The Department of Education recently announced that 1,690 Hawaiians are eligible for automatic loan relief due to the Biden-Harris Administration’s implemented fixes to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. This action will eliminate a total of $90.2 million dollars of debt from eligible borrowers across Hawai’i.
“Thanks to the Biden Administration, nearly 1,700 people across Hawai‘i will see thousands of dollars in student loan debt eliminated in the next few weeks. It will save people money and give them some real relief on their student loans,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, according to a July 18 press release.
According to the press release, under the Biden Administration's implemented fixes to Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans, the Department of Education revealed that 1,690 borrowers in Hawai‘i are eligible for automatic loan relief, eliminating a total of $90.2 million dollars of debt from eligible borrowers across Hawai’i.
The loan discharges stem from adjustments made by the Biden Administration aimed at providing all borrowers with a precise accounting of monthly payments eligible for forgiveness under IDR plans, according to a release from the Department of Education. Eligibility for forgiveness is granted to borrowers who have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments.
“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, according to the release. “Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking another historic step to right these wrongs and announcing $39 billion in debt relief for another 804,000 borrowers. By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans. This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education.”
Due to the changes in IDR plans, more than 804,000 borrowers nationwide will be notified of their eligibility, the Department of Education stated, resulting in a total of $39 billion in Federal student loans discharged in the coming weeks, according to the release from the Department of Education. In total, the Biden Administration has approved more than $116.6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers.