Apply for Student Loan Debt Relief

Recent updates to the federal student loan relief program provide eligible borrowers with a full or partial discharge of loans up to $20,000 to Federal Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 to non-Pell Grant recipients.

The application is straightforward and can be filled in quickly. A confirmation email should be expected upon submission.

To qualify for the $10,000 or $20,000, borrowers needed to have earned less than $125,000 per year in 2021 or 2020 ($250,000 for couples).

Research shows that students of color and those from low-income families bear the largest burden of student debt. Students of color are more likely to take on student debt and disproportionately struggle to pay it back at higher rates than their white counterparts, perpetuating a “vicious cycle” of economic inequality along racial lines,” according to the Student Borrower Protection Center.

On October 21, a federal appeals court paused the student loan debt relief plan temporarily blocking debt discharges. While some legal analysts argue that many of the lawsuits against the program lack legal “standing” the rightward tilt of the federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court is the biggest threat to the loan forgiveness program.

In other student loan news this last Monday, the Biden Administration released a set of rule changes that, according to the New York Times, “will reduce the total cost for many federal student loan borrowers and ease rules for debt elimination.”

The changes are expected to:

• Lower borrowing costs
• Ease loan forgiveness for public servants
• Simplify “borrower defense” rules
• Speed up disability discharges