Applications for President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, which calls for forgiving up to $20,000 in federal student loans per person, opened on Monday, October 14. The application takes less than five minutes to complete.
“Today, I’m announcing how millions — millions of people, working- and middle-class folks, can apply for — to get this relief. And it’s simple, and it’s now. It’s easy. It’s fast,” Biden said in a public speech on Monday.
Anyone who makes less than $125,000, or $250,000 for a family, and has loans held by the Department of Education is eligible to apply for up to $10,000 in loan relief. Pell Grant recipients are eligible for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness, up to $20,000 in total.
The plan aims to significantly reduce the impact that student loans have on Americans. According to the Education Data Initiative, 43 million Americans have student loan debt, and the average federal student loan debt balance among those borrowers is $37,667.
Biden’s administration said Monday that they intentionally designed the application to be easy for applicants to complete. They do not need to fill out any complicated forms or upload any documents, such as tax records or income verification.
Instead, the application simply requires that borrowers “certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that all of the information provided on this form is true and correct.”
“You’ll be able to fill out your name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. No forms to upload. No special log-in to remember. It’s available in English and in Spanish, on desktop and mobile,” Biden said.
Biden went on to announce that more than 8 million people had already applied using the application. He stressed that 90% of the funds will go to people making less than $75,000 per year.
“Let me be clear: Not a dime will go to those in the top 5 percent of the income bracket. Period,” Biden said
While applications are now officially open, there are multiple lawsuits facing the program, and its legality is uncertain.
On October 12, a federal judge heard arguments from six Republican-led states – Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri – alleging that the program would hurt their states’ tax revenues and harm certain loan companies based in those states.
It is one of at least five major lawsuits that have been filed against the program. The Biden administration has begun filing legal defenses in support of the plan.
Biden addressed this in his speech on Monday.
“Litigation is underway. And I don’t think our — our legal judgment is that it won’t [stop it]. But they’re trying to stop it,” Biden said.
While the lawsuits are ongoing, the applications remain open.
