Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan & 3 Other Amazing Things Included

Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan & 3 Other Things You Need to Know About! Vice President Harris, President Biden, and the U.S. The Department of Education has unveiled a three-pronged strategy to assist middle-class and working-class federal student loan borrowers switch from pandemic-related support to average repayment. It is referred to as the Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan. Up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness is included in this strategy. What must I do to qualify for this Biden Student Loan Relief? This may be a question that many borrowers and families are asking themselves. More information on the Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan will be released in the upcoming weeks. Visit the Department of Education’s subscription page to get an email when the application process is officially open. To apply, you have until December 31, 2023.

The Biden-Harris Administration has repeatedly extended the student loan repayment moratorium due to the pandemic’s economic difficulties. As a result, since President Biden took office, no one with a federally held debt has been required to make any loan payments. The Biden-Harris Administration will prolong the suspension one further time through December 31, 2022, with prices beginning in January 2023, to make a smooth transition to repayment and avoid unneeded defaults.

Providing Low and Middle-Income Families with Targeted Biden Student Loan Relief

After payments restart, the U.S. government wants to make the switch back to repayment easier and assist borrowers who are most likely to fall behind or default. Pell Grant participants who have debts held by the Department of Education may receive up to $20,000 in debt reduction, while non-Pell Grant recipients may receive up to $10,000 in debt relief. If a borrower’s household income is less than $250,000 or their individual income is less than $125,000, they are eligible for Biden Student Loan Relief. Additionally, through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, borrowers who work for non-profit organizations, the armed forces, or local, state, tribal, or federal governments may be qualified to have all their student debts forgiven. This results from temporary adjustments that waive specific PSLF program eligibility requirements. The transitional modifications end on October 31, 2022.

How Are Student Loans Discharged?

If you received your loan funds before or on June 30, 2022, You are eligible for the Biden Student Loan Relief for four federal student loans. They are as follows:

• William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program.
• Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Programs that are held by the Department of Education or that are delinquent with a guarantor organization.
• Loans held by the Department of Education under the Federal Perkins Loan Program.
• Loans in default, such as Stafford loans that are subsidized or unsubsidized, and PLUS loans for parents and graduates. Perkins loans by the Department of Education.

Consolidation loans are eligible if the Department of Education owned all of the combined loans and the funds were distributed before June 30, 2022. Only if you applied for consolidation before September 29, 2022, would Perkins or FFEL loans that aren’t owned by the Department of Education be eligible. That is a modification from the program’s initial August announcement. The government modified that eligibility condition to avoid legal objections, but the original plan called for including those privately held loans regardless of the consolidation date.

Will AGI Be a Factor in the Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan?

The fundamental criterion for Biden Student Loan Relief eligibility is the adjusted gross income (AGI) that shows on your tax returns from either 2020 or 2021. Your AGI is probably less than your total earnings, so that should be helpful. When deductions, 401(k) contributions, and other adjustments are removed from your entire salary, the amount left over is your adjusted gross income. You’ll likely fulfill the income criteria if you use your AGI rather than your total earnings.

Remember that you qualify for Biden Student Loan Relief if your adjusted gross income in 2020 or 2021 was under $125,000 for individuals, under $250,000 for married couples, or under $500,000 for heads of household. Uncertain of your AGI’s value? Line 11 of your IRS Form 1040 can be found as the number.

What Does Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Cost?

Except if you got a Pell Grant during your undergraduate years, the maximum amount of debt forgiven under the Biden student loan forgiveness plan is $10,000. If you did, you might be eligible for loan relief of up to $20,000, providing your income during the epidemic was $125,000 or less if you filed jointly as less than $250,000. If your application is accepted, you might need more money to repay your debt or loans. After all, a collegeboard.com research found that just 54% of borrowers of federal student loans had balances under $20,000 as of March 2022. If that’s the case, you’ll be in charge of starting up your payments once the payment halt expires on January 1, 2023, on the remaining debt. However, since the new sum will account for the relief you received, your monthly payments will likely be lower than they were. Your loan servicer will inform you of the new monthly payment amount. Remember that the $10,000 and $20,000 values represent the maximum amounts you can get under the Biden Student Loan Relief program. You will only get the balance of what you owe if your outstanding student loan debt exceeds the limit. For instance, if you are accepted as an individual filer and owe $8,500, you will receive only $8,500 in relief rather than the entire $10,000 or $20,000 in reserve. However, you will automatically receive a refund if you make some of your loan payments during the payment pause, which lasts from March 13, 2020, through December 31, 2022.

The Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan: What Else Is Included?

Outside of eliminating $10,000 or $20,000 in debt, the most intriguing aspects of the Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan are the suggestions for enhancing access to the ailing Student Loan Forgiveness Program. The proposal to reduce the percentage of discretionary income that borrowers would need to pay off loans from 10% to 5% is big news. Another thing to remember is that the DOE will keep working to double the size of Pell Grants and make community college accessible. The Pell Grant maximum was raised by $400 in the federal budget for 2022, making it $6,895 for the 2022–23 school year.

1. A New Income-Based Repayment Strategy

The amount borrowers must pay monthly on undergraduate loans would decrease from 10% of discretionary income to 5% under a new income-driven repayment plan that the Department of Education is putting forth. Additionally, the rule would waive original loan sums for borrowers with balances of $12,000 or less after 10 years of on-time payments rather than the current 20 years. However, those ideas have yet to be implemented and will probably be the subject of public criticism. They might not materialize for another year. 

2. Changes to PSLF

The DOE has proposed expanding the list of payments eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), including partial, lump-sum, and late fees. Additionally, the DOE wants to expand the list of deferments and forbearances eligible for PSLF, including those for military service, National Guard duty, and service in the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. This is also still being developed. More good news: according to the DOE, more than 175,000 debtors have received $10 billion in debt relief due to the temporary modifications that went into force in October 2021. Perkins Loan Program, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, and other federal student loan programs were changed to allow student borrowers to receive credit for payments made on their loans. To be eligible for the Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan under the interim adjustments, these borrowers must submit an application to consolidate their student loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan before October 31. In addition, past repayment periods—whether or not borrowers were on an eligible repayment plan or made payments—count under the temporary changes.

3. Financial Responsibility for College Tuition

The DOE claims it is taking action to hold universities responsible for tuition increases and hold institutions accountable for cost increases, particularly when failing to provide students with positive outcomes. To hold career programs accountable for leaving their graduates with unmanageable debt, the government will propose to reinstate and enhance a rule. They also want to request institutional improvement plans from universities that spell out their objectives for reducing debt levels. They’ll publish an annual list of the programs with the nation’s highest levels of student debt.

Do I Need to Worry About Scams?

Scams involving student loans are nothing new, but they are getting worse due to the new loan forgiveness scheme. It’s vital to keep in mind that there are no fees associated with applying for loan forgiveness or receiving financial aid assistance. The White House released a list of don’ts to protect you from falling for a scam, which includes the following:

• Never pay anyone who calls you and offers to forgive your debts or loans.
• Never give anyone who contacts you your FSA ID, account information, or password. You will never receive a call or email from the Department of Education or your federal student loan servicer requesting this information.
• Don’t give anyone who phones you without asking for anything personal or identifying. Call your student loan servicer directly after hanging up the phone.
• Refinancing your federal student loans is only advised if you know all fees and dangers. Remember that you won’t be qualified for debt relief, loan forgiveness, or other government advantages if you refinance from a federal loan.

Takeaway 

Thanks to the Biden Student Loan Relief plan, tens of millions of Americans are qualified to have up to $20,000 of their federal student debts erased.