Biden-Harris Administration Approves $1.2 Billion in Loan Forgiveness for Over 150,000 SAVE Plan Borrowers

February 26, 2024

The Biden-Harris Administration announced Thursday, February 22, 2024, that it will automatically discharge $1.2 billion in loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers who are eligible for the shortened time to forgiveness benefit under President Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. This action comes as 7.5 million borrowers are now enrolled in SAVE, 4.3 million of whom have a $0 monthly payment. You can read more in the Department of Educations press release (Trusted Partner Link) or the White House fact sheet (Trusted Partner Link).

President Biden announced in January that his Administration was accelerating the shortened time to forgiveness component of the SAVE Plan nearly six months earlier than anticipated in order to provide borrowers the relief they have earned as quickly as possible. For a borrower to be eligible for this forgiveness they must be enrolled in the SAVE Plan, have been making at least 10 years of payments, and have originally taken out $12,000 or less for college. For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments. All borrowers on SAVE receive forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether they have loans for graduate school. The benefit is based upon the original principal balance of all Federal loans borrowed to attend school, not what a borrower currently owes or the amount of an individual loan.

Borrowers will begin receiving emails from President Biden telling them they are approved for forgiveness and will not need to take any further action to receive relief. In the coming days servicers will process the forgiveness and borrowers will see their loans forgiven on their accounts. Moving forward, borrowers who meet the eligibility criteria for forgiveness under the SAVE Plan will have their loans automatically discharged with no action needed on their part. The U.S. Department of Education will continue to identify and discharge the loans on a regular basis. Next week, the Department will start emailing borrowers who can become eligible for this forgiveness if they switch onto SAVE. No action is needed by borrowers who have already enrolled in SAVE. Borrowers who believe they meet these criteria are strongly encouraged to immediately sign up for SAVE at StudentAid.gov/save (Trusted Partner Link).

In total, the Administration has now approved debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million hard-working Americans totaling almost $138 billion in relief. To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has also approved:

  • $56.7 billion for more than 793,000 borrowers through fixes to PSLF.
  • $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment.
  • $11.7 billion for 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability. This includes providing automatic discharges off a data match with the Social Security Administration
  • $22.5 billion for 1.3 million borrowers through closed school discharges, borrower defense, and related court settlements.

The Biden-Harris Administration is currently writing proposed regulations that would make more borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness and this week will hold another session of negotiated rulemaking to discuss a proposal to provide loan forgiveness for borrowers experiencing hardship. These efforts are part of President Bidens commitment to finding an alternative path to student debt relief in the wake of last years Supreme Court decision striking down the Administrations original student debt relief plan. The Department is also conducting negotiated rulemaking on regulations that will strengthen institutional quality and program integrity to ensure students are well served by their colleges and that the federal student aid programs work in their best interest.

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