Tag Archives: borrowers

The White House this week released data showing the number of student borrowers in each state who applied for or were automatically eligible for President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. More than 26 million people applied for cancellation in the few weeks the loan forgiveness application was available. Over 16 million of those applications were fully approved by the Education Department (ED) before it stopped accepting applications because of lawsuits. Overall, more than 40… Source link

President Joe Biden on Friday offered an update on the launch of his administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts, announcing that in just under a week, nearly 22 million people applied online. “In less than a week, close to 22 million people have already given us the information,” Biden said during a visit to Delaware State University. “It takes less than five minutes.” The beta version of the application for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness launched on Oct. 15 followed by the… Source link

Student loan borrowers could soon begin applying to have up to $20,000 in loans forgiven despite uncertainty over the future of the Biden administration’s controversial debt relief plan. At least four lawsuits opposing the plan have emerged in recent weeks, though President Biden has appeared willing to put up a fight, saying recently: “Bring it on.” While experts disagree on the merits of the cases, they do agree on one thing; borrowers who apply for forgiveness first could have an advantage…. Source link

Burdened by almost $90,000 in federal and private student debt, Alphi Coleman says the loan freeze has afforded her time to unplug and invest in herself. “I’m always going to be able to make money; I’m not always going to be able to make more time,” she says. “I am able to create experiences and create space and time for the people that I love.” A report from the Federal Reserve last month showed almost 60% of student borrowers made zero payments on their federal loans between August… Source link

Millions of dollars in student loan debt could have been cancelled already had the student loan machinery worked properly, according to a government watchdog. A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) looked into income-driven repayment (IDR) plans and found that as of June 1, 2021, around 7,700 student loans were due to be forgiven under existing rules — but the Education Department (ED) had only approved 157 loans to actually be discharged. “Until Education takes steps to… Source link

For SoFi CEO Anthony Noto, the topic of excessive student loan debt is personal and runs far deeper than him being CEO of a fintech company that refinances student loans. “My younger brother Tommy died in 2018, and it was a very traumatic experience for us as a family. My older brother and I were going through his belongings in his apartment a couple days after he passed away. On his desk was a letter from Mohela. I opened up that letter [from] a 47-year-old man who had been incredibly… Source link

The Education Department rolled out a series of major changes to the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program for student loan borrowers in public service in October, and the level of debt cancellation is topping even the government’s estimates. According to a tweet by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday, roughly 10,000 borrowers who were on PSLF have already had $715 million erased because of the change in policy and another 20,000 will be notified in the “coming… Source link

Federal data reveals that despite the interest-free payment pause allowing borrowers to find some breathing room during the pandemic, two-thirds of nearly 430,000 student loan borrowers were still “underwater” — meaning that they still haven’t been able to make a dent on their original balance. The data, obtained from the Education Department (ED) by the Center for Responsible Lending and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) through a freedom of information request (FOIA) and provided to… Source link

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) scrapped another Trump-era policy on student loans, enabling state governments to resume oversight of loan servicers on behalf of borrowers within their borders. In March 2018, the ED under former Education Secretary Betsy Devos posted a legal interpretation on the Federal Register — a publication kept by the federal government about proposed rules and public notices — that effectively blocked state governments and attorneys general from taking… Source link

This story has been updated to include a statement from the Education Department. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) — a national student loan servicer that has been criticized for failing to forgive the debts of public servants — is planning to exit the federal student loan servicing business in December of this year. PHEAA, which administers the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and operates as FedLoan Servicing, has notified the Education Department… Source link