Editor’s note: The day of the announcement has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Biden-Harris administration announced Thursday that hundreds of millions of dollars in student loan debt had been forgiven for borrowers in Louisiana.
The White House said an additional 125,000 Americans were approved for $9 billion in debt relief this week through the work the U.S. Department of Education made to income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Relief has also been automatically granted to those with permanent disabilities.
Since October 2021, about 8,940 Louisiana borrowers under PSLF programs had their loans forgiven, making the total cost of relief around $704.5 million. The 16,330 Louisiana borrowers under the IDR programs had around $890.4 million approved for discharge.
“For years, millions of eligible borrowers were unable to access the student debt relief they qualified for, but that’s all changed thanks to President Biden and this Administration’s relentless efforts to fix the broken student loan system,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
In total, nearly 3.6 million Americans have been approved for relief.
Earlier this year, Biden announced the SAVE repayment plan, which can decrease monthly payment amounts compared to other IDR plans. Contact your loan servicer to find out if your remaining loan balance will be forgiven.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s laser-like focus on reducing red tape, addressing past administrative failures, and putting borrowers first have now resulted in a historic $127 billion in debt relief approved for nearly 3.6 million borrowers,” Cardona said. “Today’s announcement builds on everything our administration has already done to protect students from unaffordable debt, make repayment more affordable, and ensure that investments in higher education pay off for students and working families.”
