have already been approved for more than $10 billion in loan forgiveness.

3: Protect prospective students and taxpayers by lowering the cost of college education and holding schools accountable when prices rise. The president defended the largest increase in Pell grants in more than a decade and one of the largest one-off inflows to colleges and universities. To further reduce the cost of a college education, the president will continue to strive to double the maximum Pell grant and make community colleges free. Meanwhile, colleges have an obligation to keep prices reasonable and ensure that borrowers get value for their investments, not debt they can’t afford. This administration has already taken key measures to strengthen accountability, even in areas where the previous administration weakened the rules. The Department of Education announces new efforts to ensure borrowing students get value for their tuition.

Provide targeted debt relief while meeting the presidential campaign commitment

To address the financial damage of the pandemic for low- and middle-income borrowers and avoid loan defaults when loan repayments resume next year, the Department of Education will provide up to $ 20,000 in loan relief to borrowers with held loans from the Department of Education whose individual income is less than $ 125,000 ($ 250,000 for married couples) and who have received a Pell Grant. Almost all Pell Grant beneficiaries came from households earning less than $ 60,000 annually, and Pell Grant beneficiaries typically have a harder time repaying debt than other borrowers. Borrowers who meet these income standards but have not received a Pell grant in college can receive up to $ 10,000 in loan relief.

Protect borrowers and taxpayers from sharp increases in college tuition

While providing this relief to low- and middle-income borrowers, the President is working to keep college costs in check. Under this administration, students had more money in their pockets to pay for college education. The president signed the largest maximum Pell grant increase in more than a decade and provided nearly $ 40 billion to colleges and universities through the U.S. bailout, much of which was used for emergency financial aid. for students, allowing students to breathe a little easier.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has already taken important steps to strengthen accountability, so that students don’t end up in mountains of debt with little benefit. The agency has restored the control unit within the Office of Federal Student Aid and is holding the accreditors to the wall. In fact, the ministry just revoked the license from the accreditor who oversaw the schools responsible for some of the worst for-profit scandals. The agency will also propose a rule to hold career programs accountable for leaving their graduates with mountains of debt they cannot repay, a rule repealed by the previous administration.

Building on these efforts, the Education Department is announcing new measures to hold colleges accountable for contributing to the student loan news debt crisis. These include the publication of an annual checklist of programs with the worst debt levels in the country, so that students enrolling in the next academic year can avoid underperforming programs. They also include calling for worst-performing institutional improvement plans that describe how the colleges with the most worrying debt scores intend to reduce debt levels.

Make the student loan news system more manageable for current and future borrowers

Fix the repayment of the existing loan to reduce the monthly installments

The administration is reforming student loan repayment plans so that current and future low- and middle-income borrowers have smaller, more manageable monthly payments.

The Department of Education has the power to create income-based repayment plans, which limit what borrowers pay each month based on a percentage of their discretionary income. Most of these plans cancel a borrower’s residual debt after making 20 years of monthly payments. As a result, millions of borrowers who could benefit don’t sign up and the millions who sign up often end up with unmanageable monthly payments.

Federal Student Direct Loan Consolidation

Borrowers with multiple federal student loans may struggle to keep up with multiple payments per month. Young handsome man looking at finances in his apartment. To simplify the process, borrowers have the option of consolidating some or all of their federal student loans into one. Instead of multiple loans with different interest rates, borrowers who consolidate all of their student loans would receive one monthly payment at a fixed interest rate.

However, consolidation is not for all borrowers, so here are some factors to consider before applying for a federal direct consolidation loan.

Eligible Types of Federal Student Loans

Borrowers must have the right type of student loans to qualify for consolidation. Most federal student loans qualify, including:

• Subsidized, unsubsidized and nonsubsidized federal Stafford loans
• PLUS direct loans
• Additional student loans
• Federal Perkins Loans
• Student Nursing Loans
• Loans for nursing teachers
• Loans for health education
• Loans for students of health professions
• Loans for disadvantaged students
• Subsidized and unsubsidized direct loans
• PLUS Loans from the Federal Family Education Loan Program
• Some FFEL Consolidation Loans and Direct Consolidation Loans
• Federally insured student loans
• Secured Student Loans
• Direct National Student Loans
• National Defense Student Loans
• Parent Loans for University Students
• Auxiliary loans to help students

Should I Consolidate My Federal Student Loans?

Consolidation is beneficial to borrowers interested in the federal public service loan forgiveness program. To be eligible for the program previously, borrowers had to be employed full-time by a US federal, state, local, or tribal government or nonprofit organization with suitable employment; have direct loans; be on an income-based repayment plan and make 120 qualifying payments. But due to the implementation of the PSLF Limited Waiver on October 6, 2021, any previous repayment term is now temporarily eligible for PSLF, regardless of the lending program.

All non-direct federal student loans, such as FFEL program loans or Perkins loans, must be consolidated into the direct loan program before the limited exemption expires on October 31, 2022. Under normal circumstances, federal student loan consolidation wipes out all progress a borrower has made towards PSLF by restarting the clock. Basically, previous qualification payments made for student loan amnesty no longer count.

According to experts, the consolidation also offers borrowers the ability to change student loan providers. It can also reduce monthly payments by giving borrowers up to 30 years to repay their loans.

Although borrowers can increase the repayment term, their interest rates may be higher. Taking longer to pay off the loan usually means more money being paid in interest over time.

When deciding whether or not to apply for a consolidation loan, consider the interest you’ll pay “vs. what you were paying,” says Dan Claffey, director of EdMD, a college admissions and financial aid consulting firm.

“It can be hard for people to understand when you have eight different loans at eight different interest rates with eight different balances,” Claffey says. “Borrowers should make sure they compare these numbers themselves before jumping in and assuming they will save money because they are watching the payment.”

Another important consideration is that if you are consolidating, any interest due on the loans to be consolidated will be added to the principal of the consolidation loan. This is called compounding and means that interest will have to be paid on a higher principal balance than would have been the case had it not been consolidated.

How to Apply for Federal Student Loan news Consolidation

There is no credit check to qualify for consolidation and there are no registration fees. Borrowers can apply directly through the Federal Student Aid website or download and print a paper application to mail to the consolidation service of their choice. These service options currently include Aidvantage, Great Lakes Educational student loan news Services, HESC/EdFinancial, MOHELA, Nelnet, and OSLA Servicing.

Be prepared to enter personal information, including a phone number and email address, as well as financial information such as bank statements, bills, and school loan records. You must have a verified FSA ID.