US President Joe Biden speaks during an event in Madison, Wisconsin, US, on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Daniel Steinle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In 2023, the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s plan to deliver wide-scale student loan forgiveness for tens of millions of borrowers.
But the Biden administration still managed to wipe away a large share of the country’s outstanding student debt by improving the Education Department’s existing debt relief programs.
“Four years ago, President Biden made a promise to fix a broken student loan system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement.
“We rolled up our sleeves and, together, we fixed existing programs that had failed to deliver the relief they promised, took bold action on behalf of borrowers who had been cheated by their institutions, and brought financial breathing room to hardworking Americans.”
Borrower IDR repayment counts adjusted
The U.S. Department of Education also announced on Thursday that it had completed its payment count adjustment for the many borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. IDR plans lead to loan forgiveness after a certain period, typically 20 or 25 years.
However, consumer advocates and borrowers had long complained that loan servicers were not properly keeping track of borrowers’ timeline to that relief. The Biden administration worked to fix this.
Borrowers should now be able to see an accurate payment count by logging into their accounts on Studentaid.gov, the Education Department said.