Biden administration forgives $39 billion in student debt

US President Joe Biden’s administration will automatically cancel $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers, CNBC reported on Friday.

“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” CNBC quoted U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona as saying.

The department said the relief addresses what it described as “historical inaccuracies” in the count of payments that qualify for forgiveness under IDR plans.

Biden has said he will pursue new measures to provide student loan relief to Americans after the Supreme Court blocked his plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. Reuters

“The relief is a result of fixes to the student loan system’s income-driven repayment plans. Under those repayment plans, borrowers get any remaining debt canceled by the government after they have made payments for 20 years or 25 years, depending on when they borrowed, and their loan and plan type,” report CNBC.