Biden plans to cancel student loan debt, 23 million Americans may benefit

Biden’s new plans include automatically cancelling debt for borrowers who are eligible for certain forgiveness programmes, who entered repayment decades ago, who enrolled in low financial value programmes, or who are experiencing hardship.

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If the latest plans are finalised following a public comment period, they would take effect as early as this autumn, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in a call detailing the plans. Combined with the administration’s previous actions, they would benefit more than 30 million Americans, Jean-Pierre added.

US Senator Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate education panel, said such “loan schemes” simply transfer the cost of the debt on to others.

“This is an unfair ploy to buy votes before an election and does absolutely nothing to address the high cost of education that puts young people right back into debt,” Cassidy wrote in a statement.

To date, the administration has said it has approved US$146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans.

As of June 2023, around 43.4 million student loan recipients had US$1.63 trillion in outstanding loans, according to the Federal Student Aid website.

“We’re delivering as much relief as possible for as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible,” US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said.

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Biden has vowed to continue pushing student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible following the Supreme Court’s decision blocking his earlier plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, and administration officials said they studied the 6-3 ruling in crafting the new plans.