The President of the United States recently launched the Student loan forgiveness initiative to cover up a past debt of students up to $10,000. Student loan defaulters can now apply online via an online application that was developed after the Education Department opened the form for its first users.
According to the data gotten from the online application form, over 10,000,000 (10 million) people have already applied for this initiative. This is said to be the confirmation of one of his statements about improving the educational sector if elected president.
There have been thousands of congratulatory letters sent to the White House based on this initiative that was passed. In this article, we would be looking at what student loan forgiveness or discharge entails and its requirements as well as how to apply.
Here is the breakdown of what we would be discussing in this article:
- What is Student Loan Forgiveness or Discharge?
- Who is Eligible for the Student Loan Forgiveness?
- How to Apply for the Student Loan Forgiveness?
- How long will it take to receive the loan forgiveness?
- Further Information
What is Student Loan Forgiveness or Discharge?
The student loan forgiveness program was designed by President Biden to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for people earning less than $125,000 per year. This initiative is also called the Debt Relief Initiative.
The loan forgiveness also covers married couples earning less than $250,000 per year. All they need to do is apply online and if they meet the criteria, their debt would be relieved up to $10,000.
Who is Eligible for the Student Loan Forgiveness?
You are eligible for this loan if you meet certain requirements, such as:
- If your loan is held by the Educational Department
- If you make less than $125,000 as a person and $250,000 as a couple each year
- If you have received a Pell grants
- If you are a student and have borrowed money recently
Other loans made outside the above-stated requirements do not qualify for the student loan forgiveness program.
How to Apply for the Student Loan Forgiveness?
If you know you meet all the necessary requirements and want to apply, go to the studentaid.gov website. This website was officially launched last week at the typing of this article by President Joe Biden.
You would be required to visit the student loan debt relief section, and click on the “Apply now” button. Your basic information would be required of you such as:
- Your Full name
- Social security number
- Date of birth
- Email Address
- Phone number
Further documents about your income would not be required for this application to be completed. There is also a section on the website where you can review the requirements or your eligibility status.
Once you attest that all criteria are met based on the requirements listed above, you can click on the submit button.
How long will it take to receive the loan forgiveness?
You might be wondering how long it takes for each application to be processed and the loans to be forgiven. Well according to President Biden and his administration, the loan approval can take up to 6 weeks to process.
The Department of Education would make use of its records to make sure all loans fall under the right criteria for the student loan forgiveness program.
There might be some rare cases in that applicants might be contacted to provide further information or documents. Applicants who made their application in October should expect their loan canceled by end of November.
Further Information
In the case where your loan has incurred some interest, this would still be part of the $10,000 loan debt relief. This student loan forgiveness program has also helped to cover students who have taken loans to pay for their graduate degrees.
It is said that this initiative would help reduce the amount of Americans who currently owe the Federal Government. This number based on the Federal Government data is over 40 million Americans.
In some cases whereby you have already paid off your student loans, you can request for a refund by contacting your loan servicer. According to the Federal Office of Student Aid, loans that have been cleared since March 2020 are eligible to request refunds.
Go ahead and visit the StudentAid Website to Apply.