Yes, the Biden Administration did cancel an additional $9 billion in student loan debt

Student loans and student debt forgiveness have consistently remained in the headlines over the past couple of years following the Biden administration’s announcement of a widespread student debt forgiveness plan and the Supreme Court’s decision to block the forgiveness plan.

Now, rising Google searches ask about additional forgiveness announced by President Joe Biden and who’s eligible under the new plan. 

THE QUESTION

Did the Biden administration cancel an additional $9 billion in student loan debt?

THE SOURCES

• U.S. Department of Education

• The White House

• Student Borrower Protection Center

THE ANSWER

Yes, the Biden administration did cancel an additional $9 billion in student loan debt.

WHAT WE FOUND

On Oct. 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education and the White House announced that the administration approved $9 billion in student debt relief for 125,000 Americans.

The Education Department relieved:

• $5.2 billion in student debt for 53,000 borrowers through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs 

• $2.8 billion in student debt for 51,000 borrowers through fixes to income-driven repayment plans 

• $1.2 billion in student debt for 22,000 borrowers who were identified for relief because they have a total or permanent disability.

Since 2021, the Biden administration has canceled the student debt of 3.6 million people, according to the nonprofit Student Borrower Protection Center. This debt relief is a “binding commitment from the government, untouched by the Supreme Court,” the Student Borrower Protection Center says.

The total relieved debt amounts to $127 billion, the White House says. The administration has granted the debt relief to people with inaccuracies in their payment counts for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, PSLF borrowers, people with total and permanent disability and borrowers who were in some way harmed by their schools.

The White House and Department of Education also announced that the administration had completed one of its first steps in a rulemaking process designed to grant student borrowers widespread debt relief. The administration first began this process after the Supreme Court struck its previous widespread student debt relief plan down.

People can check the current status of their federal student loans by logging into StudentAid.gov or their loan servicer’s website. 

The total student loan debt in the U.S. is $1.766 trillion, $1.645 trillion of which is debt for federal student loans, according to the Education Data Initiative.