Nearly 616,000 public-sector employees have had their student loan debts forgiven since October of 2021 after President Joe Biden’s administration temporarily loosened the rules on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced that in total, $42-billion-worth of loans have been forgiven under the Biden-era PSLF rules—a total that represents around $68,000-worth of loans forgiven for each of the nearly 616,000 public-sector employees involved. Some 610,000 people have already had their student loans discharged, and another 6,000 will soon see their student debt erased.
Under the normal policies, the PSLF program allows for the forgiveness of all student loans after a 10-year period of qualifying public sector employment—as long as the public sector employee made their monthly payments through a qualifying loan repayment plan. The temporary Biden-era PSLF rules allowed for previously ineligible loan types and payment plans to count toward the 10 years of loan payments needed to qualify for full loan forgiveness through the PSLF program. The temporary rules allowed public sector employees until October of 2022 to apply for a PSLF waiver….