Biden Has Canceled About $132 Billion of Student Loans Despite Supreme Court Ruling.

Despite a June Supreme Court decision that prevented millions more student loan holders from receiving relief, more than three million borrowers have had $132 billion of their federal student loans designated for cancellation.

President Joe Biden’s famous student loan forgiveness program, which offered low- and middle-class borrowers debt relief of up to $20,000, was overturned by the Supreme Court; nonetheless, the administration has not stopped looking for alternative ways to reduce debt.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Biden stated, “We are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible.”

The cancellations have been made possible by federal student debt forgiveness programs that are now in place. These programs are restricted to certain groups of borrowers, including those who have paid for at least 20 years, those who work in the public sector, and those who were duped by for-profit universities.

The two programs that qualify borrowers for relief under Wednesday’s announcement are the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which erases remaining student loan debt after qualifying public-sector workers make ten years’ worth of monthly payments, or the income-driven repayment program, which allows borrowers who have made at least twenty years’ worth of qualifying payments but did not previously receive credit for all of their student loan payments.

The majority of these borrowers received notice in November that the remaining balance on their federal student loans would be forgiven, and they should be able to observe the adjustments in their accounts over the next several weeks.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has been gradually forgiving student loans through these already-existing initiatives. Because of attempts to temporarily expand some debt relief programs and to fix previous administrative errors made to borrowers’ student loan accounts, it has forgiven more student loans than any other administration to date.