Student Loan Relief Programs

1. Proposed Student Debt Relief

President Biden announced new plans to cancel student loan debt. The new rules have not yet been finalized. If implemented as proposed, these rules will authorize partial or full student debt waivers under the following circumstances:

1. Federal Borrowers who owe more than they did at the start of repayment
2. Borrowers who first entered repayment many years ago
3. Borrowers who are otherwise eligible for student loan forgiveness but have not yet applied
4. Borrowers who enrolled in low-financial-value programs

For more information visit the Update on Student Debt Relief Communications page.

Note that the final rules would likely apply only to borrowers with student loans that have entered repayment. 

2. SAVE Plan

ED created a new IDR plan called SAVE.

The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan replaces the existing Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Plan. The SAVE Plan provides the lowest monthly payments of any income-driven repayment (IDR) plan available to nearly all student borrowers. The SAVE Plan, like other IDR plans, calculates your monthly payment amount based on your income and family size. Learn more about the  SAVE Plan.

Learn more about federal Income-Driven Repayment Plans.

3. Income Driven Repayment (IDR) Adjustment deadline ended

The Department of Education (ED) made several changes and updates that will bring borrowers closer to forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

IDR Account Adjustment

ED's IDR account adjustment initiative seeks to credit borrowers who have federally-owned student loans with more time towards IDR forgiveness to make up for past inaccuracies in ED's IDR tracking procedures. Borrowers in repayment for at least 20 or 25 years will receive automatic forgiveness, and all other eligible borrowers would get credit for:

• any months in a repayment status, regardless of the payments made, student loan type, or repayment plan;
• 12 or more months of consecutive forbearance or 36 or more months of cumulative forbearance
• months spent in economic hardship or military deferments after 2013
• months spent in any deferment (with the exception of in-school deferment) prior to 2013; and
• any time in repayment on earlier student loans prior to consolidation of those loans into a consolidation loan.

Visit Payment Count Adjustments Toward Income-Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Programs | Federal Student Aid for more information on the IDR account adjustment. These adjustments could add a significant amount of qualifying payments toward student loan forgiveness. The deadline to consolidate and receive the full benefits was June 30, 2024, however you can still consolidate your loans to qualify for IDR. Visit Direct Consolidation Loan to apply.

Learn more about federal Income Driven Repayment Plans.