Biden cancels student loan debt for 150K borrowers

The US government also announced assistance for defrauded, disabled, and public service workers.

US President Joe Biden | The White House

New Delhi: The Biden administration announced Monday the cancellation of student loan debt for more than 150,000 borrowers, including those defrauded by their schools, those with total and permanent disabilities, and public service workers. This latest round of cancellations brings the total number of Americans who have had student debt canceled by the Biden administration to more than 5 million, a White House press release revealed.

The White House said the 150,000 borrowers include nearly 85,000 who attended schools that “cheated and defrauded their students,” 61,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities, and 6,100 public service workers.

“My administration has taken historic action to reduce the burden of student debt, hold bad actors accountable, and fight on behalf of students across the country,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. This includes fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to relieve more than 1 million public service workers, approving student loan relief for 1.7 million borrowers cheated by their schools, delivering student debt relief to 633,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities, and fixing income-driven repayment programs to relieve more than 1.4 million borrowers in repayment for decades, the release added. The administration also secured the largest increase to the maximum Pell Grant award in a decade to make higher education more accessible for more Americans.

“Since Day One of my administration, I promised to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity, and I’m proud to say we have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history,” Biden said.