5 Student Loan Forgiveness Updates Borrowers Should Know About

With so many fast-moving developments impacting Biden’s student loan forgiveness initiatives, it can be hard for borrowers to keep track of updates. Here’s where things stand.

Biden’s One-Time Student Loan Forgiveness On Hold While Supreme Court Decides

Multiple federal courts have blocked President Biden’s one-time student loan forgiveness program that would have cancelled up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for millions. Two appeals — one from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and one from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals — are heading to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court will probably make the final decision on whether Biden’s plan, in its current form, can proceed.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are set for February 2023, and a decision could be issued anytime between then and next summer. The Biden administration is publicly expressing optimism, saying that Biden “welcomes” a review by the court and is confident that the program is legal. But with a 6-3 conservative majority that has repeatedly expressed hostility to what it views as federal executive overreach, a positive outcome is far from certain.

In the meantime, the program remains blocked. No borrowers are receiving student loan forgiveness under the initiative, and borrowers who have not applied are unable to do so.

Biden Has Extended Student Loan Pause of 2023

As a result of the ongoing litigation over the one-time student loan forgiveness program, the Biden administration has extended the student loan pause — which has stopped payments and frozen interest on government-held federal student loans — into 2023. The pause will continue until 60 days after the student loan forgiveness litigation is fully resolved, or 60 days after June 30, 2023, whichever happens sooner.

The months of suspended payments during the extended pause will continue to count towards other federal student loan forgiveness programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Income Driven Repayment (IDR).

Student Loan Forgiveness Emails Sent to Borrowers In Error

As first reported by Insider, the Education Department erroneously sent out emails to 9 million borrowers telling them that they were approved for student loan forgiveness under the Biden initiative. But that wasn’t quite correct. The emails were only supposed to indicate that a borrower’s student loan forgiveness application had been received by the department. Another 16 million borrowers were, however, approved for loan forgiveness, even while the relief is held up by the courts.

The error was attributable to a federal contractor, which has since said that it will be sending out corrected emails to these borrowers in the coming days.

Other Student Loan Forgiveness and Relief Programs Remain Intact

While the legal battle over Biden’s one-time student loan cancellation program continues, other critical federal student loan forgiveness and relief initiatives are not impacted and remain available, such as:

• Automatic student loan cancellation through a group discharge for former students of Corinthian Colleges, ITT Technical Institutes, and other predatory institutes.
• $6 billion in student loan forgiveness for nearly a quarter million borrowers under a class action settlement with the Department of Education to resolve disputed Borrower Defense to Repayment claims.
• The IDR Account Adjustment, which provides retroactive credit towards federal student loan forgiveness under Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

New Student Loan Relief is Coming

In addition to the other federal student loan forgiveness programs that are currently available, the Education Department is rolling out additional new initiatives that will also provide relief for many borrowers. These include:

Further Student Loan Forgiveness Reading

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