@Student Loans - Biden says $39B in "fixes" for 804K borrowe

[neverfstop]

I hope this will help some of the 'clerical' and admin issues and provide relief to others.


www.cnn.com/2023/07/14/politics/student-loan-relief-biden-administration/index.html



The Biden administration announced Friday that 804,000 borrowers will have their student debt wiped away, totaling $39 billion worth of debt, in the coming weeks due to fixes that more accurately count qualified monthly payments under existing income-driven repayment plans.



“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a written statement.



There are currently several different kinds of income-driven repayment plans for borrowers with federal student loans, which base payments on a borrower’s income and family size – regardless of their total outstanding debt. After reaching a set forgiveness threshold of 20 or 25 years, a borrower’s remaining balance is then wiped.

[heygrey]

I just read an email that said payments would drop to $0 for borrowers who make less than $32,800 individually - yay me.

I have so many questions. Will this become a new IBR plan where I have to wait 10-15-25 years for forgiveness? I don’t want to start over!

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 17, 2023 19:03:45 GMT -5 heygrey said:

I just read an email that said payments would drop to $0 for borrowers who make less than $32,800 individually - yay me.

I have so many questions. Will this become a new IBR plan where I have to wait 10-15-25 years for forgiveness? I don’t want to start over!

All of your previous time will be honored, so you won't start over.

[heygrey]

Jul 17, 2023 19:04:39 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Jul 17, 2023 19:03:45 GMT -5 heygrey said:

I just read an email that said payments would drop to $0 for borrowers who make less than $32,800 individually - yay me.

I have so many questions. Will this become a new IBR plan where I have to wait 10-15-25 years for forgiveness? I don’t want to start over!

All of your previous time will be honored, so you won't start over.

I consolidated last summer from Navient so I had ~13 years of payments there, but none ever made to Dept. of Ed. Is there any information about those of us in that boat?

Thank you for always sharing your knowledge with us!

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 17, 2023 19:15:39 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Jul 17, 2023 19:04:39 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

All of your previous time will be honored, so you won't start over.

I consolidated last summer from Navient so I had ~13 years of payments there, but none ever made to Dept. of Ed. Is there any information about those of us in that boat?

Thank you for always sharing your knowledge with us!

Yes. It's all covered under the IDR adjustment.

From here:

studentaid.gov/announcements-events/idr-account-adjustment

"any time in repayment (or deferment or forbearance, if applicable) on earlier loans before consolidation of those loans into a consolidation loan."

[beetea]

I got an email back on 7/14 from the Department of Ed informing me that I have reached the necessary 240-300 month payment threshold under IDR and some/all of are eligible to be forgiven. I pretty much ignored it, thinking that it was some kind of error and went about my business. Here's the text of the email:

On April 19, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several changes that will help borrowers get closer to or achieve forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) regardless of whether or not you have ever participated in an IDR plan. With these changes, you are now eligible to have some or all of your student loans forgiven because you have reached the necessary 240- or 300-months' of payments under IDR.

The U.S. Department of Education will work with your servicer to process your IDR forgiveness over the next several months. If you would like to opt out of IDR forgiveness for any reason, contact your loan servicer no later than 08/13/2023 and tell them that you are not interested in receiving IDR forgiveness. Some reasons why you might want to consider opting out include concerns about a potential state tax liability.

If you decide to opt out of IDR forgiveness, you will be expected to continue paying your loan(s) once the student loan payment pause ends.


Fast forward to yesterday when I logged into my Mohela account to see if I could figure out what my new payment would be since I consolidated back in October. My balance due is $25,000 less than I anticipated and what is reported on studentaid.gov. I confess, I haven't been paying any attention to this since the SCOTUS ruling, but it feels too good to be true. Anyone else experience this? Perhaps I have an anonymous benefactor or Mohela's data is incorrect?

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 18, 2023 11:57:57 GMT -5 beetea said:

I got an email back on 7/14 from the Department of Ed informing me that I have reached the necessary 240-300 month payment threshold under IDR and some/all of are eligible to be forgiven. I pretty much ignored it, thinking that it was some kind of error and went about my business. Here's the text of the email:

On April 19, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several changes that will help borrowers get closer to or achieve forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) regardless of whether or not you have ever participated in an IDR plan. With these changes, you are now eligible to have some or all of your student loans forgiven because you have reached the necessary 240- or 300-months' of payments under IDR.

The U.S. Department of Education will work with your servicer to process your IDR forgiveness over the next several months. If you would like to opt out of IDR forgiveness for any reason, contact your loan servicer no later than 08/13/2023 and tell them that you are not interested in receiving IDR forgiveness. Some reasons why you might want to consider opting out include concerns about a potential state tax liability.

If you decide to opt out of IDR forgiveness, you will be expected to continue paying your loan(s) once the student loan payment pause ends.


Fast forward to yesterday when I logged into my Mohela account to see if I could figure out what my new payment would be since I consolidated back in October. My balance due is $25,000 less than I anticipated and what is reported on studentaid.gov. I confess, I haven't been paying any attention to this since the SCOTUS ruling, but it feels too good to be true. Anyone else experience this? Perhaps I have an anonymous benefactor or Mohela's data is incorrect?

It's not too good to be true. It's related to the IDR adjustment that they put into place in April 2022 - they are just speeding it up for folks who are over the mark. It's not related to the SCOTUs ruling at all. 

It's odd that your balance only went down by $25k though. When you consolidated in October - did you consolidate ALL of your loans into 1 consolidation loan?

[beetea]

Jul 18, 2023 13:43:28 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

It's not too good to be true. It's related to the IDR adjustment that they put into place in April 2022 - they are just speeding it up for folks who are over the mark. It's not related to the SCOTUs ruling at all. 

It's odd that your balance only went down by $25k though. When you consolidated in October - did you consolidate ALL of your loans into 1 consolidation loan?

I did consolidate all of my loans. The balance remaining is the amount of a loan I took out in 2021 to finish two semesters of degree. Would that have something to do with it? I'm gobsmacked, TBH!

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 18, 2023 14:00:06 GMT -5 beetea said:

Jul 18, 2023 13:43:28 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

It's not too good to be true. It's related to the IDR adjustment that they put into place in April 2022 - they are just speeding it up for folks who are over the mark. It's not related to the SCOTUs ruling at all. 

It's odd that your balance only went down by $25k though. When you consolidated in October - did you consolidate ALL of your loans into 1 consolidation loan?

I did consolidate all of my loans. The balance remaining is the amount of a loan I took out in 2021 to finish two semesters of degree. Would that have something to do with it? I'm gobsmacked, TBH!

If you consolidated them all into one loan, the entire balance should have been forgiven. Is it possible that the loan you took out in 2021 wasn't included in the consolidation?

eta- I also don't think the forgiveness is going through quite yet - they say that you have until mid-August to opt out - so I wouldn't think they have started it yet.

I'm perplexed as to why your loans are missing. I would check back in a day or so and see if they come back. 

[picksthemusic]

I got an email saying mine would be forgiven (I have <$3k to pay).

[beetea]

Thank you for the advice, gretchenindisguise! I definitely consolidated everything so I'll be patient but will contime to check in.