$35.3 million in student loan debt forgiven in New Jersey through Biden Administration’s SAVE program

NEW JERSEY – More than 4,100 New Jersey residents had their federal student loans canceled through the Biden Administration’s SAVE program.

The Biden-Harris Administration published a state-by-state breakdown of the nearly 153,000 borrowers who are receiving $1.2 billion in forgiveness and servicers started processing this forgiveness Thursday.

“When we talk about fixing a broken student loan system, this is what we’re talking about,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The state-by-state SAVE Plan debt forgiveness numbers we’re announcing today not only show that President Biden’s leadership is making a real impact on people’s lives in every state – they demonstrate that we won’t ever stop fighting to make higher education more affordable and accessible for more Americans. This is that commitment in action. This is the real deal.”

Borrowers in every single state across the country and territories will have their loans canceled under this action. President Biden has emailed borrowers in all 50 states plus territories on Wednesday notifying them that they were approved for forgiveness and would not need to take any further action to receive relief.

Servicers have begun processing the forgiveness, and borrowers will see their loans forgiven on their accounts in the coming weeks. Moving forward, the U.S. Department of Education will continue to identify and discharge other borrowers enrolled in SAVE who are eligible for this forgiveness on a regular basis.

For a borrower to be eligible for this forgiveness, they must be enrolled in the SAVE Plan, have been making at least 10 years of payments, and have originally taken out $12,000 or less for college. For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments.

All borrowers on SAVE receive forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether they have loans for graduate school. The benefit is based upon the original principal balance of all federal loans borrowed as a student to attend school, not what a borrower currently owes or the amount of an individual loan.

Borrowers who believe they meet these criteria are strongly encouraged to immediately sign up for SAVE at StudentAid.gov/SAVE.

The state-by-state breakdown of borrowers approved for forgiveness under SAVE can be found below:

An Unparalleled Track Record of Student Debt Cancellation

The Biden-Harris Administration has fought tirelessly to provide borrowers the relief they have earned. In total, the Administration has now approved debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million hard-working Americans totaling almost $138 billion in relief. Many of these borrowers planned their lives and families around the promise of forgiveness through programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The Administration also secured the largest increase to Federal Pell Grants in a decade and finalized new rules to protect borrowers from career programs that leave graduates with unaffordable debts or insufficient earnings.

To date the Biden-Harris Administration has also approved:

• $56.7 billion for more than 793,000 borrowers through fixes to PSLF.
• $45.6 billion for 930,500 borrowers through improvements to income-driven repayment.
• $11.7 billion for 513,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability. This includes providing automatic discharges off a data match with the Social Security Administration
• $22.5 billion for 1.3 million borrowers through closed school discharges, borrower defense, and related court settlements.

The Biden-Harris Administration is currently writing proposed regulations that would make more borrowers eligible for loan forgiveness and this week will hold another session of negotiated rulemaking to discuss a proposal to provide loan forgiveness for borrowers experiencing hardship. These efforts are part of President Biden’s commitment to finding an alternative path to student debt relief in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision striking down the Administration’s original student debt relief plan. The Department is also conducting negotiated rulemaking on regulations that will strengthen institutional quality and program integrity to ensure students are well served by their colleges and that the federal student aid programs work in their best interest.

Additional Borrowers Enrolled in SAVE

There are now 7.5 million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan, of whom 4.3 million have a $0 payment. The SAVE Plan is the most-affordable repayment plan for low- and middle-income borrowers and puts many on a path to earlier forgiveness.

The SAVE Plan protects borrowers from runaway interest and balances larger than what they originally took out. The improved application allows for a borrower’s income to be shared with the Internal Revenue Service so that they do not have to recertify on an annual basis.

The Department will implement the remaining full benefits of the SAVE Plan in July 2024, which will further reduce monthly payments from 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income to 5 percent.

Borrowers can learn more about forgiveness programs at StudentAid.gov/forgiveness. Borrowers can learn more about the right repayment plan for their financial situation at StudentAid.gov/restart.