President Joe Biden announced that his administration is set to eliminate over $7 billion in student debt for 160,000 individuals. A statement released by the White House on Wednesday confirmed that 160,000 Americans will benefit from the cancellation of their student loans, resulting in a total of $7.7 billion in debt relief. However, in June 2023, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to halt Biden’s proposal to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt for nearly 40 million borrowers.
“Today, my Administration is canceling student debt for 160,000 more people, bringing the total number of Americans who have benefitted from our debt relief actions to 4.75 million,” Biden said in the statement. “Each of those borrowers has received an average of over $35,000 in debt cancellation.”
Biden clarified that the individuals benefiting from the forgiveness of their student debt, totaling 160,000, were individuals employed as teachers, nurses, or even in law enforcement who had participated in the Biden administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan.
This recent announcement from Biden follows his previous declaration in April, where he stated that his administration would be eliminating student debt for over 270,000 individuals. The borrowers who had their student debt canceled in April were those who had enrolled in Biden’s SAVE Plan. As of March, it was reported that more than 75 million individuals who had taken out student loans had enrolled in the SAVE Plan since its initiation in August 2023. The SAVE Plan is an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that assists borrowers in finding the most affordable monthly payments for their loans.
“From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden added in his statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”
