Nearly $5 billion in additional student loan debt forgiveness for over 80,000 student borrowers has been approved, the White House announced Wednesday. The relief is made possible by fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
This latest $4.8 billion in relief brings the grand total of approved debt cancellation by the administration to $132 billion for over 3.6 million Americans, according to the White House.
Borrowers are eligible for relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows certain public-sector employees to have their remaining debt forgiven after they have made 10 years' worth or payments, or if they "have been in repayment for at least 20 years – but didn't accurately get credit for student loan payment," the White House said.
"From Day One of my Administration, I vowed to improve the student loan system so that a higher education provides Americans with opportunity and prosperity — not unmanageable burdens of student loan debt," said Biden.
"I won't back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams."
In October, the Biden administration announced that it would be forgiving $9 billion in student debt for 125,000 borrowers, a move that coincided with the resuming of student loan repayments after a more than three-year hiatus.
This most recent debt cancellation is the latest push by the Biden administration to erase some student loan debt following a June ruling by the Supreme Court that invalidated the administration's plan for broad-based student loan forgiveness. The plan would have helped more than 40 million borrowers erase up to $20,000 each in debt.
"In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on our student debt relief plan, we are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible," said Biden.
Borrowers can visit studentaid.gov to apply for this latest round of forgiveness.
C Mandler is a social media producer and trending topics writer for CBS News, focusing on American politics and LGBTQ+ issues.
