WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — President Joe Biden is attempting to cancel student loans again for Americans.
While the president visited Wisconsin, he announced the new plan; a plan the Biden-Harris administration said if implemented, would provide debt relief to over 30 million Americans.
“I think the gesture is gracious, it’s just turning that into a tangible paycheck for the student loans is the part for me,” said Devin Hamilton, a DMV resident reacting to news of the president’s announcement.
Hamilton told DC News Now that she has both undergraduate and graduate loans.
In 2022, President Biden’s first tried to get rid of $10,000 for borrowers who make up to $125,000.
With this new plan announced by the Biden-Harris administration, it uses a new rule; the Higher Education Act which allows the secretary of education to waive student loan debt in certain cases.
According to the White House, to date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans through more than two dozen executive actions. That includes fixing Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment plans.
The White House says the new loan forgiveness plan targets five groups of borrowers:
- Canceling runaway interest for millions of borrowers: President Biden’s plan would cancel up to $20,000 of the amount a borrower’s balance has grown due to unpaid interest on their loans after entering repayment, regardless of their income. Low and middle-income borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan or any other income-driven repayment (IDR) plan would be eligible for the entire amount their balance has grown since entering repayment to be canceled under the Administration’s plans. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers who earn $240,000 or less.
- Automatically canceling debt for borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness under SAVE, PSLF, closed school discharge or other forgiveness programs but not enrolled. The Administration is proposing automatically cancelling debt for borrowers otherwise eligible for relief through the SAVE plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness or other forgiveness opportunities like closed school loan discharges but who have not successfully applied for that assistance.
- Canceling student debt for borrowers who entered repayment over 20 years ago.
- Canceling student debt for borrowers who enrolled in low-financial-value programs.
- Canceling student debt for borrowers experiencing hardship paying back their loans.
Hamilton says until there’s action, its all just a gesture.
“It’s like you get your hopes up, okay we’re about to move forward with something and then its just like another minor setback,” she said.
Hamilton said it would be “extremely” helpful to have her student loans cancelled.
“I know that it will help boost the credit score and all of those things. Something is better than nothing at this point,” she said.
DC News Now asked her what her thoughts were on opposition who have said other people wouldn’t pay for other Americans loan forgiveness, and she said to get their dream job or goal, it comes at a cost.
“There are a lot of steps that have to be put out in place in order to attain or somewhat see those types of goals,” she said. “To be told that this is what you have to do but it’s your decision, you have to come up with the way to pay for it, is a hardship and I think it also prevent a lot of people from wanting to go and it kind of sets them back at this point. I feel like we have the money and there are plenty of ways we can spend it, why not help the people here.”
The Associated Press said most of the cancellation would be done automatically with no need to apply.
