What Is Federal Student Loan Debt Relief?
It’s a program that provides eligible borrowers with 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. Multiple lawsuits have emerged to challenge President Biden’s executive order to cancel up to $20,000 per borrower and the final outcomes are not known as of this date. However, below are the details outlined by the Department of Education at this time.
What Types Of Student Loans Qualify?
- Nearly every type of federal student loan qualifies for forgiveness, including direct subsidized or unsubsidized loans and graduate or parent PLUS loans. If your loans qualified for the federal student loan payment pause, they are eligible for this forgiveness opportunity.
- However, most Federal Family Education loans (FFEL) and Perkins loans that are not held by the federal government are ineligible for forgiveness. Borrowers with this kind of debt who applied for a direct consolidation loan before Sept. 29, 2022 should be eligible, but all other borrowers in this category currently cannot get forgiveness.
- Private student loans are also ineligible for forgiveness.
Who Qualifies?
- Individuals who made less than $125,000 in 2021 or 2020
- Families that made less than $250,000 in 2021 or 2020
How It Works
Apply today (but no later than Dec. 31, 2023). They will determine your eligibility and will contact you if they need more information. After it has gone through the process your loan servicer will notify you when your relief has been processed.
Where Do I Apply?
To apply for student loan forgiveness you will need to go to studentaid.gov to proceed. Alternatively, you can clink on this link that will take you straight to the application on studentaid.gov.
https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief/application
Will Student Loan Forgiveness Get Blocked By The Courts?
This is a question that a lot of students and borrows are speculating on and there honestly is no answer to this yet. The best way to keep up to date on what will happen is to go directly to studentaid.gov and go to their announcement page to keep up to date. You can find that link below.
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19
Would I Qualify If I Take Out Money This Year?
Unfortunately, if you did not take out loans in prior years you would not qualify for this relief as well as if you had taken out private loans in the past instead of federal student loans.
If you need help creating a budget Powercat Financial is here to help we offer free and confidential appointments in-person as well as on zoom. Appointment can be scheduled by students online via Navigate with instructions found at www.ksu.edu/powercatfinancial.
Jaden Blansett
Graduate Assistant
Powercat Financial
302 K-State Student Union, Third Floor
918 N. 17th Street
Manhattan, KS 66506-2800
785.532.2889
